According to a recent report from comScore, the number of people viewing video online rose 18 percent in March from October. The average consumer viewed slightly less than 100 minutes of online video content a month, compared to October's average of 85 minutes. While these figures are peanuts compared to cable TV's monthly viewing minutes, when taken into account with a recent Microsoft survey that found 40 percent of cable subscribers were unhappy with the lack of variety of content and features, the market is looking ever riper for IPTV. The growth of Internet video does pose an impending threat to IPTV in the home through set-top boxes, according to The Diffusion Group's Colin Dixon. "We are educating a whole new generation of viewers that TV is irrelevant," he said.
For more on the rise of Internet TV and what it means for IPTV:
- see this article from BusinessWeek