Europe sees strong IPTV growth

IPTV take in Europe grew by almost 10% in Q1 and was 56.2% higher than a year earlier. In Central and Eastern Europe, operators continued to aggressively roll out IPTV, with new services appearing in Poland, Czech Republic, Slovenia and Russia.

The total number of IPTV homes worldwide almost reached 24 million, with 9.77% quarterly growth, according to the latest figures from Point Topic research on behalf of the Broadband Forum.

“Growth is high in Eastern Europe because IPTV take up is still relatively low when compared to other regions such as North America and Asia Pacific,” said John Bonsell, a senior analyst with Point Topic, in a statement. “This is good news for operators and subscribers, because there is plenty of potential for growth coupled with a wide range of IPTV services, so cost should remain low.”

Western Europe topped the IPTV chart with 11,375,200 subscribers, followed by North America (4,435,102), South and East Asia (3,990,000), Asia-Pacific (3,005,015), Eastern Europe (1,158,673). Closing the ranks were Latin America (23,467) and the Middle East and Africa (10,000).