The US-based IMS Research forecasts 40.1 million TV households will be subscribers of tier 1 telco IPTV services by the end of 2014.
Rebecca Kurlak, research analyst and author of the study, said in a statement, “Tier 1 telcos have the advantages of both scalability and the imminent opportunity for solid ROI that has placed forerunners like AT&T and France Telecom in a very compelling position in the pay-TV environment.”
Kurlak continued, “Not only will AT&T and France Telecom continue to see uptake in their acquisition of subscribers, but China Telecom, BBTV, NTT, FREE, Neuf Cegetel, Telefonica’s Imagenio and BT will also see extraordinary uptake of their IPTV services.”
In regards to smaller telcos she noted, “Tier 2 and 3 telcos will continue to experience subscriber growth as well. In 2008, tier 2 and tier 3 telcos comprised almost 46% of subscribers. Throughout the forecast, the larger telcos will essentially be stealing honey from the smaller telcos’ bee hives by providing more services, deeper discounts and more compelling content from major studios. Hence the reason why the small telcos will only garner close to 23 million TV households by the end of 2014, half the potential of what Tier 1 telcos are anticipated to achieve.”
