Global IPTV subscriptions grew by 4.8% in the first quarter, with the 4.6 million new additions taking the total to over 100 million for the first time.
According to a new report on IPTV by Point Topic, published at the same time as one on broadband, growth in Q1 matched that in Q4 2013, with the IPTV total at the end of March reaching 100.9 million.
East Europe saw the highest level of growth – 11.6% – in Q1, with net additions of 0.63 million.
However, East Asia, predictably given the size of the market, led the way, with 5.7% growth, equivalent to 2.58 million new subscriptions, q-o-q.
China was the leading IPTV market in Q1, with 32.7 million subscriptions, followed by France (14.8 million), the US (12.3 million) and South Korea (9.1 million).
Lower down the list, Russia, Germany and the UK occupied fifth, sixth and seventh place, with 3.6 million, 2.7 million and 1.9 million subscriptions respectively.
Meanwhile in the broadband sector, there were 690.1 million fixed connections at the end of Q1.
Quarterly growth stood at 1.9%, which was the highest for 12 months a welcome increase on the previous quarter’s modest growth of 0.4%.
Point Topic says it expects to see continued growth in 2014 and 2015, with African and Middle Eastern countries featuring prominently.
It also says that a key milestone was passed in Q1, with end-to-end copper connections accounting for less than 50% of the global fixed broadband market for the first time.
