Global IPTV market up to nearly 24 million with 9.77% quarterly growth and strong activity across Eastern Europe

16 June 2009 – The Broadband Forum today announced the latest broadband and IPTV statistics, which show impressive growth in the face of the global economic downturn. Its report, prepared for the Forum by industry analysts Point Topic (GBS database at http://point-topic.com/home/gbs/), shows that global broadband grew by 16.6 million lines in the first quarter 2009 alone, while IPTV subscribers approach 24 million, with expansion mainly in Europe and also North America.

Source: Data provided for the Broadband Forum by Point Topic (www.point-topic.com)

Broadband lines in the world now top 429.2 million and the last quarter shows growth slightly higher than the previous three month period.  Twenty countries grew by 10 percent or more in that time. Of the total figure, Western Europe grew 2.63 percent to just over 108 million lines, while Eastern Europe showed a 5.75 percent improvement to reach well over 23.5 million.

Top 10 broadband countries
Country         2008Q1   2009Q1
China         71,034,820   88,088,000
USA         72,581,920   83,968,547
Japan         28,836,100   30,631,900
Germany         21,077,450   24,144,350
France         16,186,996   18,009,500
UK         16,318,300   17,661,100
South Korea      14,970,775   15,709,771
Italy         11,300,077   12,447,533
Brazil         7,949,000   10,065,200
Canada         8,859,868   9,533,500
Global Total      269,115,306   310,259,401

Source: Data provided for the Broadband Forum by Point Topic (www.point-topic.com)

Europe headed the continued IPTV success story with almost 10 percent growth over the last quarter and a 56.2 percent year-on-year improvement.   Eastern Europe is aggressively rolling out IPTV with new services across the region, including in Poland, Czech Republic, Slovenia and Russia.


“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.  "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."
 
In terms of technology, DSL continues to be the most popular broadband access technology, although fiber grew by more than three million lines to reflect a 12.4 percent share of the market, while wireless showed a healthy proportionate increase over one million lines to a total of 5.58 million.

Technology market share

“This report shows that despite the economic situation the world is facing, the demand for both broadband and IPTV continues at pace as people everywhere look to improve the quality and speed of their communications,” said George Dobrowski, Chairman and President of the Broadband Forum.

“The Forum continues to drive broadband innovation, and with the release of BroadbandSuite 3.0, which provides new IPTV management and fiber integration tools, we continue to ensure that the industry has all the tools and specifications it needs to optimize networks and to capture the full potential of broadband worldwide. Our capability has been enhanced by the recent union with the IP/MPLS Forum, which gives us a much greater end-to-end capability to serve the industry.”

For further information about the Broadband Forum and BroadbandSuite 3.0 mentioned here, visit www.broadband-forum.org.