While the penetration of broadband network triggers IPTV services to expand, telecom operators all over the world with related investment play as the motive power to the IPTV market of course. Operators from Western Europe, among all, involve more in the market than any from elsewhere, which is so proved with French operators like France Telecom, Free as well as Nuef providing versatile services and with the local ISPs upgrading their bandwidths. France, in the meantime, with her freer decrees, flexbile charges and services bundled with cost-free hardwares, has become the largest IPTV market in the world with the size of 2.2 million subscribers in total in the end of 2008. According to figures and observations by Topology Research Institute (TRI), the IPTV market has been bearing a global growth rate higher than 50% from 2006 to 2010 and, in addition to the two booming markets of Europe and North America, those of developing countries such as China and India are expected to get expanded in the future with a projected global scale of 48 million subscribers in 2009 and to reach the 70 million target in 2010, making the IPTV-related businesses the dawn for this hard and dark time.

Asia, Most Promising IPTV Market in the World

Since the global leap of the IPTV market in 2007, Europe, led by France, Spain and Italy, has been expanding faster than elsewhere and will be growing also as a driving force for the IPTV development with devotion by Sweden, the United Kingdom, Austria, Spain, and Switzerland. Meanwhile, Asia has become the most promising market in the world for the broadband-access promotion projects by Asian governments and the climbing penetration rate as well as growth rate of the network. Hong Kong, among all the Asian countries, is presently the maturest IPTV market while China and India will be the next two major ones in Asia for their fast-growing broadband access and infrastructure deployment both to foster IPTV-related services in turn.

The North-America market, on the other hand, was surppressed by decrees and the high-competitve paid TV services available; however, with the U.S. Telecommunications Law revised to be less restrictive, operators like Verizon and AT&T turned to present their Triple Play services to the public at much lower prices under the freer market atmosphere, triggering and expanding the IPTV market in North American. Based on the information provided by Kelly Hsieh, Researcher at TRI, 45.1% of the global IPTV subscribers is contributed by Europe, 34.4% by Asia, and another 16.6% by North America. For the next two years to come, the growing total number of IPTV subscribers in the world will be probably relying on Asian markets mainly. It is projected that by 2009, Asian markets alone will contribute a 35.4% of subscribers to the global scale.

Integrated IP STB, Another Promising Market for Taiwan

Though it hasn’t been ten years since IPTV’s introduction, IP STBs with Triple-Play functions integrating video, data and voice applications have been booming and penetrating the market with the efforts by operators around the world.

Based on the emerging trends of related products, STBs supporting DVR and HDTV features will be faced with a higher demand as a result of the penetration of IPTV. When it is considered in terms of DVR’s function, hardware integration of IP STBs and hard discs is much easier since the latter is not so costly today. IP STBs, on the other hand, must be focusing mainly on the software development and have to provide a versatile and user-friendly e-Form interface for operators to further their value-added services. According to Researcher Kelly Hsieh, since there have been existing IP STB products with storage functions already, multi-function IP STBs serving as storage devices, burners and also players, all in one, will dominate the IPTV market, so that Taiwan’s equipment suppliers that have been profoundly investing and involved in High-Definition and multi-function products these years will be probably getting something rewarding in return. STBs, in the future, may play as a video-entertainment center at home and, with the functions and demands of internet access growing, IP STBs will be enhanced to eventually serve as the Home Gateway for users.

While the demand of IP STBs increases, large suppliers including Thomson, Pace, and ADB, one after another, have been outsourcing their IP STB orders to Taiwan enterprises, advancing the outputs of Taiwan manufacturers covering Foxconn, Asus, Tatung, Gemtek, Cal-Comp, Alphar Networks, ZyXEL, WNC, Comtrend, Arcadyan and Zinwell, introducing a greater prospect into this area for the future to come.