On-demand TV on the rise



Recent reports say that telecom service providers Verizon and AT&T are offering Internet Protocol TV (IPTV) services to subscribers in the US. And a website has predicted that compared to the present 3.3 million subscribers now, the US will have around 12.7 million IPTV users by 2012.

Interestingly, one will find that the recent move by Verizon and AT&T comes in the wake of a global rise in the number of IPTV subscriptions. Already the number of IPTV subscribers in the US has doubled between March 2007 and March 2008. A study conducted by Point Topic and sponsored by The Broadband Forum says that the rise has been continuing for the second consecutive year as the IPTV subscriptions had doubled in the 2006-07 fiscal too.

It may be worth mentioning here that the global rise in broadband subscriptions, which has already touched the 370 million mark, has essentially stimulated the IPTV growth. What is, however, significant is the fact that the service providers have not made the total number of IPTV subscribers in the US available for the public, but released a region-wise break-up of the broadband subscriber figures.

According to Point Topic senior analyst John Bosnell, IPTV operators around the world have shown that the ?systems are scalable and can handle rapid growth in subscriber numbers."

Significantly, with the IPTV spreading its wings in the US as well as in other parts of the globe, all content is now available on demand. The Internet users are familiar with the process of searching and retrieving information from the Web. Likewise, IPTV service providers allow the subscribers to interrelate with the TV in a similar manner. If you are an IPTV subscriber there will be no instance when you will feel sorry for missing a show! IPTV stores all programs which can be later retrieved from the network. Isn't it something great and similar to the Internet content available on the Web?

The most noteworthy aspect of the IPTV technology is that it brings new hopes along with added opportunities for the marketers. Moving a step ahead from the micro-mailing facility through Internet marketing, IPTV now offers marketers micro-marketing through addressable advertisements. Like the Internet allows the online publishers the facility to promote their products and services through videos, the IPTV technology too offers the subscribers the advantage of conveying long-term revenues for niche video content providers.

According to the Point Topic research findings, currently 15.5 million people subscribe IPTV services and among them 8.4 million subscribers are from Europe.

Nevertheless, compared to the Internet, the IPTV technology is still in its formative years and the guesstimates regarding its subscriptions differ. For instance, Informa estimates the worldwide IPTV subscribers to be 38.4 million between 2011 and 2012, while iSuppli projects the figure to be over 100 million during the same period.