SNL Kagan reports the world’s 20 largest IPTV providers dominate the global IPTV market with a geographic concentration in Western Europe and Asia-Pacific. Nine operators out of 20 are located in Western Europe and seven in Asia. Asian telcos accounted for 49.2% of the top 20’s iPTV subscribers in 2012, reflecting the region’s large market size and limited telco competition.
China’s leading telcos– China Telecom and China Unicom– serve an estimated 30% of the global iPTV subscriber base. France — the second-largest IPTV market by subscribers after China — is home to four operators ranked among the global top 20.
The analysis indicates that Microsoft Mediaroom is the world’s most deployed iPTV platform. Mediaroom-powered IPTV systems served 16% of the world’s iPTV subscribers at end-2012, based on SNL Kagan’s estimates. The majority of iPTV operators prefer to partner with third-party vendors for IPTV middleware, but some have chosen to develop it themselves. Among the global top 20 IPTV providers, a total of seven developed iPTV middleware in-house. The report also found a preference to source iPTV services locally, with 15 out of 20 operators choosing to partner with middleware vendors from their home regions.
Said Julija Jurkevic, Media and Communications Analyst at SNL Kagan: “iPTV is the fastest-growing pay TV platform from a global perspective (increasing by 29.6% YoY in 2012 compared to cable’s 2.2% and satellite’s 10.1% YoY growth). iPTV subscriber populations are largely concentrated in Europe and Asia where accelerated rollouts of next generation broadband networks are driving video service adoption.”
