IPTV a 'defensive necessity' for carriers?

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by Stephen Withers

Monday, 02 June 2008

Page 1 of 2 ! IPTV (Internet Protocol television) may have little short-term profit potential, but incumbent network operators may be forced into offering it in order to defend their turf from competitors. Related stories Sony ZX1 is TV sex on a very thin stick Telstra tells Terria: get serious! Phone companies adding to iPhone 3G woes? Yahoo! and Intel to extend world of widgets to TV 274 million digital TV households by 2012 According to Matt Walker, senior analyst at Ovum, France has been home to Europe's most successful takeup of IPTV, yet it still only generates about one-tenth the revenue of fixed-line voice calls. The most successful rollout has taken place in Asia, where China's PCCW has actually managed to increase ARPU (average revenue per user - the telco industry's holy grail) through the introduction of IPTV. But that was achieved through the acquisition of exclusive rights to popular content such as soccer. The result has been that PCCW has almost equalled the market share of its cable TV rival i-cable. Walker also points out that where non-live content is concerned 'over the top' services (OTT; video services provided over the public Internet, as opposed to IPTV which is closely coupled to the provider's network) can also provide good video and audio quality. The thing is that people are only prepared to pay if they get high quality. They will forgive pixellation and dropouts from free services, but if they're paying for IPTV they expect it to be technically as good as broadcast or cable - and this can put greater demands on the network. But Victor Zhang, Asia Pacific marketing co-chair of the Metro Ethernet Forum says IPTV has the potential to deliver a superior experience to regular cable TV, for example in the form of HD content. So what's the catch? CONTINUED << First page <   1 2 Next page > Last page - Post your comment >>

 

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