According to a new report from Strategy Analytics the total number of IPTV households worldwide will grow dramatically over the next five years, rising from just under 6mn homes in 2006 to more than 80mn in 2011. However, the ‘Global IPTV Forecast: Homes, Users and Subscribers’ analysis calculates that many ‘subscribers’ to IPTV will not be paying directly for TV programming or services, but will use IPTV free-of-charge as part of a package of bundled broadband services. The report predicts that the number of households worldwide actually paying specifically for IPTV services will rise from 3.3mn in 2006 to 40.9mn in 2011.

“An intensely competitive consumer communications market is making deployment of new services, like IPTV, a critical objective for many service providers. But service structure and payment models used to deliver IPTV vary widely by region and service provider,” comments Martin Olausson, senior analyst from the Strategy Analytics Digital Consumer Practice. “The traditional pay-TV definition breaks down in an environment in which multiple IP services (broadband, VoIP and IPTV) are paid for by a single fee, and in which a growing share of TV programming will not be paid for via subscriptions.”

“The jury is still out on how much consumers are willing to pay telcos for IPTV,” adds David Mercer, vp and principal analyst at Strategy Analytics. “Most telcos will likely offer customers a mix of free, subscription and pay-as-you-go programming models.”
John Williamson