Global IPTV subscriptions have topped the 100 million mark for the first time, according to Point Topic. The market grew by 4.8 per cent in the first quarter of 2014, which matched the growth rate achieved in the last quarter of 2013. There were 4.6 million new subscriptions during the Q1 2014 period, taking the total number of subscriptions to 100.9 million. Eastern Europe reported the highest level of IPTV growth in Q1 2014 with net additions of 0.63 million resulting in growth of 11.6 per cent. East Asia, predictably given the size of the market, leads the way for net additions with 2.58 million new subscriptions being added in the quarter, an increase of 5.7 per cent on the Q4 2013 number. The top ten IPTV countries for Q1 2014 remains broadly static although the gap between the UK and the Netherlands is slightly larger than previously, with those two countries having swapped places a couple of times in recent times.
- 1. China – 32.7 million
- 2. France – 14.8 million
- 3. USA – 12.3 million
- 4. South Korea – 9.1 million
- 5. Japan – 4.5 million
- 6. Russian Federation – 3.6 million
- 7. Germany – 2.7 million
- 8. UK – 1.9 million
- 9. Netherlands – 1.8 million
- 10. Vietnam 1.6 million
The research also shows that at the end of March 2014, there were 690.1 million fixed broadband lines worldwide. Growth for the quarter stood at 1.9 per cent which is the highest it has been for 12 months and a welcome increase on the previous quarter’s modest growth of 0.4 per cent. Point Topic expects to see continued growth in 2014 and 2015, with African and Middle Eastern countries featuring prominently. End-to-end copper continues to be the most dominant fixed broadband technology although the total subscriber numbers for this technology continue to fall. As mentioned at the top of this report, Q1 2014 is the first quarter in which the market share for copper connections has dipped below 50 per cent, with fibre-based technologies picking up most of the slack. Source: Article, Image
