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Internet TV will soon overtake cable, Ovum predicts

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According to Ovum, new generation TV services employing digital and internet protocols will increase over the next five years, closing their gap on cable.

Over the next five years, internet protocol TV (IPTV) is expected to grow, globally, at an annual rate of 24%, reaching 109 million households.

But this number is still very far from the 573 million homes that cable TV is expected to reach by 2015, at a growth of 3% per year, predicts Ovum in its most recent report.

“DTT (Digital Terrestrial Television) growth will be fuelled primarily by the further allocation of spectrum for free-to-air services and the implementation of analog switchover deadlines,” said Jonathan Doran, Ovum analyst and author of the report, “while telcos will continue to aggressively market their IPTV offerings as they play catch-up with the longer established cable and satellite pay-TV platforms.”

“Satellite pay-TV will remain stable in the face of competition from emerging low-cost services as it continues to attract a core of higher-value subscribers than cable.”

Internet TV in Australia

Closer to home, IPTV is expected to grow exponentially in the Asia-Pacific region, reaching a number of 43.2 million households in 2015. In 2010, this number was 15.6 million. Still, cable dominates in the region and is expected to connect 388 million households in 2015.

On the other hand, Satellite TV is estimated to have an annual growth of 10% over the next five years, reaching 143 million homes in 2015.

In Australia, IPTV is expected to grow from 90,000 households in 2010 to 342,000 in 2015 but this number is still very low when compared to the 5.894 million households that digital terrestrial is estimated to achieve by 2015, or even when compared to cable, expected to reach 2.175 million Australian households. Satellite TV, in Australia, is estimated to reach 823,000.