Global IPTV subscriptions pass 12m at end 2007
March 12, 2008
The total number of IPTV subscribers grew by 117 per cent in 2007 to reach 12.34 million, up from 5.71 million at the end of 2006, according to research by Informa. The biggest world region remains Western Europe, which passed 6.9 million IPTV subscribers in 2007 to account for 57 per cent of the global total. The bulk of subscriptions were in France, where incumbent France Telecom and alternative operators Free, Neuf and Telecom Italia’s Alice, had attracted more than 5 million IPTV customers by bundling the service free with broadband.
Whilst a large proportion of these subscribers may not be paying for additional content, they do receive free-to-air channels with their basic triple play packages. France is in a league of its own when it comes to IPTV subscriptions. The country has nearly 10 times as many IPTV subscriptions as second-placed Spain and close to 75 per cent of the Western Europe total.