Worldwide IPTV subscriber base hurtles towards 100MN mark

The worldwide IPTV subscriber base will likely end Q1 2014 at 92.7 million, with the 100 million mark in sight by the end of the year, according to research by the Market Intelligence and Consulting Institute (MIC).

The Q1 statistics represent a 23.7% year-on-year rise - driven by rapid subscriber growth in China, the Asia Pacific region (including East Asia and Oceania, as well as Other Asian Countries) - and accounted for 45.6 million subscribers in total, 49.2% of the global market. Following Asia Pacific is former IPTV powerhouse Western Europe, where subscribers reached 27.3 million while its global share shrinking to 29.4%, in part because of the already high IPTV penetration. In North America, with the heavyweight battle between AT&T and Verizon spurring IPTV services, the North American IPTV subscriber base amounted to 11.7 million, or 12.7% of the global market.

Despite high hopes for the respective regions, Latin American and Eastern European IPTV progress struggled as satellite TV and broadcast TV held sway. IPTV subscriptions in Latin America and Eastern Europe reached 1.2 million and 6.6 million, respectively, with their share in the worldwide market reaching 1.3% and 7.1%. In Middle East and Africa, total subscribers only reached 0.2 million, or 0.2% of the global subscriptions, due to the lower degree of broadband availability.