Fast growth for connected TVs in the US

A survey conducted by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) in the US, has revealed that as many as 14.5 million US households will consider buying an internet-capable TV over the coming year.

Out of all survey respondents, over 60 per cent wanted to watch online video content, 59 per cent wanted to check the weather and 57 per cent wanted to play network games.

The survey also identified that having access to content at any time and being able to access the internet during television broadcasts were the main reason viewers would opt for connected TVs. This is a latent trend that is yet to be echoed in Europe and indeed in the UK, where demand for VOD content on the internet has increased by 10% this year.

Interestingly, it’s said that the user interface for accessing online services through the television remains a challenge in the IPTV industry. Some industry insiders also say that there are no clear winners in terms of standards, interfaces or protocols as yet.

Evidently, this is changing very fast. As we saw at this year’s IPTV World Forum, industry players including ANT are already developing new and efficient usability features and interface apps as the demand for connected TVs rockets.

‘Super simplicity’ will rein the Connected Homes

Interesting research emerged from Ericsson ConsumerLab last week on the future of connected TV. The report titled ‘IPTV and the Connected Home' examines digital content consumption in the home and found that there’s growing consumer interest in IPTV services.

Although the research talks about some of the evident trends in the consumption of connected TV, I found the following tidbits worth digesting:

• One third (33%) of the internet population in the UK are interested in creating ‘connected home’ environments, but the early adopters are still having to rely on DIY solutions to create home entertainment systems

• 64% of UK consumers would like to have wireless connectivity between all digital media devices to facilitate the quick and easy sharing of digital content

• Over half of UK consumers would like greater freedom and flexibility to access digital content from any device, from anywhere, combined with wireless connectivity between all digital content devices

• The operators need to deliver 'super simplicity' in order to drive mass-market take-up of advanced IPTV-based and connected home functionality

There’s no doubt that the demand for advanced TV and connected features are shifting from early adopters to a much wider user base. However, as the research rightly suggests, TV viewers are increasingly expecting connected TV through a simple and seamless delivery platform. However, simplicity shouldn’t get in the way of innovation. In fact, both should go hand in hand when implementing IPTV services.

Britain is a nation of Youtube addicts

This week, ComScore released yet more interesting figures, highlighting a 10 percent increase in online video viewing in the UK. According to the research the total unique audience for online videos reached 29.6m last year, with over 80 percent of all internet users tuning in to watch videos online.

The research also noted that 23.5m UK viewers watched over 2 billion videos on YouTube during the past year – that’s 86 videos per viewer.

Video sharing sites are not the only platform to attract viewers. BBC’s VOD service held a significant lead among TV broadcasters with nearly 55m videos being viewed in 2008. See detailed stats below.

Weekly IPTV news roundup

So much is going on in our industry at the moment, I'm having a hard time keeping up.

As is customary for Q1 there’s a wealth of forecast statistics and deployment numbers being circulated in the news. Here’s a brief round-up of stories that I’ve seen in the past few weeks:

IPTV in France

• 1/3 of all French broadband subscribers now take an IPTV service, according to France's telecoms regulator Arcep.
• France now has 5.4 million IPTV subscribers and is growing at 39% year on year.
• France Telecom's Orange TV is the market leader with 1.5m subs or around 27% of the market, with Neuf TV in second place.

Global IPTV

• Worldwide IPTV subscribers reach 16m
• Meanwhile, In-Stat is predicting that the global IPTV market will more than treble by the end of 2012 and will break the 72 million mark in 2013.

IPTV carriers

• Estonia's Elion announced that they ended 2008 with 82,500 IPTV and cable subscribers, up from 57,700 the previous year. Elion now estimates it has a 26% share of the cable market but remains in 3rd place after Starman and STV.

Set-top box

• Amino have shipped over 2m units

Global IPTV Market to reach 103 million in 2011

A new report by Research and Markets has revealed that the global IPTV market is expected to reach 103 million subscribers by 2011.

With the nature of IPTV meaning that audiences are much more fragmented, some marketers will not be keen on facing this challenge. However, it would be ill-advised to ignore the 103 million consumers that will be part of the IPTV audience. Some forget that this is not television in a different box at different times – IPTV is a revolutionary new medium where the potential to tinker and play with more creative and involved messages surpasses what was available before.

A cross between the personalisation, individuality and technology of the blogging and internet community crossed with the mass market potential of mainstream TV – IPTV is missing one thing at the minute though - creative marketers ready to take a chance and explore this medium.