Abstract
With a warm up period over the past few years, Asia/Pacific IPTV subscriber
numbers have increased quickly. There were 2.7 million subscribers by the end
of 2006, an 87.4% growth rate from 2005.
The Asia/Pacific IPTV market' s development has remained diversified. Mature
markets include Japan and Hong Kong, with approximately 60% of the total
subscribers in 2006. They are expected to continuously take the lead in the
regional IPTV development process.
Together with the fast expanding broadband infrastructure and decreases in
service price, an expanding middle class is transforming China into the future
IPTV dragon. Taiwan and Singapore have a relatively higher penetration of
broadband and are pioneers in technology adoptions. For South Korea, the
government regulatory issues are expected to be solved soon.
Australia and New Zealand are lagging behind other developed markets, with
conservative attitudes from major telecom operators and low general public
interest. Other markets like India, Malaysia, and Thailand, together with
China, are fueling the growth of the Asia/Pacific IPTV market. Indonesia and
the Philippines are expected to provide little uptake due to their weak
infrastructures. It is expected that by 2009, IPTV will be present in all of
the markets in the region.
Finally, it is worth mentioning that IP-based HDTV is on its way to the
Asia/Pacific, with both Hong Kong PCCW and Singapore Singtel expected to start
offering IP-based HDTV in 2007.
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