IPTV is Happening
Elizabeth Montalbano writes about Microsoft and IPTV in Infoworld.
[tease] (emphasis added)
Currently, AT&T, Verizon Communications and Swisscom have commercial deployments of IPTV services on Microsoft’s software, said Elena Branet, senior marketing manager for EMEA for Microsoft TV. However, except for Verizon’s services, which are in more than 20 U.S. markets, the deployments are limited to hundreds or at the most in the low thousands of users, she said.
That is all expected to change soon, said Ed Graczyk, director of marketing and communications for Microsoft TV. He said the number of commercial users of IPTV services from those carriers and BT Group PLC — which also will have a commercial deployment by the end of 2006 — should scale up considerably by the end of 2006.
“The second half of the year is when deployments will really take off,” he said.
Worldwide forecast for IPTV subscribers by digital consumer market research firm The Diffusion Group seem to match Microsoft’s optimism for IPTV subscribers. The group predicts that by 2007, subscribers for IPTV will hit 8.9 million worldwide; by 2010, the number of IPTV subscribers should climb to 37.8 million worldwide.