IPTV middleware market grows 23 pc in 2012

BANGALORE, INDIA: IPTV platform leads the IPTV middleware market and continues to grow in market share as of mid-2012 to 23 per cent of deployed IPTV boxes, despite an environment that is beginning to fragment with many small and regional players, finds ABI Research.

Chinese system integrators ZTE and Huawei also play strongly in the market, based on strong and growing IPTV platforms within China, notably those by China Telecom, which use different suppliers on a regional basis.

"There is a strong split in the IPTV middleware market between system integrators providing an entire solution and specialists in applications and customer experience," according to Sam Rosen, ABI Research practice director for TV & video.

"With the exception of Cisco, who recently purchased NDS, the system integrator's role in customer experience will likely decline over the next few years; instead, this role will be left to client-centric middleware companies with better user experience," continued Rosen. "In addition to Microsoft, companies such as Viaccess-Orca (a subsidiary of France Telecom), Netgem, and others, all have a distinct philosophy on how to create an IPTV system."

Overall growth in IPTV households, however, means that few companies are likely to lose out. IPTV households will grow from 80 million in 2012 to 117 million in 2017, with growth driven by Asia-Pacific.