IPTV services getting highly personalized: rpt

CAMP BELL, USA: Market research firm Infonetics Research today released excerpts from its 2011 IPTV Services Deployment Strategies: Global Service Provider Survey.

"Despite representing only a small portion of the total pay-TV market, IPTV services have had a significant impact on the market, forcing change across the entire ecosystem of video delivery. Although most IPTV operators continue to focus on customer acquisition by offering similar services as their competition, our latest IPTV survey confirms that IPTV services are entering their next phase as operators move beyond basic video offerings and begin providing consumers a highly personalized, highly integrated and portable on-demand viewing experience. Multi-screen viewing, interactive applications and social networking are some of the services expected to be implemented over the next year. Although telco operators have led with innovation using IP video, satellite and cable operators are quickly leveraging broadband infrastructure to offer similar services. It will be important for IPTV operators to watch the competition closely to determine the direction of this market," advises Teresa Mastrangelo, directing analyst for video at Infonetics Research.

HIGHLIGHTS

. By 2012, 63 per cent of IPTV service providers interviewed plan to support multi-screen viewing across PCs, tablets, and smartphones

. The 2 most widely-deployed IPTV applications now and next year are widgets, such as for weather and traffic updates, and caller ID on the TV

. About half of the surveyed IP television operators plan to offer targeted or interactive advertising by 2012

. IPTV operators continue to approach social networking for TV cautiously, with only 26 per cent offering it now, growing to 41 per cent by 2012; among those that do, Facebook and Twitter are most popular

IPTV SURVEY SYNOPSIS

Infonetics' 19-page IPTV Services Deployment Strategies survey, part of its Video Continuous Research Service (CRS) series, analyzes results from interviews with purchase decision-makers at 27 incumbent, competitive, and mobile operators that currently provide IPTV network services.

The report details IPTV operator responses about current and planned IPTV applications and services (widgets, caller ID, home media, interactive advertising, interactive gaming, gambling, etc.), social networking (Facebook, Twitter, Flickr/other photo sharing services, LinkedIn, blogs, etc.), video streaming (YouTube, Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, LOVEFiLM, etc.), linear broadband television, multi-screen viewing capabilities (aka TV everywhere), companion devices, content discovery (search functionality, recommendation engines), integrated over-the-top (OTT) video, video on demand (pay-per-view VOD, free VOD, subscription VOD, start-over/catch-up VOD, push VOD), and DVR (integrated, mutli-room/whole home, network DVR).