Report: IPTV Equipment, Service Revenue To Soar

Off to a relatively slow start of $400 million in 2005, IPTV equipment sales are expected to roar ahead in the coming years, topping $6 billion in 2009, Infonetics Research said Thursday.

The market research firm expects worldwide IPTV subscribers to grow to 53 million by 2009, fueled by service provider investments. While Infonetics expects gear alone to hit the $6 billion mark, it is predicting that service revenue will jump to $38 billion by that date.

"Service providers expect huge returns from IPTV and they are investing heavily in IPTV infrastructure to ensure those returns," Jeff Heynen said in a statement. "Right now they're focused on transport infrastructure, upgrading their access networks with higher-bandwidth ADSL2+, VDSL2 and FTTH platforms and adding IP edge routers and Ethernet routers and switches to handle the expected traffic demands of the escalating numbers of IPTV subscribers."

Heynen, who is directing analyst for IPTV at Infonetics Research, predicted that the number of IPTV subscribers will increase more than 40 times between 2005 and 2009.