Thomson predicts 75 million IPTV subscriptions by 2009

Jacques Dunogué, senior executive vice president with Thomson, predicted last week at the Broadband World Forum in Paris that one-third of the world’s estimated 250 million broadband users could be subscribing to IPTV services within three years.

Dunogué disputed that competition from the cable television could hamper the adoption of IPTV, arguing that cable operators didn’t have an equivalent when it came to interactivity.

As to skepticism about the market for converged IP services, Dunogué cited technical problems that plagued early innovators, but expressed confidence that the market would pick up now that many of those problems have been addressed.