A white paper released last week by Washington, D.C. –based New Millennium Research Council finds that while IPTV faces challenges like regulatory hurdles and content and digital rights management issues, it is likely to experience substantial growth and attract interest from consumers and content producers who are thinking “differently about where to buy and produce video services.”
The report, “The state of IPTV 2006: The advent of personalized programming,” finds that many industry experts see IPTV as “a potentially multi-billion dollar industry in the very near term.” Further, analysts see IPTV reaching its potential as a viable competitor with satellite, cable TV and “other traditional video mediums.”
IPTV also offers professional groups and organizations of allied individuals, such as senior citizens, hobbyists and trade association members, a distribution medium for programming that previously was unavailable, and should be in part responsible for high demand for the service, the paper said.
The white paper develops case studies of two companies — Interactive Television Networks, (ITVN) of Irvine, CA, and Communication Technologies, (COMTek) of Chantilly, VA, — to illustrate the potential of IPTV.
COMTek has developed a new managed IPTV service called "PowerTV," which provides COMTek customers with the ability to create their own Internet television "channels" that distribute video content and integrated interactive. Using different technologies and platforms, ITVN offers IPTV through a set-top box that translates video services sent via the Internet to be viewed on a regular television. ITVN currently provides programming networks, such as Silver Screen Network, the National Lacrosse League and ITVN Live.
It also provides a survey of other IPTV study findings, including descriptions of market forecasts, online video usage and demographic descriptions of likely IPTV.
To read the white paper, visit http://newmillenniumresearch.org/.
