1.5 mln paying IPTV subscribers in mid-2005

IPTV had almost 1.5 mln subscribers by mid-2005, up from around 1 mln paying customers at the beginning of 2005. Europe and Asia Pacific are the leading regions for IPTV, ahead of the Americas. The main growth was in Hong Kong, China, France, Spain, Canada and the USA. This compares with a worldwide total of 97.1 mln DSL lines at the same date, giving IPTV a penetration of about 1.5%. From a worldwide perspective, the IPTV picture is varied. Hong Kong (441,000 subscribers as at 30 June 2005) is currently the only area where IPTV can boast significant market numbers. Some key large markets like Korea and Germany have yet to start. In others IPTV is in trial phase like China (up to 100,000), serving niche operators as in the USA (200,000) and the UK (24,000) or slowly building subscriber numbers in more accomodating and mature markets like France (270,000), PointTopic says.