Dates announced for next years IPTV World Forum

5th - 7th March 2007 - Olympia, London

Couldn't attend the IPTV World Forum? Visit us at:

IPTV World Forum Eastern Europe - www.iptv-easterneurope.com - 22nd and 23rd June 2006 - Budapest Marriott Hotel, Hungary

IPTV World Forum Asia - www.iptv-asia.net - 27th - 29th September - International Convention Center, Oriental Riverside Hotel, Shanghai, China

• The conference will feature over 20 worldwide telcos & ISPs discussing IPTV service deployment issues: BT, Telefonica, Belgacom, Fastweb, China Netcom, Bell Canada, Telus, Telekom Austria, Wanadoo, Videonetworks, Tiscali, Bulldog Communications, KPN, Reliance Entertainment, Iceland Telecom, Telecom Italia, Bharti Tele-ventures, MITV, Cesky Telecom, Magnet Networks
• Leading content players and broadcasters speaking; Sony Pictures, MTV, ITV, Walt Disney, Channel 4, 20th Century Fox, Playboy TV, TVN Entertainment, On-Demand Group, Fashion TV.
• IPTV showcase area in the exhibtion featuring service demonstrations from 10 leading worldwide IPTV deployments including; Belgacom, Bell Canada, KPN, Fastweb and Home Choice
• Industry party for 500 hosted by Fashion TV at The Collection one of London's leading venues - 6th  March www.the-collection.co.uk
• Networking area with over 60 companies exhibiting
• Daily news and video service supplied by Telecommunications magazine
• Over 1500 already attending -  with exhbition only passes available
• Free Edition of ipTV News Analyst - click here

Click here to view the current program for the IPTV World Forum 06
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Registration hotline +44 117 907 8850

The Current State of the IPTV Market

Alternative broadband providers and utility companies have shaped the early IPTV market, primarily using video over DSL on unbundled local loops or fibre-to-the-home across often localised networks. Whether they realised it or not, these early adopters have unleashed a technology that is now causing widespread disruption across the whole telecoms marketplace and beyond into the traditional television markets dominated by cable, satellite and terrestrial TV operators.

As the world’s major incumbent telcos respond with IPTV deployments of their own, the full potential impact of IPTV is becoming clear. Starting from a dominant position in their own communications markets, incumbents can utilise near-ubiquitous network coverage, existing customer/billing relationships and the rapid deployment of broadband lines to cross-sell video services to their millions of subscribers. They may be late entrants to Pay TV but they can exploit the fact that millions of TV viewers are preparing to switch from analogue to digital (due to analogue switch-off) - a process that forces households to reassess where they source their television signal.

But if telecoms companies want to steal high-value Pay TV customers from cable and satellite operators (where they can already enjoy multi-channel digital TV), they must migrate from the early standard-definition VOD/broadcast TV offerings to advanced video services that include HDTV, replay-TV, multi-room viewing and, most likely, Digital Video Recorders. Even then, they may have to offer something that is truly unique to their wired, all-IP networks, exploiting the increased convergence of communications and television in the home itself. Telephony caller ID and answer/ divert options on the TV are one example.

It is generally accepted that to hold onto existing customers and reach out to new subscribers during the rest of this decade, incumbents must offer nothing less than a complete, bundled triple-play service that places video at its heart. For these companies, IPTV is often a defensive strategy as they seek to compensate for falling broadband data and voice revenues, squeezed on one side by alternative broadband providers and on the other by cable, which is targeting both their fixed line and commercial services businesses.

It is clear the cable industry views its triple-play battle with IPTV providers as a platform war. Yet it is also willing to exploit new IPTV technologies itself, with some European cable operators seeking to expand their networks beyond their current HFC (Hybrid Fibre Coax) infrastructure by using local-loop unbundling. Major satellite operators are looking to become triple-play providers too, as they recognise the need for true interactivity on two-way networks. In some cases they are buying broadband service providers to add high-speed data, but clearly the potential for VOD over IP networks has not gone unnoticed.

So where does this leave alternative broadband providers and incumbents who are deploying video? It demonstrates that they have a powerful technology that represents the future of service delivery, yet IP-based television, digital switched networks and DSL are no longer the unique properties of the telecoms industry. With rivals willing to use multi-platform networks to reach market, it makes the technological and competitive environment more fluid than ever.

The success of IPTV to date demonstrates that telcos have a compelling consumer proposition, but the need to differentiate services is becoming more pressing. A growing emphasis on content and marketing is certain. And if powerful broadcast networks like direct-to-home satellite can add two-way interactivity, then it is imperative that telcos minimise the cost of delivering each TV stream to the home. It will not be enough just to deploy networks that can support next-generation, high bit rate video services; they must be able to scale cost-effectively to provide a competitive platform from which to operate.

2006 is the year of next-generation video services like HDTV, more hybrid multiple access networks and the beginning of the fightback from cable and satellite. Nobody really expected the world’s most powerful media companies to stand-by as their core television businesses were threatened. Now that IPTV has established itself as viable technology and a real business, and is proving a genuine threat to the established video order, the real battle is about to begin. Are you ready? 

Who should attend?

The IPTV World Forum is aimed directly at the industries supporting the markets growth; telcos, broadcasters, content providers, device manufacturers, technology providers, software providers, system integrators and broadband providers.

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