IPTV services continue to have a significant impact on the market, forcing change across the entire ecosystem of video delivery, a survey said.
The survey from market research firm Infonetics Research also said although most IPTV operators continue to focus on customer acquisition by offering similar services as their competition.
“The latest IPTV survey confirms that IPTV services are entering their next phase as operators move beyond basic video offerings and begin providing consumers a highly personalized, highly integrated and portable on-demand viewing experience. Multi-screen viewing, interactive applications and social networking are some of the services expected to be implemented over the next year,” said Teresa Mastrangelo, directing analyst for video at Infonetics Research.
Although telco operators have led with innovation using IP video, satellite and cable operators are quickly leveraging broadband infrastructure to offer similar services. It will be important for IPTV operators to watch the competition closely to determine the direction of this market, the analyst said.
The survey also said by 2012, 63% of IPTV service providers interviewed plan to support multi-screen viewing across PCs, tablets, and smartphones. The two most widely-deployed IPTV applications now and next year are widgets, such as for weather and traffic updates, and caller ID on the TV.
About half of the surveyed IP television operators plan to offer targeted or interactive advertising by 2012 and IPTV operators continue to approach social networking for TV cautiously, with only 26% offering it now, growing to 41% by 2012; among those that do, Facebook and Twitter are most popular.