German market research firm Goldmedia studied IPTV launches in Germany, Austria and Switzerland and determined that building and launching your own IPTV platform becomes viable for a service provider when they have at least 2.5 million broadband customers. Smaller firms may find reseller strategies more economically viable.
IPTV News reports that the study shows that "TV revenue alone does not make IPTV a commercially attractive business model," which would fit with the reasoning that most large service providers originally had for launching their own IPTV offerings--to help retain current customers.
While the study focused on a specific portion of Europe, its determination about IPTV's economic viability threshold also seems to fit with the experience of many rural telcos in the U.S., who have sought to focus on adding value to their broadband pipes rather than investing in an IPTV platform. Still, with the costs for headends and related gear coming down, maybe the threshold will become lower.
For more:
- IPTV News has this report [1]
Related article
The outlook for rural IPTV might be improving [2]
Links:
[1] http://www.iptv-news.com/iptv_news/may_09_2/scale_is_key_to_iptvs_viability,_says_study
[2] http://www.fierceiptv.com/story/rural-iptv-outlook-might-be-improving/2009-05-18