North America IPTV not yet eating from satellite's dish

While IPTV growth was very strong in North America last year, telcos offering IPTV are not yet taking a significant number of customers away from satellite TV companies, according to market research firm iSuppli. A few telcos, notably AT&T, have had resale relationships with satellite companies that might have driven them to be more careful not to compete with satellite in the past, though the more likely reasons for this lack of IPTV-satellite competition could be that IPTV has not yet extended into markets where satellite adoption has been particularly strong. Case in point: I live in a neighborhood in Chicago where satellite dishes seemingly out-number houses. You can always tell when there is some local interference because half the neighborhood emerges from their homes armed with tools to bang on and re-position their gear. AT&T's U-verse TV service, in any case, is not yet widely available in this particular area, but I have to believe the satellite firms will not rule this area for much longer.

iSuppli shows that while IPTV subscribership actually almost quadrupled last year in North America to reach 1.2 million, many of those subscribers were net addition to the pay TV market as a whole, rather than stolen from satellite (though a couple of cable TV firms and telcos have indicated cable companies didn't get off so easily). Satellite TV adoption continues to grow in North America, iSuppli says, but for how much longer?

For more:
- check out this post at IPTV News

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