80M IPTV subs by 2011 (Strategy Analytics)

According to a report from Strategy Analytics, over the next five years IPTV subscribers will grow to a staggering 80 million worldwide from just under 6 million IPTV households today. Additionally, the number of households worldwide that pay directly for IPTV service will rise from 3.3 million in 2006 to 40.9 million in 2011. Currently, about 55 percent of IPTV households pay directly for IPTV services while most of the remaining subscribers receive IPTV service as part of a bundle. In five years, we can look forward to a decline in the percentage of direct-paying IPTV households, as the industry increasingly favors service bundles.

For more on this report:
- see the write-up over at TVover.net

Skype founders name new video start-up Joost

Company executives had referred to the new company for months by the codename "The Venice Project." They chose Joost because they like the ring of it, according to a spokeswoman. The word doesn't have any meaning in Danish.

CNet has the story

Here comes IPTV...

Seems like everybody's getting into IPTV, from Microsoft to AOL, Alcatel-Lucent to Deutsche Telekom to China Netcom. But do consumers really want it?

Well, to know the answer, just look at the numbers from Gartner:

• By 2010 the number of households with IPTV is forecast to reach 50 million from 3 million in 2005
• revenues could rise even more sharply, to $13.4 billion from $399 million

IPTV Around the World

Servicec providers all over the world are are trying to figure out how to build a "Telco 2.0" that delivers TV, Phone and Internet services over broadband pipes.

On Dec. 4, Britain's BT Group launched its IPTV service, setting a target of signing up between 2 million and 3 million subscribers. AT&T, Deutsche Telekom, Telefónica, Swisscom , France Telecom, Korea's KT, and China Netcom are also in various stages of rolling out their own services.

It's not just the telcos that have a stake in this. Just about every major tech company wants a piece of the action. Alcatel-Lucent is joined by Microsoft, Hewlett Packard, and Cisco Systems as well as upstarts such as UTStarcom and China's Huawei. The rivalry is expected to help the market ramp up quickly.

IPTV relies on the same basic technology as streaming video over the Web except that the signals stay within the telco's network. If done right, IPTV shouldn't be all that different from the programs you're accustomed to viewing on cable or over the airwaves. Where IPTV has an advantage over standard broadcasts is its potentially limitless number of channels and instant, on-demand access to a vast library of content stored on a telco's servers.