Australia is often touted as a couple of years behind global trends in various industries and commerce and although sometime away yet, the emphatic rise of Internet Protocol Television (IPTV or TV over Broadband), which can be currently witnessed in European countries, is an example of things to come in our own backyard or should I say lounge room.
In a recent European report that forecasts IPTV growth in the respective region, it was stated that the pay TV alternative will rocket in popularity over the next 5 years. It's believed that IPTV subscriptions will jump from 12.4 million to over 30 million subscriptions in this period despite the current economic downturn. This figure equates to around 16 percent of Europe's total pay TV market. In 2008, Cable TV providers dominated the market with a 56 percent share while satellite TV services held a little more than 30 percent. The report is suggesting that Cable providers will be the looser in the next 5 years with a reduction of 13 percent forecast and in addition, not only will TV over Broadband services grow, it's also predicted that satellite TV subscriptions will rise an extra 7 percent.
So what's this mean for Australian IPTV services?
For a start the likes of FOXTEL, FOXTEL from Telstra and AUSTAR, who dominate the pay TV market here in Australia, will be forced to re-strategise and strengthen their products and relationships within this Industry. You see, subscription based technology aside, there's still the issue of 'Content' to consider - What is everyone going to watch on IPTV? For example, FOXTEL hold many lucrative and exclusive relationships with Content Providers such as a Channel (e.g. The Lifestyle Channel) or sports rights (50 percent AFL - Australian Rules Football or 100 percent A-League) and essentially have a stranglehold on subscription TV. So regardless of IPTV provider networks, there's still going to be the underlying factor of media rich content to broadcast through an IPTV network.
The other major factor that IPTV faces is distribution technology, namely through Broadband. Up until now and media content aside, Australia's subscription pay TV options were limited to Cable and Satellite TV services offered by the likes of Telstra and Optus, both of which relayed FOXTEL broadcasts. The problem here surrounds Broadband speed as ADSL2+ is the only other option thats barely capable of of transmitting IPTV broadcasts. While this form of Broadband technology certainly has the speed at the top end in which to broadcast such services, the problem primarily lays with accompanying latency and connectivity issues. ADSL2+ isn't reliable and top end speeds are generally theory based so more often than not subscribers to ADSL2+ would experience servicing interferences that just wouldn't cut it for IPTV broadcasting.
Bring on the new National Broadband Network and Anti-siphoning, then we may have game on for IPTV! In case you're unfamiliar with Anti-siphoning, it's a government regulation that protects many major sporting codes and events from being gobbled up by exclusive pay TV rights. It basically means that sports such as Horse Racing and the Melbourne Cup, AFL Grandfinals, State of Origins and world sporting events like the Olympics and Soccer World Cups are to be made available to the general public via Free-to-Air television.
Considering the NBN is commencing deployment later this year (to be completed over an 8 year period) and will be the foundation to drive home IPTV and Video on Demand type services, together with the projected growth figures in Europe expected over the next 5 years, it appears that IPTV's emergence in Australia will follow Europe's lead and become a popular subscription TV service. In the interim, ADSL2+ might not be be able to deliver high definition IPTV Australia wide, however, until the NBN comes into play, it could make a viable substitute for IPTV services, especially for those residing in major metropolitan areas and those close enough to DSLAM exchanges that will be able to take advantage of the faster ADSL2+ speeds.