Growth Rate for Video Services Market Slows in 3Q09

In the third quarter, the growth pace slowed for new video service subscribers; in addition, fewer existing subscribers upgraded to premium services, according to new analysis from Infonetics Research. "Holiday shopping and new purchasers of HDTV sets will likely result in an uptick in premium service upgrades, but subscriber growth across the board will be tepid until macroeconomic conditions improve," cautions Jeff Heynen, Infonetics Research's directing analyst for broadband and video.

Report highlights include:

• Worldwide set-top box (STB) revenue dropped 6 percent in 3Q09 from 2Q09, due to lower subscriber growth, a decrease in purchases of add-on STBs by subscribers with multiple televisions and operators looking to replenish their inventories.


• Worldwide revenue for all video infrastructure segments declined quarter-over-quarter, including VoD and streaming content servers, video encoders, IPTV middleware/content delivery platforms, video content protection software, edge QAMs, digital cable middleware and satellite video middleware. However, combined revenue for all video infrastructure segments is up 90 percent year-over-year, and quarterly growth is expected to pick up, led by VoD and streaming content servers, video encoders and edge QAMs.


• Worldwide revenue derived by service providers and cable companies for IPTV, cable video, and satellite video services is forecast to grow to $234 billion in 2013.


• The biggest threat to revenue growth will be online, or “over-the-top,” viewing, which allows users to stream programming delivered over the Internet via sites like Hulu and YouTube, and to aggregate programming via services such as Boxee.