The National Broadband Network (NBN) will boost IPTV service rollouts in Australia, with 235,000 subscribers by 2014 according to a forecast by analyst firm, Frost & Sullivan.
New Zealand is also forecast to have 141,000 IPTV subscribers by 2014 as a result of its broadband network.
In a report, Frost & Sullivan industry analyst, Adeel Najam, said Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia and Malaysia would join other Asia-Pacific nations in adding IPTV service rollouts in the next 12 months. The Philippines is not expected to join the list until 2011.
"In Australia, the country’s National Broadband Network (NBN) project is expected to boost IPTV service rollout and uptake as delivery networks will be enhanced with the NBN," Najam said in the report.
"Given the high household broadband penetration rates in these two countries — Australia at about 60 per cent and New Zealand at just under 60 per cent in 2008 — and the comparatively lower pay TV household penetration — Australia at 30 per cent and New Zealand at just under 55 per cent (2008) — IPTV has the potential to capture a portion of the pay TV market."
However, industry commentators have said the media sector’s regulatory framework requires significant re-working for this to take place.
Frost & Sullivan also predicted the Asia-Pacific region would be the second largest IPTV market after Western Europe — which has 38.3 per cent of the world's subscriptions — by the end of the year with 37.6 per cent of global subscribers.
The compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of the region (including Japan) will be 24.6 per cent annually to 2014, the analyst forecast.
Only Hong Kong uses IPTV as its foremast pay TV platform in the region (with 54 per cent market share in 2008) at present, however Najam claimed this would change with broadband improvements as operators "push ahead to offer multi-play services to make good their costly fibre investments".
“After fibre deployments, service providers must offer services like IPTV to maximise revenue potential and return on investments,” he said.
“With the right content strategy, PCCW not only managed to capture more than 30 per cent of Hong Kong’s highly competitive pay TV market within the first two years, but has now tripled its average per user revenue and kept subscriber churn to under one percent,” Najam added.
“Exclusive content, wherever local regulations permit, will give operators a leg up in the game.”
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