According to research from The Diffusion Group, a Plano, Texas-based research consultancy dedicated to the digital home and connected consumer, new TelcoTV services could take as much as 25% of the PayTV market in the first few years, a potentially worrying development for US cable operators and the likes of UK satellite broadcaster British Sky Broadcasting Group Plc.
The Receptivity to TelcoTV among PayTV Subscribers report says that there are a sufficient number of ambivalent or dissatisfied cable and DBS subscribers that a competitive offering with even slight cost advantages could be disruptive to the market balance.
Some 84% of US households now subscribe to some form of PayTV service, be it cable or satellite, said Dale Gilliam of The Diffusion Group. However, 15% of these subscribers are dissatisfied with the quality of their current PayTV service, and 22% are likely to switch from their current service to a TelcoTV service, given some level of cost discount.
This could be good news for the likes of BT Group Plc, which is due to launch its own IPTV service known as BT Vision during the next few months. BT’s move here mirrors similar developments in the US, where fixed-line carriers are attempting to offer quad-play services (fixed-line, mobile, internet and pay TV) to counter the strong quad-play offerings from US cable operators.
TDG’s report features the results of an April 2006 study of more than 1,500 US households regarding awareness of and interest in TV and bundled services offered from their ‘local telephone provider.’
