IPTV in troubled waters

IPTV took centre stage at the latest First Tuesday event which was held this morning. The usual complaints of Telkom holding back IPTV were aired but this is nothing new really. Jonathan Newman, head of strategy at Multichoice, mentioned that by 2010 it is predicted that there will be 49 million IPTV subscribers globally, which will rake in an estimated $13 billion (R91 billion). Africa and the Middle East however are only predicted to gain 133 000 subscribers by then, only bringing in an estimated $3 million (R21 million) – the future does not seem too bright for our region.

An interesting point was brought up by a member of the audience who asked Newman if the business model of IPTV would actually work. The example the audience member gave focused on the fact that the subscribers will in effect be paying for advertising as this would eat up their bandwidth. There are not too many people out there who would be happy with this situation.