Both AT&T – now with over a million subscribers – and Verizon have made huge in-roads into the market with their IP based services.
Largely as a result of these two companies’ successes, North America is expected to account for a large proportion of the world’s new IPTV subscriptions during the next few years.
They join the significant number of regional and local telecoms operators in North America who pioneered this new digital TV platform – but the big question is whether any company bringing Pay TV to market this late – even those with the resources of AT&T – can gain significant market share on a national basis?
The question also remains how regional telcos can build a compelling TV offering at a realistic level of investment.
These are two of the many themes that will be addressed at the IPTV World Forum North America conference and exhibition being held 21-22 July 2009 at the Millennium Broadway Hotel, New York.
The two-day event will draw together leading IPTV service providers, content providers, analysts and key technology vendors for what is expected to become one of the key events in the North American IPTV calendar.
The programme will focus on all the key topical issues on IP&TV in North America, including:
- monetising OTT in the TV experience
- how to roll out whole home DVR
- assessing the impact of the Broadband stimulus package on the US video market
- hybrid solutions for the delivery of TV and IP and EPG2.0
- content discovery and search
A highly interactive, intensive, high level networking conference, it features quality case-study led presentations from carriers, service providers & content owners, interactive full value chain panel discussion and analyst roundtable briefings.
A key feature will be the opportunities for delegates and all participants to discuss presentations and pose questions to the speakers after the sessions.
Among the industry leaders participating are:
- Terry Denson, VP of content Strategy and Acquisition, Verizon
- Jeff Weber, Vice President of Video Product and Strategy, AT&T
- Daniel O’Callaghan, Chairman IPTV Interoperability Forum (ATIS) and Principal Member of Technical Staff, Verizon
- Franz Kurath, Executive Director, Broadband Content, AT&T Operations Inc.
There will also be leading representatives from Surewest Communications, Cox Communications, Qwest Communications, OPATSCO and many more.
The event also features an exhibition, where vendors, manufacturers and service providers can showcase their latest products and do business with a pre-qualified audience.
During the conference sessions, a wide range of themes will be covered, such as considering how the influence of IP is being felt most keenly outside the managed telco services space.
In particular, the rise of Over the Top TV services, delivered over the open internet, provides a potentially massive disruption to the traditional TV service model.
Whilst these services clearly popular with the public, the search for successful business models – which enhance rather than undermine existing offers – remains a challenge that the industry must embrace.
Then there’s the comparision between markets on either side of the Atlantic, with North American IPTV service providers facing a tougher test than their European counterparts.
The latter have benefited from a natural watershed in the Pay TV marketplace thanks to the introduction of DVR (Digital Video Recorder), true VOD and Replay TV, and HDTV.
In the US, VOD is an established cable offering and HDTV is available widely on cable and satellite.
Cable operators have also pursued an increasingly aggressive triple-play strategy (they now have 24 million broadband Internet customers and 5 million telephone customers) and this makes it even harder to tempt customers from their legacy suppliers.
Yet cable operators can also reap huge benefits from the implementation of IP, and potentially can enhance their services to combine IP efficiency & interactivity with existing bandwidth to deliver a highly compelling consumer solution.
Also being covered is the new boom area in the global IPTV market, hybrid IPTV solutions – which combine managed IPTV with other delivery mechanisms such as DTH or Satellite.
Already there have been landmark deployments from early IPTV adopters such as Orange/France Telecom, Portugal Telecom & BT Vision.
Whilst SES Americom’s strategic withdrawal has marked an early failure in the US market, partnership models will increasingly be a feature of new TV service in North America, particularly in more circumspect times.
This conference will provide participants with the opportunity to hear, learn from, and network with the leaders in the IP&TV American industry.
IP&TV Forum North America is the second annual event and part of the IPTV World Series of events organised by Informa Telecoms & Media globally.
For more information, please click HERE.
