IPTV Growth Gets Euro Pop

European broadband users are signing up for IPTV services in the hundreds of thousands each quarter, making Europe the biggest and fastest growing telco TV region in the world.

Financial reports from the past few days show that incumbent carriers are growing their TV over DSL subscriber numbers at a furious pace, with France Telecom SA (NYSE: FTE) leading the way.

The French national carrier had 975,000 IPTV subscribers in France at the end of its third quarter, an increase of 138,000 (about 16 percent) from the 837,000 it had at the end of its second quarter, and more than double compared with a year ago. (See table below.)

Table 1: France Telecom's IPTV Subs Growth Mar 2006 - Sept. 2007

	At 31 March 2006	At 30 June 2006	At 30 Sept. 2006	At 31 Dec. 2006	At 31 March 2007	At 30 June 2007	At 30 Sept. 2007
Number of IPTV subscribers in France	229,000	306,000	421,000	577,000	745,000	837,000	975,000
Number of IPTV subscribers in total (all territories)	229,000	306,000	426,000	590,000	768,000	872,000	1,017,000
Source: France Telecom

France Telecom had 6.9 million DSL subscribers as of September 30, so almost one in seven of its broadband customers has signed up for IPTV. It also has an additional 42,000 IPTV customers in other territories, most of which are in Poland (believed to be around 23,000) and Spain, according to the carrier.

FT's success is one of the reasons why France is far and away the single biggest IPTV market in the world. According to statistics compiled by research house Point Topic Ltd. for the Broadband Forum , there were 8.23 million IPTV subscribers in the world at the end of June this year, of which nearly 5 million were in Europe, including 2.55 million in France. (See table below.)

Table 2: Global IPTV Subscribers 2005 - 2007

Region	H1 2005	H1 2006	H1 2007
Europe	521,000	1,505,000	4,984,000
Asia/Pacific	612,000	987,000	2,176,000
Americas	267,000	409,000	1,069,000
Other users	70,000	50,000	0*
Total Worldwide	1,470,000	2,950,000	8,229,000
Source: DSL Forum and Point Topic * In 2005-2006 the ‘Other users’ category was estimated on the basis of trial information and supplier shipments; in 2007 this category has become unnecessary as official reporting has increased.

In addition to France Telecom, Iliad (Euronext: ILD) and Neuf Cegetel Group (Euronext: NEUF) are the other main players in France. At the end of June, Iliad had around 1 million customers using its TV over broadband services, and Neuf Cegetel had nearly 600,000 IPTV customers, while Telecom Italia SpA (NYSE: TI)'s Alice France had around 60,000.

That figure for France made it the only country with more than 1 million IPTV subscribers as of June 30, with Hong Kong the second biggest single market with 938,000 telco TV subscribers at that time, and the U.S. just behind in third with 937,118.

Of the top 10 IPTV markets globally, five are in Europe, with the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, and Germany joining France. (See table below.)

Table 3: Top 10 IPTV Markets June 2007 by SUbscribers

Rank	Market	IPTV subscribers at end of June 2007
1	France	2,550,000
2	Hong Kong	938,000
3	US	937,118
4	China	540,000
5	Netherlands	500,000
6	Spain	450,900
7	Italy	400,000
8	Japan	350,000
9	Taiwan	333,000
10	Germany	218,000
Source: DSL Forum and Point Topic

Other recent IPTV subscriber updates from Europe include: