We may not all have NBN-level access speeds, but increasingly we’re adopting IPTV for our television watching, with a recent study concluding that one in ten subscription TV services are being delivered over broadband.
The Telsyte study concludes that some 300,000 households — bearing in mind that, give or take there’s somewhere in the region of 7.8 million households in Australia according to census data, of which somewhere around 6 million have broadband access — have adopted IPTV services. Telsyte’s research suggests that IPTV is picking up traction because it’s hitting the sweet spot of not being as expensive as PayTV but offering enough variety over existing free to air options. It’s also looking rosy for IPTV in the NBN-equipped future, with the study’s author, Chris Coughlan, stating that
“Foxtel faces a dilemma as distribution over the NBN requires it to become a retail service provider supplying broadband access, something that its majority shareholder, Telstra, might be reticent to allow. It also faces challenges with regard to margin erosion if it follows suit with cut-down offerings”
[Telsyte]