Monday, 5 June 2006

IPTV – Can it Really Fly in Asia?

IPTV has been a hot topic in the telecom world for quite some time. But is it simply vendor hype designed to sell more gear, or is there real customer demand for next generation TV service via broadband? Some observers are sceptical about IPTV's prospects in the unique Asian environment. In China and some SE Asian countries, pirated DVDs with movies can be bought for less than USD2 - while the titles are showing in the theatres. Also, in the Asian countries where very high speed broadband is most popular, and thus most ready for IPTV services, illegal P2P content downloads are hugely popular. To complicate the picture further, TV broadcast regulations in countries such as Korea and China are still not completely ready for full IPTV services. So, how can any Asian telco make money from IPTV?

Read more in Andrew Ma's new article on SDA Asia.