Report: China to Increase Adoption of Web-Enabled TV

SCOTTSDALE: There were more than 2 million Internet-enabled televisions shipped to China in 2009, according to research firm In-Stat, with forecasts expecting this number to reach in excess of 15 million units in 2014.

Penetration rates of Internet TV are set to rise from 8 percent to 50 percent in the next five years, and with the triple-play policy being pushed by the Chinese government, more licensed content providers for web-TV sets are likely to emerge. Users are also believed to to be willing to pay for web-TV content if it is in HD quality and up-to-date.

“The fast development of the web TV market is driven by competition between the giant domestic TV vendors and the low incremental cost for web TV functionality, helping drive wider user acceptance,” the company says in The Web TV Market in China: Emerging on Medium-Sized TVs and Household Tablets report.

There are some hurdles, however. “The web TV STB market does face challenges associated with its limited sales channel and high retail pricing,” the report says. “Some telecom operators are deploying web TV set-top boxes coupled with subscriptions to their high-bandwidth internet access, but they do so while keeping a low profile due to regulation concerns.”

In comparison, In-Stat is forecasting that more than 137 million web-enabled consumer-electronics devices will ship in the U.S. in 2014.