U.S. IPTV Growth Slows in Q4 2012

EL SEGUNDO: The growth of the IPTV market in the U.S. continued to decelerate in the fourth quarter of 2012, according to IHS Screen Digest.

Verizon and AT&T, the two major IPTV players in the U.S., reported a combined gain of 326,000 video subscribers in the quarter, which is 19-percent less than the 402,000 sub gain in the same period in 2011. This was the second consecutive year of slowing subscriber growth in the fourth quarter.

For all of 2012, net subscriber additions for the two IPTV services was 1.3 million, down 14 percent from 2011. Through 2017, both are expected to see moderate subscriber gains, as the market matures. By 2017, IHS Screen Digest expects that IPTV in the U.S. will account for 13.4 million pay-TV households, or 10.8 percent of all pay-TV subs.

“Verizon’s FiOS accounted for the majority of the slowdown, as the fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) service added only 134,000 subscribers in the fourth quarter of 2012, down from the 194,000 gained during same period in 2011,” said Erik Brannon, senior analyst for television research at IHS. “The disruption caused by hurricane Sandy may have slowed FiOS’s progress. However, the major reason for the deceleration is that FiOS is largely finished expanding its footprint into new geographic areas of the United States. FiOS’s penetration is significantly higher than that of U-verse, causing long-term growth to slow for Verizon’s IPTV service.”