PCCA Journal|1
st
Quarter 2013
32
RVA Releases New FTTH Review and Forecast
R
VA LLC predicts direct
investment in North
American fiber-to-the-
home (FTTH) deploy-
ment will grow to $4.7
billion annually by 2017, or $18 billion
cumulatively over the next five years.
Further, revenue from applications and
services beyond the triple play and
directed specifically at high bandwidth
users is expected to reach $4 billion by
2017, or $9 billion cumulatively over the
next five years.
RVA also predicts that the number of
high bandwidth capacity users (50, 100,
or even 1000 Mbps/1 Gigabit) will soon
grow rapidly and represent a market
niche worthy of serious attention. Con-
sumers have unique desires for applica-
tions and services given the availability
of higher capacity advanced broadband,
thus providing many new opportuni-
ties for providers of software and video
programming.
The new “North American Fiber To
The Home and Advanced Broadband
Review and Forecast to 2017” report is a
detailed study of FTTH deployments and
consumer desires for advanced broad-
band applications and services. Data
presented in graph segmented format
includes history from 2001-2012 and a
five year (2013-2017) forecast.
U.S. IPTV Growth Decelerates in Q4
T
he growth of the U.S. Internet Protocol Televi-
sion (IPTV) market continued to decelerate in
the fourth quarter of 2012, due to the impact
of Hurricane Sandy and the slowing expansion
of Verizon’s FiOS service, according to a new
study by business information and analytics provider IHS.
The two major U.S. IPTV players, Verizon and AT&T,
reported a combined gain of 326,000 video subscribers in the
fourth quarter, down 19 percent from the 402,000 acquired
during the same period in 2011, according to the IHS Screen
Digest U.S. Television Intelligence Service. This marked the
second consecutive year of slowing subscriber growth in the
fourth quarter, with the total for the last three months of 2011
down 7 percent from 430,000 in 2010.
For the entire year of 2012, net subscriber adds for the two
U.S. IPTV services amounted to 1.3 million, down 14 percent
from 1.5 million in 2011.
More Moderate Growth Expected
Through 2017, both major U.S. IPTV players will continue to
see their subscriber gains moderate as the market becomes
more mature. By 2017, IHS Screen Digest expects that IPTV in
the United States will account for 13.4 million pay-TV house-
holds, or 10.8 percent of all pay-TV subscribers.
“Verizon’s FiOS accounted for the majority of the slow-
down, 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 Fi-
OS’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.”
FiOS vs. U-verse
FiOS increased its video subscriber base in 2012 by 553,000
to reach 4.7 million, up 13.3 percent from 4.2 million in
2011. This represents a 21 percent reduction from the 701,000
increase in 2011. FiOS’s video penetration now stands at 33.3
percent, compared to 31.5 percent at the end of 2011. Still, the
largest U.S. IPTV provider grew its video subscriber base by
13.3 percent this past year.
AT&T continues to maintain its growth in its U-verse video
services, as 192,000 subscribers joined in the fourth quarter
of 2012, only 8,000 fewer than during the same period in
2011.
U-verse video subscribers grew 19.6 percent for the year
and now stand at 4.53 million, closing in on FiOS’s total
video subscribers. With a much broader rollout of U-verse,
the fiber-to-the-node service passes 72 percent more eligible
video homes than FiOS. Given a significantly larger reach and
low video penetration of just 18.7 percent, AT&T is also able
to maintain steady growth in gains for its IPTV services. All
told, U-verse added 745,000 subscribers in 2012, down just
7.3 percent from 2011’s net gain of 804,000 subscribers.
Telecom News
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