IPTV North America

Full Conference passes only £760 click here to register
or call the booking hotline +44 (0)203 3773 201

• Over 500 attendees anticipated to attend
• Conference featuring over 15 platform operators, content providers and systems integrators discussing IPTV service deployment issues
• Industry exhibition with up to 25 leading technology providers with FREE to attend exhibition (click here to register)

To register for your FREE exhibition-only pass please click here

Jeff Weber, Vice President, Product & Strategy, AT&T	George O'Neal, Vice President Network Services, GVTC	Bill DeMuth, Senior VP & CTO, SureWest Communications
Kelvin Shephard, President- Consumer Markets, MTS Allstream	Marc Schwarze, IPTV Senior Manager, Deutsche Telekom, Germany	Zouheir Mansourati, Vice President, Technology Strategy, Telus
Joseph Ambeault Director - Consumer Product Development, Verizon	Bethany Gorfine, President & CEO, Federal Hill Communications	Vickey Callen, Vice President of Broadband Development, CenturyTel
Mark Charkin VP Sales & Advertising, Bebo	Doug Abolt Vice President - Product Marketing, Consolidated Communications	Dr. Pete Kock, President, Truveo & Vice President, AOL Video
Dom Stasi CTO, TVN Entertainment & Chairman SSPI	leon Hofer VP Network Operations, Iowa Networks Services	Joseph Weber  Senior Director of Technology TiVo
Jeff Campbell, General Manager, Express High Speed Internet	Mark Hopper, VP of Product Development, BitTorrent	Nuno Afonso Director of Product & Pricing, Portugal Telecom

To download the show brochure click here

"The top [US] DSL providers netted 54pc of the broadband additions in 2005." Leichtman Research Group

"Successful IPTV is more about selling broadband than about selling television." Pyramid Research, November 2005

"Telcos may be counting on IPTV to revitalise their businesses, but the competition they will face in the Pay TV market will be expensive, relentless and possibly damaging." Pyramid Research, October 2005

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The triple-play battle in North America
At the end of 2005, the top ten cable MSOs (Multiple Systems Operators) in the US had over 24 million broadband Internet customers and just over 5 million telephone subscribers [4]. It is generally acknowledged that for many telcos, the introduction of video is a defensive strategy designed to 'lock-in' voice and data customers, since triple-play bundling reduces churn. But first telcos must convince consumers to switch video providers - and the big question is how they can do it. [4] The Companies and Leichtman Research Group Inc., from Leichtman Research Group's Q1 2006 'Research Notes' 

Can IPTV hurt cable with video - and how?
IPTV is on course to become a credible Pay TV platform in North America and while nobody expects AT&T or Verizon Communications to overhaul the cable or satellite industry with their broadcast TV and VOD offers, IPTV is achieving good penetration in markets where it has deployed. In January, Verizon was claiming 21 per cent video penetration for Keller, Texas, just four months after the service was launched (Verizon's debut for FiOS TV).

In Canada, Manitoba Telecom Services, the country's third largest telephone carrier, has achieved 20 per cent penetration (50,000 subscribers) in Winnepeg, where services have been available since 2002. And SaskTel, which has been offering multi-channel TV and VOD in the Canadian province of Sasketchewan since late 2002, was reporting average penetration of 19 per cent in mid-2005 for the cities it serves. Tellingly, SaskTel claims that six out of every ten new TV installations also represents a completely new broadband customer. [1]

Thanks primarily to AT&T and Verizon, North America is expected to account for a large proportion of the world's new IPTV subscriptions during the next few years. They join the significant number of regional and local telecoms operators in North America who pioneered this new digital TV platform but the big question is whether any company bringing Pay TV to market this late - even those with the resources of AT&T - can gain significant market share on a national basis.

North American IPTV service providers face a tougher test than their European counterparts, who have benefited from a natural watershed in the Pay TV marketplace thanks to the introduction of DVR (Digital Video Recorder), true VOD and Replay TV (mainly 2005 onwards) and HDTV (late 2005 onwards). In the US, VOD is an established cable offering and HDTV is available widely on cable and satellite. Cable operators have also pursued an increasingly aggressive triple-play strategy (they now have 24 million broadband Internet customers and 5 million telephone customers [2]) and this makes it even harder to tempt customers from their legacy suppliers.

So where are North American IPTV providers going to find their subscribers and what services must they provide (and evolve) in order to differentiate themselves in the crowded Pay TV marketplace?

These are some of the themes that will be addressed at the IPTV World Forum North America conference and exhibition, which will draw together leading IPTV service providers, content providers, analysts and key technology vendors for what we believe will become one of the key events in the North American IPTV calendar.

IPTV World Forum – North America IPTV World Forum
North America is part of the IPTV World Series of events organised by Informa Telecoms & Media globally. We have already developed the market-leading IPTV event for Europe (IPTV World Forum in London, entering its third year) and the highly regarded IPTV World Forum Asia (held in Shanghai and about to enter its second year). IPTV World Forum Eastern Europe complete the series and we will be drawing upon our experience and extensive contacts in the global IPTV and content communities to deliver a market-leading conference for North America.