• by Wayne Friedman , August 20, 2012

As with other multichannel TV providers, IPTV companies delivering TV and other content will aggressively move to offer more multiscreen viewing over the next year.

A Infonetics Research survey found that 83% of cable, satellite and telco TV operators plan to offer some type of multiscreen viewing -- PC, smartphone or tablet -- by 2013. Infonetics notes that those participating in its survey usually deliver linear broadcast TV over a IP network.

But when it comes to some top Internet-based video platforms, research has revealed that many IPTV service providers do not support -- as yet -- streaming services such as YouTube, Hulu, or Netflix. In addition, only a minority of IPTV operators -- one-third -- currently offer social media connections with the TV set.

For IPTV companies and others, Infonetics believe one of the growth areas will continue to be subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) services. 83% of Infonetics respondents offer SVOD premium channels like HBO, Showtime, and Starz, and libraries of first-run movies. This activity will rise; by 2013,  89% of operators will have some form of SVOD.

Jeff Heynen, directing analyst for broadband access and video at Infonetics Research, says: “Because it’s so challenging to differentiate on content, pay-TV providers are looking to stand out from their competitors by offering additional services and features, such as multiscreen viewing, social networking and content discovery and recommendation services."