• by March 10, 2005

A new Lyra Research report reveals that lower prices will be the biggest incentive for consumers to switch to telco TV from cable or satellite TV. Their report, "Dialing for Viewers: 2005 Telco-TV Interest Survey" probes consumer attitudes toward the benefits of a triple-play (video, voice, and broadband Internet) service bundle.

Steve Hoffenberg, principal analyst for the DTV View report series and Lyra's director of electronic media research, said "Our survey findings overwhelmingly support that telco's best strategy for breaking into video and establishing initial market share will be to undercut cable's triple-play pricing. This situation will & likely incur network carriage fees higher than what cable operators pay."

In May of last year, In-Stat/MDR reported that they expected over 100% growth in telco TV subscribers in 2004. The market research firm finds that the delivery of digital TV service over ADSL, VDSL, and fiber networks is becoming increasingly viable, as improvements in the data rates and reach of DSL are enabling telcos to reach more customers with the right amount of bandwidth. 

Michelle Abraham, a Senior Analyst with In-Stat/MDR, says "Competitive threats and fixed line revenue pressures are encouraging telcos to become active in offering digital TV to their subscribers. The possibility of gaining an additional $60 per month in revenue, while becoming less likely to lose $30 a month to your competition, is an important factor in the business case."

In-Stat/MDR also found that:

• In 2005, advanced video compression will allow telcos to reach more homes in their territory or expand the number of video streams delivered, and the delivery of high definition streams over DSL will be much easier.
• In North America, BellSouth, SBC, and Verizon, will lay fiber with analog video on a separate wavelength, so their TV services will be similar to today's cable network.
• TV over DSL has been launched in Hong Kong and Japan, with subscribers signing on in the hundreds of thousands.
• Previous deployments are expected to expand. All of this activity will enable the number of digital telco TV subscribers to reach 14 million in 2008, with an expectation of 75 million households having the service available

You can find out more here.