• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, February 6, 2007

It may be a great source of future revenue, but for now, experts are divided. A new survey of communications industry executives by Accenture and the Economist Intelligence Unit found widespread support for Internet protocol TV (IPTV) in the long term. But according to the same survey, the near-term prospects don't look quite as good.

Accenture and the EIU surveyed almost 350 executives in telecommunications, broadcast and media firms located across North and South America, Europe and Asia. Of these, 60% believe that IPTV will be generating "significant revenues" within three years. But that number drops to 52% for the next 12 months.

Overall, 46% of the executives queried said they think advertising will be the main source of revenue for IPTV. But this prediction was contradicted by a subset of respondents that included executives of content providers, like broadcasters or studios: 74% said they think the subscription model will dominate, led by subscription fees for premium content.

What they do agree on is what will motivate consumers to adopt IPTV: 64% of all respondents and 74% of network operators point to price discounts associated with bundling phone, Internet and TV service to entice consumers. Thirty-eight percent said they believed the ability to move content between multiple devices will also be a significant factor driving consumer adoption.

China, for example, will be home to 10 million IPTV subscribers by 2011, according to a 2006 report from Pyramid Research. The rate of new subscriptions will remain moderate until 2008, but is expected to take off in the following three years. This will put China roughly on par with the U.S., which is expected to have about 11 million subscriptions by 2010, according to industry analysts at the Diffusion Group. Both countries will lag behind Europe, which is expected to have 14 million IPTV subscriptions by 2011.