IPTV to convert 48 million by 2010 - Gartner

The number of IPTV subscribers is set to hit 48.8 million worldwide in 2010, according to analyst house Gartner.

Gartner expects subscribers to telly-via-broadband to more than double next year - from 6.4 million in 2006 to 13.3 million - on the back of new service launches from the likes of BT, which is set to debut its Vision IPTV service later this year. Another recent entrant into the space is Tiscali, which last month confirmed its acquisition of Homechoice.

Gartner says the eight-fold increase in IPTV take-up to 2010 will be driven by service providers cutting prices to lure customers away from cable and satellite offerings. As a result, global IPTV revenue will be less impressive than subscriber growth, it said - rising modestly from $872m in 2006 to $13.2bn by 2010.

According to Gartner, Western Europe leads the world for IPTV uptake - boasting 1.6 million subscribers to-date - with the French being the biggest consumers of TV-down-a-fat-pipe in the region.

Gartner defines IPTV as the delivery of video over a carrier's broadband network to a TV set. It does not include streaming media over the net to a PC.

A separate study from research company iSuppli last month predicted IPTV subscriber numbers will hit 63 million by 2010.