Covering 73 countries, Digital TV Research forecasts that the number of homes paying for IPTV will rocket to 155 million by end-2016, up from 35 million at end-2010. The IPTV Forecasts report goes on to explain that the Asia Pacific region will supply 85 million of the 120 million additional subscribers during this period. In fact, China will provide 70 million of the 2016 total subscribers, up by more than 10 times its end-2010 total.

With an increase of over 15.2 million subscribers in the first three months of this year, fixed broadband grew by 2.9%.  This was the biggest quarterly increase in the last two years and representing an annual growth rate of 11.93%, according to figures announced today by the Broadband Forum at its press conference at CommunicAsia 2011.  IPTV also shows exceptional growth rates with an increase of over 34% in the 12 months to the end of March 2011, based on the data prepared for the Broadband Forum by analyst firm Point Topic.

ABI Research has released the first part of its “Technology Barometer: Digital Living” study which surveyed 2000 consumers in the United States about consumer electronic products in their households (device type, number of devices, and brands), home networking, and connected devices.

Despite the attention given to-cord cutting, this trend has not generated the momentum some (not including ABI Research) expected: in this survey only 10% of respondents did not subscribe to a pay-TV service.

Asia Pacific is undergoing a digital TV boom that will see penetration increase from 29% in 2010 to 73% in 2016 – or up by nearly 400 million homes, according to a new report from Digital TV Research. Fast-growth economies, higher disposable incomes and rising populations will lead this expansion. Digital TV Asia Pacific calculated that these factors will also result in 92 million more TV households between 2010 and 2016.

Annual global IP traffic will reach the zettabyte threshold (966 exabytes or nearly 1 zettabyte) by the end of 2015 according to the latest Visual Networking Index by Cisco.   In 2015, global IP traffic will reach 966 exabytes per year or 80.5 exabytes per month.

Highlights of the report include:

Global IP traffic has increased eightfold over the past 5 years, and will increase fourfold over the next 5 years. Overall, IP traffic will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 32 percent from 2010 to 2015.

According to new market data from ABI Research, 11.3 million pay-TV subscribers were added at the end of first quarter of 2011. “By the end of 2011, the total number of pay-TV subscriptions is expected to exceed 759 million,” says practice director Jason Blackwell of ABI Research.

3D imaging, which adds depth to a 2D image, is receiving a lot of buzz and hype with an increasing number of 3D films being produced in a resurgence of interest from Hollywood studios. 3D has been popular in Hollywood at other times in the previous century, but the difference is that now, 3D viewing is possible in the home. As a result, the 3D TV set market is poised to grow dramatically in 2011—by almost 500%, according to In-Stat.

Renewed economic dynamism and multi-platform competition are fueling the consumption of pay-TV and broadband in Asia Pacific. However, this growth depends on investment in content, distribution and new technology, benefiting consumers but coming at a high cost for pay-TV channels and distributors, according to Asia Pacific Pay-TV & Broadband Markets 2011, a new report published by leading industry analysts Media Partners Asia (MPA). The result is margin pressure for pay-TV providers in some key markets, predominantly India, as well as potentially in Japan, Korea and Malaysia.

The Chinese IPTV market is the most attractive and largest IPTV market in the Asia-Pacific region. It is also the third largest IPTV market at the global level. There is a sustained growth in the demand for IPTV service in China. Further, the networks are being continuously upgraded and there is a constant innovation of services, such as single-play to Triple-play. Deployment of IPTV in various key Chinese provinces as of now is on schedule with new launches anticipated in other smaller and less developed provinces.

Global Digital Rights Management (DRM) market is projected to witness significant growth in near future due to the continuously growing media and entertainment sector according to a new report by RNCOS. Our team of experts says that, mobile content market is projected to be one of the key driving forces for the growth in the DRM industry. Telecom operators are offering premium multimedia content to compensate for their declining voice revenue per user. Besides, enterprise sector will witness significant growth and is projected to offer immense opportunities for implementing DRM.