Laffitte Conseil

China Inches Toward a Million IPTV Users

The total number of Internet protocol television users in China reached 736,000 in the second quarter of 2007, according to Analysys International's "China IPTV Market Quarterly Tracker Q2 2007."

That represents a 20.3% increase over the first quarter of 2007.

Henan, Shanghai and Heilongjiang were the top three IPTV regions, with more than 100,000 users each.

UTStarcom, Vcom and ZTE were the top three vendors in the market, with 43%, 40% and 13% market shares, respectively.

Users will also pay a one-time fee for some content

Times are good for ad-supported online content. YouTube has put transparent ads on the bottom one-fifth of videos from its content partners. And The Wall Street Journal, one of the few paid-content success stories, is considering making its online version free.

Most consumers think that viewing ads in exchange for quality content is fair, according to IBM's "The End of Advertising" report, published in August 2007. More than six in 10 consumers IBM surveyed said they preferred ad-supported online content, while 28% preferred paying for ad-free media.

However, "don't expect consumers to spend incrementally on different devices," said Bill Battino, study co-author and communications sector managing partner at IBM Global Business Services, in a Brandweek interview. "People want to pay for content once and then move it" to whatever device they like.

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