A Booz Allen Hamilton report cited in this morning's edition of the Irish publication SiliconRepublic.com predicts that digital television standards - built, apparently, on terrestrial transmission principles - will overtake IPTV as the leading interactive television service provider by 2010. The study, called The Future Role of Cable in Shaping the Digital Home in Europe, estimates that European telecommunications companies are in a much better position to dominate the DTV infrastructure, than Internet access providers and consumer electronics manufacturers.

...European telecommunications incumbents have a customer base of around 151 million. Cable network operators have one third of this customer base with close to 51 million subscribers. "Nevertheless, in many markets cable operators will be the only credible contenders to challenge the telecommunication incumbents," Booz Allen Hamilton said.

Thomas Künstner, partner at Booz Allen Hamilton responsible for the study, commented: "The pressure to consolidate in the European cable TV industry is further increasing. Moreover, we can also expect to see mergers which cut across the traditional boundaries of the industry, as the example of Virgin Mobile and the leading British cable TV provider Ntl/Telewest shows."

The study's conclusions have global importance, especially since Europe is somewhat ahead of North America in the development of digital interactive television standards. Yesterday's announcement of the formation of the Mobile DTV Alliance is an indicator that telecom companies have an interest in expanding European DTV standards into North America, where they may compete with American ATSC standards used by US and Canadian digital broadcasters.

(SiliconRepublic.com)