Worldwide IPTV subscribers will top 63 million by 2010, up from 2.4 million in 2005, according to market watcher iSuppli.

Its recent report, IPTV Fuelling Television Subscriber Race, claimed the IPTV subscriber base will generate more than $27bn in overall services revenue by 2010.

Mark Kirstein, vice-president of multimedia content and services at iSuppli, said in the report: “The global IPTV market is in its first phase of basic service deployment. However, it’s already clear that IPTV is a net growth market.

“IPTV needs to deliver far more than just video services. It must also bring new levels of interactivity, integration and value-add services.”

Distributor Imago entered the IPTV market a couple of years ago. It distributes set-top boxes from Amino and encoders from Niagra and Optibase.

James Vickerage, head of marketing at Imago, said: “Our business has always been video communications, but we have looked at other solutions. With IPTV we have taken on vendors and launched ImagoTV.”

Vickerage added that IPTV is also an opportunity for Imago’s VARs to add more value.

“IPTV works across a network,” he said. “End-users may have put a lot of money into their networks and now they want to fill this with video. Resellers can offer end-users more network applications.”

Colin Farquhar, chief executive of IPTV vendor Exterity, said: “IPTV and its subscriber base has gone through the roof. The big challenge for the reseller is how they profit from it because a lot of the subscribers will be consumer based.”

Imago turns on IPTV