Abstract
Telcos are increasingly positioning their IPTV services as part of bundled broadband packages, and the services are gaining subscribers at a rapid pace. The number of global Telco IPTV subscribers is expected to grow from 32 million in 2009 to 98 million in 2014. The Telco IPTV service is the spotlight of telecom operators around the world. In Taiwan, the leading telecom operator, Chunghwa Telecom, started to offer multimedia on demand (MOD) services to increase his revenues of fixed line network since 2004. However the ROI of MOD is not as expected. How Telcos can stay competitive and make profit in IPTV service is discussing in these years. This paper uses Ansoff Growth Matrix to explore the growth strategy for Telcos in Taiwan by studying global IPTV market trend, industry value chain, consumer behaviors, and service cases in Europe, United States and Taiwan. We found that Telcos in Taiwan can differentiate, generate new revenue opportunities and pull subscribers away from competitors through offerings rich content. Content is known as the king for video entertainment service. To attract the new customers and reduce the churn rate, Telcos must provide diversity content and shorten time to market as soon as possible. In the other hand, the content must satisfy the needs of all family members. Most IPTV services are competitive price-wise. There are three factors – platform, content, and time – needed to be considered when developing pricing strategy. The MSO (Multi-System Operator) always have the advantage of owning content sources. To compete against MSO, Telcos can use "profit-sharing” strategy to encourage content providers providing rich content for them. Besides, Telcos might open his IPTV platform to encourage content providers as channel operators and get the win-win position. The IPTV service is user-centric. Users expect these applications to be very simple and intuitive to use—like their televisions, not their computers. Telcos should provide the usability and “plug-and-play” features that make IPTV service easier to set up and operate. Broadband network is the main advantage of Telcos to provide IPTV service compared with other Pay-TV operators. Telcos must employ this advantage to provide high definition program and explore the quad-play service by offering voice, data, video and mobile service. With this convergence service, customers can enjoy IPTV content anytime, anywhere with any device. Digital home service is the emerging topic in these years. With digital home service, people can enrich their life with featuring of safety, healthy, comfort, energy saving, peace of mind and sustainability. Telcos can expand their IPTV service by integrating the digital home service through IPTV set-top-box and expand their market position by proving IPTV service for MDU (Multi-dwelling unit) and hotels. By considering ways to grow via existing products and new products, and in existing markets and new markets, we found that there are great opportunities for Telcos in Taiwan to increase their IPTV revenues.