SNL Kagan, a media and communications analyst, has claimed that TV broadcasters in the UK and France are leading Europe in the new market for Over-the-Top (OTT) broadband television ( IPTV ) style services.

The analysis points to an increase in related service launches over recent months, such as the development of YouView (Project Canvas) in the UK and systems that make use of the BBC iPlayer platform or similar services from rival broadcasters (Sky Player, 4oD etc.).

YouView in particular is a major subscription-free broadband ISP based Video-on-Demand (VoD) and catch-up TV service. Unfortunately the platform has suffered from some significant delays and will not surface until early 2012. Several ISPs, including BT , TalkTalk , Vodafone and possibly Orange , are all planning to offer related services.


Sadly SNL doesn't include any hard statistics alongside its report, which would be interesting to see since the UK market for true IPTV services is still somewhat niche. Aside from BT Vision (BTV) there aren't a lot of real broadband based alternatives to the major media firms like Virgin Media and Sky ( Sky Broadband ) out there.

Hopefully YouView will change that, although such services will have a hard time penetrating the market while much of the country's broadband infrastructure is still unable to cope. The UK government hopes to change that but doing so will take time, several years in fact.