Interactive TV Gets a Boost From Poker
Published: Friday, March 04, 2005 Online-Casinos.com
INTERACTIVE TV GETS A BOOST FROM POKER
And the company results seem
to confirm the research findings.
Telecomm analyst group RHK revealed
this week that online entertainment worldwide is expected to increase threefold
in five years, driven primarily by Internet television.
Revenues from
video, which includes IPTV and video on demand; music downloads, games, gambling
and adult entertainment are expected to increase to $36 billion in 2009 from $12.3
billion last year. This year, online entertainment is expected to reach $15.8
billion.
IPTV, an acronym for Internet protocol TV, is expected to be
the biggest driver behind the 24 percent annual growth in online entertainment,
RHK analyst Josette Bonte said. "It's very embryonic right now, but it's
growing at a compound annual growth rate above 100 percent," Bonte said.
The second biggest driver will be online games that involve multiple
players, Bonte said. Music, on the other hand, is not expected to contribute a
lot of new revenue, primarily because prices for music subscriptions are expected
to drop.
"(The telephone companies) have no choice but to go into
video services," Bonte said. "Their core services are being eaten up
by cable operators."
IPTV, which is more widely used in Europe and
Japan, distributes television programming, and other services over a broadband
connection that feeds into a special set-top box. Telephone and cable companies
are looking to attract customers by offering telephone, video and hi-speed data
services in a package that would be less than buying the services individually.
The companies could also offer wireless services as a fourth offering.
On
a related theme, a bullish piece was carried by Inform ITV proposing that the
runaway success of Internet poker has sparked growing interest in interactive
TV gaming generally.
The story uses respected UK gambling icons like Ladbrokes,
William Hill and Sportingbet to illustrate the point. Ladbrokes recently revealed
that profits from its online gaming division were up 50 percent to over GBP 21
million, apparently boosted by explosive growth in online poker, which is soon
expected to overtake revenue from traditional sports betting.
Meanwhile
online betting and casino site Sportingbet announced record profits for the last
six months, up 85 percent to GBP 26 million on a turnover of GBP 825 million,
driven by an GBP 8 million profit on turnover of GBP 12.5 million in the Paradise
Poker division it acquired last year. With over 800,000 registered poker players
and as many games played each day, growth has exceeded expectations.
Annual
results for British bookmaker William Hill, which recently launched its own TV
channel, featuring interactive casino games such as roulette are also anticipated
with interest.
The piece quotes The Sunday Times, which reported “...the
holy grail for interactive betting groups is gambling via television”. The
one page story in the business section concludes “It cannot be long before
the technology develops sufficiently to allow interactive poker on television”.
The technology is not necessarily the limitation, at least in the UK, where
the Sky platform is already littered with gaming and gambling opportunities.
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