The deal represents Private’s ongoing distribution strategy in Europe. The deal with Virgin’s French website means Private will reach almost 100 percent of the lucrative French IPTV market.
Private cited Multimedia Research Group Inc. forecast that estimates global IPTV subscriber base will grow to 92.8 million in 2012 from 13.5 million in 2007. Europe is one of the fastest growing regions, with the subscriber base expected to reach 36.4 million in 2012 from 6.4 million last year.
“The IPTV market is the fastest growing digital delivery platform today,” Peter Cohen, Private’s chief operative officer said. “Compared to traditional pay-TV it generates substantially higher sales per subscriber at a considerably better margin.
“IPTV will most definitely be a significant source of both sales and profits for us going forward,” Cohen said.