Market research firm, Infonetics Research, has released excerpts from its 2012  IPTV Service Deployment Strategies: Global Service Provider Survey anazlyzing trends in the IPTV market. The report details operator responses about current and planned linear broadcast television delivery, IPTV applications and services, multi-screen viewing capabilities, content discovery, on-demand services, social networking and video streaming services.  

"Because it's so challenging to differentiate on content, pay-TV providers are looking to stand out from their competitors by offering additional services and features, such as multi-screen viewing, social networking, and content discovery and recommendation services," says Jeff Heynen, directing analyst for broadband access and video at Infonetics Research.

Heynen adds: "In particular, multi-screen video -"TV Everywhere" to some - is gaining momentum across all pay-TV operator types (cable, satellite, and IPTV) in all regions: 83% of the operators we interviewed plan to offer some type of multi-screen viewing on PC, smartphone or tablet by 2013."

Some highlights from the survey include 

• Operators participating in Infonetics survey most often deliver linear broadcast TV over a pure IP network
• The majority of IPTV service providers interviewed do not currently support video streaming services such asYouTube, Hulu, or Netflix
• Only 1/3 of IPTV operators surveyed currently offer social networking capabilities for the TV
• Subscription video on demand (S-VOD) is the money-maker among VOD offerings; 83% of respondents offer S-VOD for access to premium channels like HBO, Showtime, and Starz, and libraries of first-run movies today, growing to 89% in 2013