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Over half of communications industry executives believe that Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) will generate revenue within the first three years of service, according to a new survey from Accenture and the Economist Intelligence Unit.

The survey included around 350 communications executives in firms located in North and South America, Europe and Asia. While 60 percent believe that IPTV will generate strong revenue in the next three years the number falls to 52 percent over the next 12 months.

“The business case for IPTV, its value-added benefits and its potential remain strong,” said Dan Elron, managing director for Accenture’s
Communications practice. “In the long-term, the key to achieving high performance through IPTV is to be visionary, ambitious and open to innovation from many sources. For the shorter term, the key is to quickly adapt to consumer feedback and jump over technology hurdles.”

When quizzed on what would be the primary source of revenue 46 percent of industry executives said advertising. However their opinions were disputed by a subset of respondents that included executives of content providers who believe (74%) that the main source of revenue will come from subscription fees for premium content.

“This difference in opinions reflects the broad uncertainty around how media will be delivered and what customers will be willing to pay for,” said Elron. “Carriers are used to subscription revenues and believe that the IPTV experience will soon be comparable to or even better than current video offerings, whereas media executives are more cautious and skeptical of a scenario where a new revenue stream is created so rapidly.”

Executives do agree on what will attract consumers to adopt IPTV. Sixty-four percent of all respondents and 74 percent of network operators believe that price discounts offered with bundling phone, Internet and TV service would drive consumer adoption of IPTV.

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