Television delivered by Internet protocol – IPTV, will be used in 38.4 million homes worldwide by 2012, according to a newly released Informa Telecoms & Media's report.

IPTV subscriptions and video-on-demand are expected to bring in $14.7 billion revenues globally by 2012, up from $1.5 billion in 2006.

The estimate $14.7 billion in 2012 included $13.6 billion from subscription revenues and $1.1 billion from VOD. This will come from only 3.1 percent of the world's TV households, eMarketer reported.

"In the shorter term we are forecasting 10.6 million IPTV households by the end of 2007, double the 2006 figure of 5.3 million," Adam Thomas, media research manager at Informa, said.

"Much of the recent growth has come from service launches by European telcos, although US cablers are also starting to look anxiously over their shoulders at the success of U-Verse and FiOS," Mr. Thomas added.