US research firm Infonetics Research has predicted that this will be a watershed year for TV Everywhere services, as operators across the globe watch early movers like Comcast, Cablevision and Time Warner Cable to see if adding these services will have a positive impact on subscriber churn and revenue.
“TV Everywhere and other multi-screen video initiatives are fundamentally changing the TV business model, with apps streaming live TV to iPads, and telcos and cable companies offering home automation, security, and video conferencing to subscribers in an effort to make the TV the hub of the digital home,” said Jeff Heynen, directing analyst for broadband access and video at Infonetics Research.
“Demand for digital, HD, and premium video content and services will continue to drive revenue growth in the VOD and encoder market, but the set-top box market won’t fare as well: despite increasing demand, overall STB revenue is expected to decline starting in 2013, due to falling ASPs.”
The research firm is predicting that the global video infrastructure market (including IPTV, cable and satellite video infrastructure) will grow 9% in 2012 to reach over US$ 875mn.
Five companies are expected to account for more than two-thirds of the global VOD and streaming content server market: US firms Motorola, Cisco and Concurrent, and Chinese vendors Huawei and ZTE.
Much of the future growth in the video infrastructure market is likely to come from MPEG-4 HD encoders, according to Infonetics, and China is believed to be on track to outspend all regions on VOD and streaming content server gear, as operators such as China Telecom and China Unicom add VOD streams.
Meanwhile, the total number of subscribers to managed IPTV services is predicted to more than double over the next four years to reach 168mn by the end of 2016, with the majority of these to be found in Asia and Europe.
