Tags containing: "streaming"

Publishers push the envelope at political conventions

July 21, 2016 Mark Glaser, Founder and Publisher – MediaShift

The conventions will be live-streamed. And live-streamed some more.

The 2016 Republican and Democratic national conventions are upon us, and with publishers and broadcasters trying out numerous avenues for coverage and commentary — it’s set to go down in history. Publishers are trying a mix of Facebook Live, Snapchat, bots and even pop-up podcasts to stand apart from the media scrum. And they have even more competition from delegates, attendees and protesters who can use their own smartphones to report from the scene live.

Live Streams Everywhere
Google is the official partner of the RNC, which means that YouTube is live-streaming the convention on a device near you. The live stream includes a 360-degree immersive experience — and it apparently also caused a fleet of angry, hateful commenting on YouTube before YouTube disabled chat on the convention’s live stream. That sort of hate present in Trump’s campaign had already prompted Apple and HP to pull away from offering financial and hardware support during the RNC. When Google and Facebook decided to stay, it showed a split among tech companies.

Twitter, meanwhile, has partnered with CBS News to live stream CBSN’s coverage of both the RNC and the DNC. If Twitter is the fastest way to discover and discuss politics, then it’s natural for the platform to also live stream the political conventions so that users can “experience democracy in action,” Anthony Noto, Twitter’s chief financial officer, explained in a statement.

As Mike Isaac of the New York Time pointed out, the microblogging platform, unlike YouTube, had the foresight to moderate the live stream of tweets at the RNC. But being a partner of CBS means that Twitter — which has come under scrutiny and criticism recently for its lack of product focus — has to acquiesce some control to the news broadcaster. For example, when CBSN interrupted coverage of the RNC to live stream a press conference about recent police shootings in Baton Rouge.

It’s not ideal for Twitter’s end of the partnership, but it does offer a certain amount of authority to CBSN, especially amidst ongoing tension between publishers and platforms regarding who has control over the news. And given the huge deals Facebook has sealed with publishers, some outlets, including C-SPAN, will stream their convention coverage on Facebook Live. Considering recent breaking news events unfolding on Facebook Live, there’s no doubt users are expecting to watch convention antics (and the protests outside) unfold on Facebook as well.

Snapchat Filters and Bots
But live streams aren’t the only alternative to traditional broadcasts this political season. For the first time, the RNC is also on Snapchat, and publishers such as The Daily Show With Trevor Noah and Gawker are also utilizing the mobile platform to give fresh, insider takes to a younger audience. Judging from their alerts on Facebook and Twitter, numerous reporters are doing the same. And Snapchat is ready for it all, offering filters like “Protest Cam” and “My Hot Take” during the conventions.

And if the estimated 1,500 media outlets credentialed for the DNC weren’t enough to cover the convention, BuzzFeed and the Washington Post are adding reporting bots to the mix. BuzzFeed’s BuzzBot is an automated chatbot for Facebook’s Messenger app. Users can interact with the bot and answer multiple-choice questions about this year’s conventions, thereby freeing BuzzFeed’s reporters on the ground to secure more strategic interviews, such as with politicians.

“Man-on-the-street reporting is a notoriously time-consuming and unreliable form of journalism that has been practiced traditionally for many years,” BuzzFeed editor-in-chief Ben Smith told Poynter’s Benjamin Mullin. “And I think you can potentially use [bots] to get a little more scale and get the texture of the event — getting reactions in the way that reporters always do.”

The Post’s bot, on the other hand, is all about allowing owners of Alexa-enabled devices like Amazon Echo and Fire TV to get “real-time election updates” at the command of their voices, according to the Washington Post’s press announcement.

And what about audio? Jumping on the popularity of podcasts, Marketplace is presenting a pop-up, breaking news podcast devoted entirely to this year’s conventions.

The New York Times’ Declan Walsh, formerly based in Pakistan and now in Egypt, is also covering this year’s conventions in a new series called “Abroad in America,” offering a foreign correspondent’s eye to events. Indeed, with the volatility that’s erupted in American politics this year, many journalists who are covering the conventions have trained as if they are headed to combat.

One thing is certain — this year’s conventions will push publishers to try everything they can to differentiate themselves, and reach new audiences.

Industry-Research

Do the UK’s public service broadcasters effectively serve the people?

July 20, 2016 DCN

The convenience and flexibility of watching television continues to grow with the ability to time shift and stream programming. These patterns hold true for viewers of public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom; Channel 3 services, Channel 4, Channel 5, S4C and BBC. According to their mandate, public service broadcasters must offer quality programming which informs an understanding of the world, stimulates knowledge and learning, reflects the strength of the UK’s culture and represents diversified viewpoints.

PSB channels are committed to the practice of fulfilling the programming criteria. The Office of Communications (Ofcom), the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting and telecommunications, assesses public services channels’ yearly performance in its report, PSB Annual Research Report. The report evaluates three key areas to gauge effectiveness of the of public service channels: 1) audience opinion 2) viewership and 3) programming and spending.

According to its most recent report, a full 73% of those who have ever watched a PSB channel reported being satisfied with the programming. Viewers reported strong levels of importance and delivery correlating to the objectives of PSB channels. The highest rated in terms of importance were “it provides a wide range of quality and UK made programming for children (88%)” and “its news programs are trustworthy (86%).” Viewers highest scores for delivery were “it provides a wide range of quality and UK made programming for children (85%)” and “its programs help me understand what’s going on in the world today (74%).”

The report also looks at time spent watching broadcast television, with demographic breakdowns, as well as the quantity and quality of public broadcast content. In all, viewers watched 3 hours 36 minutes of measured broadcast TV in an average day in 2015, almost a half hour less per day than in 2010. As we have also seen in the U.S., viewership declined notably for adults 25-34 (19%) and adults 35-44 (17%) during this same time period. These declines were attributed to adult usage of on-demand services such as BBC iPlayer, All 4, Netflix or Amazon, especially among those aged 15-24s and 25-34.

Further, according to the BARB data, viewing of national and international news on broadcast TV increased year-to-year to 96 hours per person 4+ after a three-year decline. Total viewing hours to broadcast TV news also increased (approximately 3 hours) among adults 35+ to 142.5 hours per person in 2015 in contrast to the declines among Persons 16-34 (32.4 hours in 2015 from 33.5 hours in 2014). Where are the younger viewers going for their news? Six in ten Persons 16-24 reported using the internet or apps for news compared to 51% who cited using television.

In 2015, the PSB channels broadcast 31,974 hours of first-run UK originated network programming, an 8% decrease from 34,689 hours ten years ago. A shift in genre production from big-budget dramas to relatively low-cost original programs allowed for a decreased spending with sacrificing too many programming hours.

Importantly, public service channels must support six core characteristics:

high quality
original
innovative
challenging
widely available
distinctive

These values act as important guidelines in delivering effective programming. Adhering to these characteristics, as well as, noting the changes and differences between younger and older adult viewership, will allow PSB channels to meet the expectations of its viewers.

Perspectives

How far can the video push go?

May 5, 2016 Mark Glaser, Founder and Publisher – MediaShift

Seems like everyone wants video these days. Facebook is paying publishers and celebrities to be part of Facebook Live, BuzzFeed is handing out two-year contracts to top video creators, and Twitter has had to pay its Vine creators to keep them happy. Not to mention Mashable recently laying off staff while pivoting more strongly into video.

But while the video gold rush continues, will there be enough gold to go around? Will all these bets pay off? While video advertising continues to grow—and pay more than ads around text—not all video content is created equally. And not all of it will pay the bills for quality video productions.

Live-streaming craze
Live-streaming video has gone through a number of boomlets, from the Ustream days to Periscope and on to the recent push for Facebook Live. The promise is that anyone can point and shoot live video from their bedroom, or out at a protest, or out in the field from a reporter. Following in the footsteps of Meerkat and Periscope, Facebooks Live is bringing live-streaming to its 1.2 billion users.

“Live is like having a TV camera in your pocket. Anyone with a phone now has the power to broadcast to anyone in the world,” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced on his Facebook page. “This is a big shift in how we communicate, and it’s going to create new opportunities for people to come together.”

To give the service a boost, Facebook has been paying influential celebrities and media properties like the New York Times, BuzzFeed, Huffington Post, Vox, and food and travel publisher Tastemade to use Facebook Live. BuzzFeed’s Alex Kantrowitz reports the social media giant has offered publishers “around $250,000 for 20 posts per month over a three-month period” and “six-figure checks to celebrities who agree to use its live-streaming product.” Twitter also recently announced that it will spend millions to stream 10 NFL games during the 2016 season, and Snapchat has also scored a deal with NBC to showcase highlights from the 2016 Olympics on its platform. And AOL just announced that it will join the fray with live “TV-grade” video.

But all the talent going toward video also presents some of conundrums that publishers and platforms will have to sort through. The first has to do with content. As the Wall Street Journal’s Joanna Stern put it, most of the mainstream media efforts seem to be as lo-fi as the do-it-yourself content, with poor production value. “Much of the content feels pointless,” she wrote. “BuzzFeed’s infamous watermelon-bursting video hit nearly a million live viewers. Fortune had reporters try protein bars made from dead insects.”

Beyond live-streaming
Live streaming isn’t the only kind of video filling up News Feeds. Mic’s daily video series “Mic Check” attracts the bulk of its mostly millennial audience through Facebook, where it has 1.7 million likes. And BuzzFeed Motion Pictures, based in Los Angeles, produces “videos that routinely rack up millions of views in the span of hours,” as Gawker’s Jordan Sargent wrote.

But some missteps have occurred along the way. BuzzFeed Motion Pictures, for example, released a video titled “27 Questions Black People Have For Black People,” that was widely criticized for perpetuating stereotypes, leading BuzzFeed to release an apology on Twitter. Not only that, but as more and more people start using video, the competition for what’s considered “good content” becomes much more fierce — which means that creating a sustainable financial operation becomes much more difficult.

BuzzFeed has been offering two-year contracts that “bind the creators to the company while also allowing their work to flow out and away from BuzzFeed,” Sargent wrote. Vine stars have also demanded they be paid for their work, according to BuzzFeed’s Kantrowitz. “Three and a half years is a long time to have us posting on your platform for free,” one Vine star said, while noting he could move elsewhere, such as Facebook or YouTube.

Whether these video endeavors are financially sustainable in the long run is still a question mark for digital-only outlets that have recently undergone corrections (although BuzzFeed certainly has assets behind it). But for now, the video push has scrambled the equation, with platforms paying publishers, publishers paying creators, and anyone with video skills sitting in the cat bird’s seat.

Industry-Research

Connected TVs outnumber set-top boxes

May 3, 2016 Research Team—DCN

Overall, there are more connected TV devices in US households than there are pay-TV set-top boxes according to new consumer research from Leichtman Research Group, Inc. (LRG). Across all households (including those that do not have any of these), the mean number of connected TV devices per household is 2.1, while the mean number of pay-TV settop boxes per household is 1.8.

LRG finds that 65% of US TV households have at least one television set connected to the Internet via a video game system, a smart TV set, a Blu-ray player, and/or a stand-alone device (such as Roku, Apple TV, Chromecast, or Amazon Fire TV) – up from 44% in 2013, and 24% in 2010. Among those with any connected TV devices, 74% have more than one device, with a mean of 3.3 per connected TV household.

Other findings include:

83% of households with any type of connected TV device get a pay-TV service
38% of adults with a pay-TV service watch video via a connected TV device at least weekly
79% of all TV sets in US households are HDTVs – an increase from 34% of all TV sets in 2010
33% of non-4K Ultra HDTV owners have seen one in use – up from 10% in 2014

These findings are based on a survey of 1,206 TV households throughout the US, and are part of a new LRG study, HD and Connected TVs XIII. This is LRG’s thirteenth annual study on TVs in the US.

Industry-Research

Strong worldwide content connection

March 16, 2016 DCN

We live in a highly connected world these days with nearly half (45%) or 3.3 billion people using the Internet by the end of 2016. A majority of these users, 2.6 billion, are accessing the Internet using a mobile phone reports eMarketer in their roundup of media usage measurements from around the world.

The increase in digital access provides a surge in television viewing. This year eMarketer estimates that 205.7 million U.S. adults will watch TV through traditional channels while 129.7 million adults will watch digital TV. Access to over-the-top TV and the abundance of new content from Netflix, Amazon and Hulu has also contributed to the growth of the digital marketplace. It’s predicted that by 2018, U.S. adult viewers of traditional TV will drop to 202.1 million while adults watching streaming TV will increase to 138.8 million. Industry experts expect traditional television viewing shifts in favor of digital streaming services given all the new content and the ability to view on multi-platforms.

Viewership by demographics points to some big differences. The biggest consumers of total digital video consumption which includes TV shows, movies, news, and even advertising are the millennials. eMarketer estimates that 93.7% of millennial internet users will watch digital video content in 2016 and grow to 94.1% by 2019. In particular, nearly all (96.5%) of adults 18 – 24 internet users will watch streaming video this year.

Consumers worldwide are accessing lots of different content on mobile from social networking sites to messaging apps to streaming music to digital TV. Mobile has been the first digital screen for many throughout the world especially in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Further, usage of mobile messaging apps grew to 1.4 billion consumers in 2015, an increase of 32% from the prior year. eMarketer predicts that by 2018, mobile chat users will reach 2 billion or 80% of smartphone users. WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, both Facebook owned, are seen at the two most powerful apps globally.

The growth of video streaming and mobile messaging continues to provide publishers and marketers with new opportunities to reach consumers. The variety of content from high quality to consumer generated and the ability to share instantaneously offers a social extension for marketers to use both domestically and abroad.

Industry-Research | Video

Streaming video quality impacts viewer engagement

November 20, 2015 DCN

The quality of the playback experience is a vital consideration for any streaming video provider: viewers abandon quickly, often remember having done so and avoid offending providers in the future, according to a survey conducted by Video analytics and optimization company, Conviva. They also found that different genres have different sensitivities. While entertainment viewers demand smooth playback but are forgiving on picture quality, news and information viewers demand both a great picture and uninterrupted streaming. Additionally, age demographics appear to be significant in establishing how deeply to focus on quality of experience.

In the Fall of 2015, Conviva surveyed 500 Internet video users across the United States to understand their sensitivity to playback experience on streaming videos across the entertainment, news/information, education, self-improvement and product research genres.

Key findings from Conviva’s Beyond Entertainment Report include:

As many as one in five viewers will abandon poor experiences immediately, while significantly fewer will wait endlessly for the stream to come into focus
Having had a poor experience one in five will never return to that service, while just one in ten will return regardless of the quality of experience
Over ninety percent of respondents actively choose to return to services that deliver a superior experience
There is significant variation across genres, as the immediacy, relevance and exclusivity of content impact patience and brand loyalty
Different age groups have markedly different responses to quality of experience, with the oldest respondents being three times as likely to abandon a poor experience than the youngest

The paper reports the findings and provides commentary on what they mean for streaming video providers seeking to build, maintain and grow successful OTT businesses.

Advertising | Innovation | Perspectives

Will streaming help interactive tv ads stick?

November 12, 2015 Mark Glaser, Founder and Publisher – MediaShift

TV ads have always been decried as a format of the past, rarely targeted or personalized. But interactive TV ads offer the potential for demonstrable viewer engagement and feedback. And that’s the promise of Hulu’s new deal with TrueX, a unit of 21st Century Fox. Using technology from TrueX, Hulu will give viewers of Fox shows the option of watching a 30-second “engagement” advertisement instead of the approximately two and a half minutes worth of ads that are sprinkled within an episode.

It’s the most high-profile instance yet of interactive ads within streaming TV. The question now is whether the circumstances surrounding the Hulu-TrueX deal will get other networks and brands to jump on board—and make this kind of engaged advertising more the norm.

Breaking Through on Streaming
Interactive TV has been one of those Holy Grail quests that’s been tried and failed for years. The problem, however, is that marketers have been looking at the wrong screen when it came time to developing interactive ads. It was understood that some people were cutting the cord and streaming online content onto a “proper” television screen through an Xbox or Roku. But taking advantage of the use of laptops, mobile and tablet devices was not a key strategy. That’s why some of the earliest attempts at interactive ads bombed.

The point now, however, is to utilize the benefits of digital video, as Joe Marchese, president of advanced advertising products at Fox Networks Group and founder of TrueX, told the L.A. Times. “Digital video is an on-demand, non-linear medium, and having an ad format that fits this experience is a win for advertisers, publishers and viewers alike,” he said.

TrueX had already tested interactive ads on streaming sites before Hulu. This past May at the upfronts, TrueX reported on one such trial with the TV show, ”The Mindy Project.” They found that the typical viewer clicked 4 times in the ads, spending 52 seconds in the unit, with a 2.9% clickthrough rate. Plus the ads had a 96% completion rate.

Another example of interactive ads fitting well was during the Game Awards — an online-only awards show for videogames. During the show last year, which attracted about 2 million online viewers, users were able to click on ads during the show to download the different games that were nominated. For one of the games advertised during the show, sales “increased by 15 times during the weekend the awards show aired, producing seven figures in revenue for the game over that period,” the New York Times’ Nick Wingfield reported.

In-Stream Purchase Unit
In the same vein, Hulu announced last year moves beyond traditional video ads with an “in-stream purchase unit” with Pizza Hut. Consumers can place an order within the ad itself before returning to whatever content they were viewing. There’s also a “360” video ad that will let users pan around through a 360-degree viewpoint within the ad. And the point of these advertisements was to get the tactile response of consumers watching on different mobile devices.

While Fox is the only media company allowing these new ads on Hulu right now, TrueX is also open to servicing the entire industry with these ads, opening the door for ABC, CBS, Viacom and other organizations to perhaps learn from Fox’s example.

“This type of attention transfer lifts all boats,” Jamie Auslander, TrueX’s VP of research, told AdWeek in May. “It’s as impactful as six video ads.”

Other media outlets will likely take a cue from Fox only after learning how these 30-second advertisements play out among viewers. But if TrueX has its way — and if its previous studies on this kind of advertising hold true — the ads will be a hit.

Industry-Research

Who’s really cutting the cord? The answer in 7 charts

October 26, 2015 Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN

The pay-TV industry contracted in the third quarter at a faster pace than a year earlier, signaling that “cord cutting” may well be on the rise, as more consumers drop cable and satellite-TV connections. According to MoffettNathanson, LLC, the pay-TV industry lost about 179,000 TV customers, a steeper loss from the decline of 83,000 in the year-earlier quarter. Already, more homes and businesses have dropped pay-TV service in the first three quarters of this year than in the whole of last year, according to MoffettNathanson estimates.

Experian Marketing Services estimates that there are 13.8 million adults—or 5.6 million households—that are prime to be among the next wave of cord-cutters, which means the cord-cutter population has the potential to almost double.

Looking more closely at these individuals, many already have one foot out the door when it comes to losing their cable subscription as they are 74% more likely than average to say they watch less traditional TV. Experian predicts that cable will be even less popular among Millennials than it already is, as half of these potential cord-cutters hail from this generation.

Parks Associates consumer research finds the majority (58%) of broadband households in the U.S. use at least one OTT video service on a monthly basis, while more than a quarter of households use two or more services.

Blacks are at the leading edge of new viewing technologies, according to Horowitz Research FOCUS African America report, with 36% of Black viewers saying new technologies are enabling them to watch more TV than previously. The research also finds that Black viewers report spending 23% of their TV viewing time streaming content. In contrast, White viewers report spending 18% of their TV time streaming. Black multichannel subscribers are twice as likely as Whites to report being likely to cancel their TV service in the next six months (20% vs. 10%). Findings suggest that a greater reliance on new video technologies, rather than a lack of interest in TV, may be a contributing factor.

Horowitz Research’s FOCUS Latino report finds that Hispanics are very likely to have made streaming an integral part of their video viewing lifestyle. Half (51%) of Hispanic TV viewers in the study report spending 20% or more of their time watching over-the-top (OTT) content, compared to 43% of total urban TV content viewers. Among Hispanics, OTT viewing is being driven by bilingual and English-oriented Hispanics. More than half of bilingual (54%) and English-oriented (56%) Hispanics report spending more than 20% of their viewing time streaming, compared to 35% of Spanish-dominant Hispanics.

Not surprising, video consumption preferences vary by generation. Younger generations “go to services” include streaming video on demand and YouTube, where older generations do rely on YouTube, but favor Linear TV or VOD. according to an Ericsson presentation.

Not surprisingly, age is a factor: The more young-adults in the household, the higher percentage of cord cutting, according to Experian research.

Industry-Research

Sports fans are twice as likely to watch sports on TV than on the Internet

October 6, 2015 DCN

Television is still the primary and preferred platform for viewing sports reports Frank N. Magid Associates in their study conducted for ONE World Sports. In fact more than three-quarters of sports fans (77%) stated that they often (“often” or “every chance I get”) watch sports on television versus 37% of sports fans that stated they often watch sports streamed online.

With many sports fans cutting the cord to pay-tv, viewers are shifting to alternative platforms. In fact, half of broadband subscribers (51%) cut the cord to a pay-tv subscription more than 5 years ago and another 25% cut the cord within the past two years.

Interestingly, while TV still dominates sports viewing, more than half of sports fans (57%) reported that they watch sports streamed online. Top ranking platforms for viewing appear to stack up according to screen size and accessibility with computers at 37%, followed by over-the-top (OTT) to a TV at 26% and tablet and smartphone both at 25%.

The study and findings appear consistent with television and digital viewing patterns of sports related content. Live-event viewing is a must for sports fans and now there are options to watch it live on the best screen available.

Industry-Research | Video

Price Matters in Move from TV to Streaming Video Consumption

May 13, 2015 Research Team—DCN

The State of Online Video is Limelight Networks’ latest in a series of annual surveys that explores consumer perceptions and behaviors around digital content. The State of Online Video 2015 report is based on responses that Limelight Networks received from 1,206 consumers ranging in demographics, gender, and education. According to the findings, most people watch 1-2 hours of online video each week, though younger viewers do watch more overall. When asked under what circumstances respondents would terminate service with their cable or pay-television subscriber, the largest percentage of respondents indicated, by a wide margin, that they would terminate their subscription because of increasing prices. Again, this number is even higher among young Millennials of which more than 40% indicated that they would terminate for financial reasons.

Key findings from the Limelight’s report include:

Young Millennials are driving a gradual transition from broadcast television to online video
Consumers are willing to “cut the cord” under the right circumstances
Whether it is Over-the-Top (OTT) or cable, consumers want variety
Video buffering drives abandonment but only so far
For advertising in online video to be successful, it must be personalized and skippable
The PC remains the dominant way users watch online video
Social media drives video sharing
Longer-form content is propelling online video consumption
Canada leads in watching online video while Australia lags
For young Millennials, watching online video is all about the devices

Perspectives

Live Social Streaming: The New Front for Media Piracy Battles

May 1, 2015 Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN

In case you were wondering if the pace of digital media was about to slow down, the answer is a resounding no. A mere six weeks after the introduction of social media streaming platforms Periscope and Meerkat entered the market, the legal battles have begun. According to a National Journal article No, You May Not Periscope Mayweather-Pacquiao, HBO has already sent takedown notices to Periscope when it found users streaming episodes of Game of Thrones.

While there have been many streaming piracy suits to date–from Napster to YouTube—the potential for anyone with a phone to stream live, super-premium media events creates a fresh level of hell for media executives who invest in these must-see, highly exclusive events. According the National Journal piece, both HBO and Showtime have preemptively filed suit against two websites that they accuse of intending to stream the feed of the Pay-Per-View (PPV) Mayweather-Pacquiao fight for free. And it’s just good business that these two have been quick to take action, given that PPV providers are selling Saturday night’s fight for between $89-$100. In fact, this fight is expected to set new revenue records for PPV.

While live social streaming adds a new—and daunting—twist to the risk posed to media exclusivity that social media poses, media companies have not yet come to terms with social media tools like Twitter. On April 30^th, The N.F.L. secured agreements from CBS, Fox, ESPN and NBC that reporters wouldn’t share draft picks on their social media accounts.

The N.F.L. statement notes:

“We believe that keeping this information embargoed to the extent possible clearly enhances the viewer experience for the Draft. The result is a better presentation for the 32 million viewers who watched Round 1 in 2014 and the 45.7 million who watched across all three days.”

Spoilers aside, those millions of viewers account for commensurate revenue. There is also the issue that DMCA takedown requests are fine for archived videos (such as the Game of Thrones example), but it remains to be seen how this will affect transient live streamed content and real-time mentions of events whose primary value is in the live broadcast (such as sporting events). Pre-emptive legal action, or gentlemen’s agreements may offset some of the risk; the reality is that any audience member can simply raise their phone and tatter the velvet-rope exclusivity of live events.

Industry-Research

OTT Subscriptions on Track to Quadruple by 2019

May 1, 2015 Research Team—DCN

New data from Juniper Research shows that subscriptions from over-the-top (OTT) TV providers such as Netflix and Amazon Prime will generate $31.6 billion by 2019, up from just under $8 billion in 2014. According to Juniper’s report Mobile & Online TV & Video: OTT, IPTV & Connected Markets 2015-2019, continued growth in the established markets of West Europe and North America, along with the emergence of key OTT players in the Far East and Asia Pacific, will bring a surge in the uptake of OTT subscriptions over the next four years.

Key OTT findings from Juniper’s research include:

The Growing Trend for Online Video

This behavior originated from the trend for DTV given that online video does not conform to a schedule and Internet TV and online video services often see less advertising within the show compared to shows on traditional TV. Consumers are also easily able to share online videos via social networking sites or email, which has been a key driver in the proliferation of such a service.

Subscription OTT

Global subscription revenues from OTT services will approach $32 billion in 2019, compared to just under $8 billion estimated in 2014. Continued growth in the established markets of West Europe and North America, along with the introduction of key OTT players in Far East & China and Rest of Asia Pacific, will bring a surge in uptake of OTT subscriptions over the next 4 years.

OTT providers at the forefront of 4K delivery

As of March 2015, some content is available in the online space, most notably from Amazon Instant Video, who have around 30 movies available in 4K, as well as several of their original TV series. Netflix also provide some of their original shows such as House of Cards and Marco Polo in 4K. Netflix had been providing 4K content to all subscribers since April 2014, but in October of the same year it announced that it would charge those subscribers who wanted to enjoy their 4K service a higher fee. It is now the company’s most expensive service tier at $11.99 per month and requires users to sign up for a ‘family’ plan that allows the simultaneous stream of up to 4 programs.
Pay-TV incumbents see bundled packages as the way forward
One of the biggest threats to the traditional TV industry, is ‘cord-cutting’- consumers cancelling their satellite or cable TV services in favour of cheaper deals from streaming companies such as Netflix and Hulu.
Many broadband service providers now offer quad-play packages, which add mobile to the current triple-play system, making for an even more appealing package. In February 2015, the UK triple-play provider BT purchased mobile network EE for £12.5 billion ($20.2 billion) with deal expected to be finalised in March 2016. With the addition of EE, BT will now be able to offer quad-play packages.
However, the emergence of services such as Sling TV, offering a cheaper OTT alternative to cable and satellite subscriptions while providing a range of quality entertainment channels, may serve to disrupt this model.

In addition to the full research, Juniper has also published the whitepaper, OTT ~ A Threat Networks Can’t Shake Off.

Total Subscription OTT Revenues (%) Split by 8 Key Regions 2019: $31.6 Billion

Source: Juniper Research