Advanced Television

OTT growth spurs operator transcoder investment

July 26, 2013

Market research firm Infonetics Research released excerpts from its Broadcast and Streaming Video Equipment and Pay-TV Subscribers report, which tracks pay-TV subscribers and video equipment sold to telco IPTV, cable, and satellite providers.

“With competition and content heating up, pay-TV providers are transitioning their traditional, broadcast-focused video processing environments to ones that can ingest, process, deliver, and decode video content from multiple sources,” notes Jeff Heynen, principal analyst for broadband access and pay TV at Infonetics Research. “At the same time, content owners and studios are also adjusting their workflow and video output to support multiscreen and streaming services.”

Heynen adds: “The net result of these transitions is steady investment in the platforms necessary to optimise video streams for a growing list of end devices and formats.”

Report highlights include:
– The global broadcast and streaming video equipment market topped $2 billion in 2012 and is forecast by Infonetics to grow about 12 per cent in 2013.
– Projected to grow by more than 1/3 by 2017, adaptive bitrate (ABR) origin and packaging servers are key components in the efficient delivery of over-the-top (OTT) content, especially as more pay-TV providers and content delivery networks move to ABR streaming.
– More and more, transcoders are being used to prepare linear broadcast and file-based content for distribution directly to subscribers.
– Telco IPTV subscribers have the highest 2012—2017 CAGR (17 per cent) of any pay-TV subscriber segment.

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