Cable and IPTV operators investing in VOD servers
April 12, 2010
Infonetics Research has released the fourth quarter editions of two video-related market share and forecast reports: Video Infrastructure and Subscribers and Set-Top Boxes and Subscribers.
“In the ongoing battle between cable and telco IPTV operators, both continue to spend furiously to add video-on-demand and streaming content server capacity to support the rollout of on-demand HD content and provide start-over and remote storage-digital video recorder services, all of which require the delivery of unicast streams to set-top boxes. This aggressive move to full unicast models for video delivery is driving strong growth in video on-demand and streaming content servers,” notes Jeff Heynen, Infonetics Research's directing analyst for broadband and video.
Highlight of the reports include:
– Worldwide video infrastructure revenue held steady from 3Q09 to 4Q09 at $625 million, with all segments up but one (video content protection software)
– For the full year 2009, video infrastructure revenue decreased 11 per cent to $2.5 billion.
– Worldwide VOD and streaming content server revenue increased 60 per cent from 2008 to 2009, and is expected to increase rapidly over the next four quarters.
– 3D TV is expected to be popular for particular content, primarily movies and sporting events, but will have little impact on how operators spend to deliver 3D content, except for devices that improve access network bandwidth, such as edge QAMs for cable operators.
– There were 417 million cable video subscribers worldwide in 2009; that number is expected to hold steady through at least 2014 as standard cable video subscribers switch over to digital cable video.
– Motorola is the worldwide STB market share leader, followed by Cisco and Pace.
– Worldwide total STB revenue grew 7 per cent in the fourth quarter, following a dismal third quarter.
– The number of video subscribers increased across the board in 4Q09, and more existing subscribers also upgraded to premium HD and DVR set-top boxes, a trend likely to continue.
– For the full 2009 year, worldwide STB revenue reached $11.2 billion, down 5 per cent decrease from 2008, as macroeconomic conditions tempered subscriber growth, especially among North American and European cable operators.