Internet technologies have been a catalyst to turn TV into a mash-up of many kinds of content and then bring it to any screen, while TV viewing has become more fragmented according to a report from Pyramid Research.

“While content owners can bypass pay-TV operators by going direct to consumers over the Internet, the operators’ role as aggregator, along with their potential to present a single common user interface to the consumer over any device, presents a counter-argument of convenience,” says Steven Hawley, Analyst at Large for Pyramid, and author of the report. “Some pay-TV operators have more power than others because their corporate parents also may have holdings that produce content and provide enabling technologies, while others say that the world turns on advertising, which pays the freight for commercial television.”

IPTV, as a set of technologies, represents both a threat and an opportunity for all facilities-based pay-TV operators.  “The services that we currently call pay-TV and Internet TV will grow to resemble one another more, while viable new business models are emerging for operators that embrace IP,” Mr. Hawley says.  “But despite growing similarity, some differences between pay-TV and Internet TV will remain.”

“The most successful pay-TV service providers and network operators will be those that deliver the broadest range of paid, sponsored, free, and user-generated content to consumers over as many network and device platforms as possible,” Hawley adds.

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