Pay-TV providers are sweating their existing encoding assets as they wait for the next generation of platforms that support HEVC, according to the findings of Infonetics Research’s latest 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 TV providers.

“Pay-TV providers are sweating their existing encoding assets as they wait for the next generation of platforms that support HEVC (high efficiency video coding) so they can reduce current bandwidth requirements while preparing for ultra-definition TV, such as 4K,” notes Jeff Heynen, principal analyst for broadband access and pay-TV at Infonetics Research. “Demand for contribution encoders among broadcasters will remain steady through 2017, with increases in spending due to the long-term transition to support HEVC and newer video formats.”

Other broadcast and streaming video market highlights:

• Infonetics expects the global broadcast and streaming video equipment market to decline about 9 per cent in 2013 to $1.39 billion, then to grow through 2017
• Content delivery network (CDN) edge servers, which serve as streaming video ‘pumps’ for over-the-top (OTT) and unicast content, are forecast by Infonetics to grow at a 21 per cent CAGR from 2012 to 2017
• Spending on video-on-demand (VoD) playout servers is expected to decline in the short term, though pay-TV providers will continue to use them while shifting spending to CDN edge servers to support multiscreen and OTT video content
• Multiscreen broadcast encoder revenue is anticipated to increase slightly over the next 4 years as operators transition to software-only platforms and encoders with integrated transcoding

Categories: Articles, Broadcast, Equipment, Markets, Pay TV, Research