Consumption Habits Will Drive OTT Innovation
Perry Weinstein,
General Manager,
Accedo North America
We have all witnessed the huge shift in content availability over recent years. TV viewing is definitely far from linear, with consumers getting access to a whole wealth of entertainment from multiple sources and on multiple devices. TV anywhere and everywhere has truly arrived and with it we are seeing a massive shift in consumer’s consumption habits. That is set to change even more dramatically over the course of the coming year.
Going Over-the-Top
At the end of 2015, research conducted by Parks Associates showed that 2015 was the year of OTT. According to the research, the global OTT marketplace comprised of more than 65 players, either already offering video services or due to launch in the coming months. Around 1.6 billion subscribers are actively watching online video worldwide, and on a variety of connected devices.
The trend is set to continue, with revenues from the global Video on Demand (VOD) market expected to top $263 billion by 2016, compared to $207 billion the industry generated in 2014.
Not surprisingly, at the same time, the sales and usage of Connected TV devices are also rising fast. According to Strategy Analytics, 53 million connected TV devices shipped worldwide in Q3 2015 and the firm is expecting sales to reach over 220 million for the full year. In the US alone, the NPD Group expects there to be 231 million installed and internet-connected TV devices in the next three years.
Consumers have had their appetites whet for OTT content, and now that demand will only increase, meaning that broadcasters will have to keep up with this reality more and more over the coming months, in order to keep up with increasing competition.
Going multiple
At the same time as the appetite for OTT content has increased, what we haven’t really witnessed is widespread cord cutting, as many had predicted. Indeed, according to TDG, cord cutting is in fact now in decline, with only 5.7% of adult broadband users moderately or highly likely to cancel their service.
You only have to look at the number of OTT players stated above to understand the reasons behind this trend. With so many different OTT services to pick, each offering
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