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Pay-TV Providers Must Enhance Their VOD Offerings

The shift of video consumption to tablets and smartphones is causing pay-TV service provider requirements for video on demand (VOD) systems to change as vendors struggle to keep up with current generation needs, according to the latest market study by ABI Research.

A case in point, I previously shared my own use case that demonstrated how I discovered that the HBO GO internet video streaming service had significantly more content in their archive than the HBO VOD offering from Time Warner Cable.

ABI belives that equipment and system vendors, such as Arris (now including Motorola Home), SeaChange, Cisco, and Ericsson are expected to lose ground to cloud-oriented companies -- such as thePlatform, Synacor, and KIT Digital (expected to emerge from bankruptcy as Piksel).

VOD vendors will see less than 30 percent growth over the next five years, while content management system (CMS) vendors will capture the market and see nearly 100 percent growth to seize half of the total VOD management markets.

Classic VOD back-office systems are built around delivery to the TV via a set-top box, leveraging a single video format, a managed network, a modest number of business models (free, packaged, and pay per view), and a standalone hierarchical architecture.

"VOD Equipment and system vendors have adapted their systems to work on commoditized IT-grade hardware and are enabling multiscreen IP delivery to sit alongside classic set-top box delivery," said Sam Rosen, practice director at ABI Research.

However, based upon ABI's recent assessment, they have failed to adapt to syndicated workflows.

Video content management systems -- which resemble premium online video platforms (OVPs) -- have been used in a number of high profile pay-TV service provider multi-screen initiatives, including Comcast’s X1 project, Liberty Global’s Horizon architecture, and Telefonica’s new Global Video Platform.

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