Skip to main content

Enhanced Pay-TV DVR Growth will Exceed 84 Percent

As lower-cost online alternatives gain momentum, more Pay-TV service providers are attempting to make their legacy video entertainment offering more attractive by adding new features to their standard subscription package.

DirecTV’s Genie, Liberty Global’s Horizon, Dish’s Hopper and the HD DVR boxes that power Comcast’s X1 service all have something in common -- other than better marketing names than an older generation of boxes more commonly known by their model numbers.

According to the latest market study by ABI Research, these feature-rich devices bring more channel tuners to centralize digital video recorder (DVR) resources -- minimizing DVR conflicts, as well as better processing power.

This increased processing power improves responsiveness and the device user interface. ABI believes that deployment of the device will also act as a Trojan Horse -- while pay-TV operators try to extend home automation and energy management services into their subscriber homes.

These feature-rich gateway boxes were first shipped in small quantities in 2010. Last year North American and Western European operators shipped 4.5 million units in a market which is conservatively estimated to grow by 84 percent, reaching 8.5 million by 2018.

"Operators have made decisions to move to gateway boxes for economic reasons, but more and more they are leveraging the power of those boxes to improve the quality and consistency of the experience they offer to consumers," said Sam Rosen, practice director at ABI Research.

Advertising campaigns highlighting unique features will supplement price and bundle oriented marketing campaigns and target higher-end customers.

U.S. market satellite operator Dish networks, for example, will highlight the uniqueness of its watch anywhere model, which is less subject to content rights agreements than other pay-TV operators.

Popular posts from this blog

Digital Talent Demand Exceeds Supply in Asia-Pac

Even the savviest CEO's desire for a digital transformation advantage has to face the global market reality -- there simply isn't enough skilled and experienced talent available to meet demand. According to the latest market study by IDC, around 60-80 percent of Asia-Pacific (AP) organizations find it "difficult" or "extremely difficult" to fill many IT roles -- including cybersecurity, software development, and data insight professionals. Major consequences of the skills shortage are increased workload on remaining digital business and IT employees, increased security risks, and loss of "hard-to-replace" critical transformation knowledge. Digital Business Talent Market Development Although big tech companies' layoffs are making headlines, they are not representative of the overall global marketplace. Ongoing difficulty to fill key practitioner vacancies is still among the top issues faced by leaders across industries. "Skills are difficul

Mobile Device Market Still Awaiting Recovery

The mobile devices market has experienced three years of unpredictable demand. The global pandemic, geopolitical pressures, supply chain issues, and macroeconomic headwinds have hindered the sector's consistent growth potential. This extremely challenging environment has dramatically affected both demand and supply chains. It has led to subsequent inflationary pressures, leading to a worsening global cost of living crisis suppressing growth and confidence in the sector. In tandem, mobile device industry stakeholders have become more cautious triggering market uncertainties. Mobile Device Market Development Operating under such a backdrop, the development of mobile device ecosystems and vendor landscapes have been impacted severely. Many of these market pressures persisted throughout 2022 and now into 2023, borne chiefly by the smartphone market. According to the latest worldwide market study by ABI Research, worldwide smartphone shipments in 2022 declined 9.6 percent Year-over-Year

Open Banking Usage to Grow by 470 Percent

The Open Banking business model has been advantageous for Third-Party Providers (TPPs), helping them to extend their offerings into other areas of financial services with new capabilities. Open Banking is also advantageous for traditional banking institutions, despite the perceived loss of custodianship over their data, by providing greater accessibility to more bank services. Furthermore, Open Banking can help serve Mobile Internet providers that are able to leverage it to create tailored services according to customers’ preferences and/or economic limitations. Open Banking Market Development Since traditional banking services are made more convenient by TPPs via greater data access, customers can proactively manage their finances and shape the development of new financial offerings. This is particularly noticeable in the realm of Digital Payments, where retail merchants and customers transact through eCommerce, which has the greatest number of use cases for Open Banking. These includ