Digital Lifescapes

Consumer video entertainment is about to evolve, once again. High dynamic range (HDR) features will infiltrate some full high-definition (HD) television sets and thereby help to boost the emerging 4K TV set (UltraHD) market momentum. ABI Research forecasts that HDR TV shipments will grow at a 41 percent CAGR and reach 245 million units in 2022. According to their assessment, 8K TV sets are still years away from reaching the global market, with market hype currently centering on Japan’s plans to deliver 8K video at the 2020 Olympics. HDR TV Market Development "As evident with Sony’s recent announcement to include HDR in all its new TV sets, the next-generation TV technology will soon be a prominent feature in many UltraHD TV sets," said Khin Sandi Lynn, analyst at ABI Research . While some less expensive TV sets will not yet support the new technology, high-end TV manufacturers recognize the value that HDR functionality brings to the customer viewing experience. Vend...

The digital TV and video entertainment market will expand via online and mobile delivery of new media. This new growth will be driven by network operator owned services, such as Internet Protocol Television (IPTV), or through Over The Top (OTT) video streaming services such as Amazon Prime, Netflix and Hulu among others. Meanwhile, traditional pay-TV operators and terrestrial over-the-air TV broadcasters will continue to be disrupted by new digital technologies and new business models. Furthermore, the impact of the ongoing video entertainment transformation could also create new challenges for the Cinema theater sector. According to the latest market study by Juniper Research, ultra high-definition television (UHDTV) streaming video services -- i.e. 4K OTT -- content will start to reach the mainstream market soon, with adoption set to soar over the next 5 years. How Connected TV Fueled the Disruption Note, 4K is a term that was originally used to describe the cinema projection...

Traditional Pay-TV service providers in saturated markets, such as North America, could use a new value-add competitive edge to counter the ongoing subscriber losses from low-cost OTT video entertainment growth. Television sets with 4K video capabilities also present a growth opportunity for pay-TV equipment vendors. ABI Research forecasts the 4K set-top box market will quadruple in size from less than two million units in 2015 to more than 7 million in 2016, and then grow by 46 percent annually through 2021. However, the overall pay-TV set-top box market is on the decline, expected to drop by about nine percent in 2016 to less than $16 billion in revenue -- with both pay-TV and free-to-air boxes losing value. Pay-TV Market Development Challenges “Digital transitions are taking longer than initially planned and the market is experiencing significant downward pressure on set-top box pricing,” said Sam Rosen, vice president at ABI Research . According to the ABI assessment, har...

Over-the-top (OTT) video adoption continues to disrupt the legacy pay-TV market. In its latest analysis on the online streaming media adapter market, ABI Research examined the impact of new lower-priced devices and the mounting pressures within the global consumer electronics industry. People now have many ways to stream video entertainment. Moreover, the ongoing introduction of new, cost-efficient devices with innovative functionality has the capability to swiftly change the competitive landscape. Meanwhile, traditional pay-TV providers continue to increase service subscription and set-top box rental prices. "The rise of Google's Chromecast devices, along with the Amazon Fire TV Stick, generated interest in the stick or dongle form factor, but these successes speak more toward pricing than design," says Michael Inouye, principal analyst at ABI Research . Streaming Media Market Development In China, according to the ABI assessment, the streaming media stick form f...

The growing popularity of watching online video entertainment has become a more common activity worldwide, particularly with the younger generation. As a result, these shifting video consumption trends have created a few market share gainers and many losers. According to the latest market study by Juniper Research , subscriptions from Over-the-Top (OTT) video entertainment providers -- such as Netflix and Amazon Prime -- will generate $31.6 billion by 2019, that's up from just under $8 billion in 2014. Continued growth in the established markets of West Europe and North America, along with the emergence of key OTT players in the Far East and Asia-Pacific, will bring a surge in the adoption of OTT subscriptions over the next four years. Assessing the Threat to Legacy Pay-TV Juniper observed that OTT services are seeing a rapid uptake by all people who want to view content, when and where it suits them. Mobile devices, such as notebook PCs and media tablets, are responsibl...

Traditional forms of video entertainment are already saturated in most of the developed nations around the globe. Meanwhile, some of the more promising emerging markets are growing at a more gradual rate than was anticipated, due to current economic pressures. According to the latest market study by ABI Research, the worldwide pay-TV market grew by just 4 percent in 2014 to reach 923.5 million subscribers. "Despite the growth in subscriber base, weak currency exchange rates resulted in a slower increase of pay-TV market service revenue. Worldwide, the pay-TV market generated $257 billion in 2014 and is expected to surpass 1.1 billion subscribers in 2020 with a CAGR 2.7 percent," said Jake Saunders, VP and practice director at ABI Research . Cable and terrestrial TV markets had weaker growth rates in 2014 compared to satellite and IPTV platforms. However, high definition (HD) penetration is increasing across all pay-TV platforms because of the increasing number of HD cha...

To be totally honest, the introduction of 3D television was an anticlimax. Moreover, the initial forecasts for the upcoming adoption of 4K or Ultra-HD video were overly optimistic. While 4K will ultimately reach the mainstream consumer, it will remain a small niche market for at least another five years, with widespread viewing of 4K content arriving around 2019, according to the latest market study by TDG Research.. TDG says that short-term viewership of 4K video will be mostly driven by consumer purchases of new smart TVs with 4K functionality. However, the adoption of 4K televisions will occur more slowly than many believe due to poor consumer awareness, high prices, and lack of 4K video content. That being said, the emergence of 4K-enabled devices will help to fill this gap, over time. For example, TDG predicts that set top boxes (iSTBs) from companies like Amazon, Apple, and Roku will join smart TVs in supporting 4K streaming from over-the-top (OTT) streaming video servi...

Here in the United States, when high-definition television sets were first introduced in the marketplace there was a very limited supply of HD video content available. Moreover, even today, most American pay-TV service providers still offer a modest amount of HD-quality live broadcast or archived video content. Ironically, if you're interested in access to an abundance of better quality high resolution video content, streaming it from the Internet (as an example, via HBO GO) or using a Blu-ray disc player is still the best approach for HDTV owners. So, what's the overall market outlook? According to the latest market study by ABI Research, 4K or Ultra HD is the future -- but it's going to be a market development marathon, not a sprint to higher resolutions. And, while 1080p TV screens are the norm and mobile screen resolutions continue to climb, plenty of streamed HD content is still distributed in 720p or lower. Over-the-top (OTT) video entertainment services such ...