Digital Lifescapes

Key findings from a new video entertainment survey outline the increasing popularity of original content, and a growing trend of paying for multiple video services. According to the latest 451 Research market study, 19 percent of streaming video subscribers are paying for three or more services -- that's up 4 points over the previous year. These streaming enthusiasts are creating their own bundles of video services, starting with Netflix (95 percent) and Amazon Video (82 percent) then adding a combination of subscription and a-la-carte platforms such as Hulu, HBO Now and iTunes. Netflix and Amazon Lead the Market Among all survey respondents who pay for a streaming service, 79 percent say they subscribe to Netflix and 53 percent to Amazon Video. That said, Amazon Video continues to be the growth story, up 5 points over the past year. Access to movies (50 percent) is the top reason why consumers pay for streaming video services; viewing complete seasons of TV shows (45 perce...

Historically, people have disliked digital rights management (DRM) systems that are imposed on them by the entertainment industry. Regardless, the ongoing concern over digital video piracy has motivated big media companies -- such as Warner Bros. -- to pioneer new approaches. The latest effort is known as UltraViolet (UV) -- it's intended to restrict the copying of recorded movies and television shows, and yet still allow some flexibility for the customer who purchased the content. The industry creators say that UltraViolet is a free, cloud-based digital rights collection that gives people greater flexibility with how and where they watch the movies and TV shows that they purchase. Therefore, UV attempts to enable viewing video in a multi-platform environment. According to the latest market study by ABI Research, active UltraViolet accounts -- those with multiple movies and TV shows -- will exceed 65 million worldwide, that's up from the estimated 6 to 8 million at presen...

According to The NPD Group, although viewing movies through new low-cost Internet video on demand (iVOD) subscription services is making significant inroads with a savvy group of informed Americans, legacy cable TV companies are still the first choice for on-demand per-use movie rentals. Led by Comcast in the first half of 2012, 48 percent of all paid video-on-demand (VOD) movie rentals were generated from traditional cable TV service providers. With a 24 percent rental-order growth rate year-over-year, telco VOD is the fastest growing segment of the VOD market, outpacing even the iVOD growth rate of 15 percent. Note, the NPD research refers only to movie rentals that are paid for upon rental -- subscription video rentals and video purchases were not included in this market study. "When it comes to paying for on-demand movies on an a-la-carte basis, cable companies are by far the primary conduit, due in large part to their widespread penetration and usage in Americans’ ...

The U.S. pay-TV market had an adoption rate that service providers in other nations would envy. For the longest time it seemed that the only way to go was up. The incumbent's quest for more channels was coupled with the desire to add new features like optional pay-per-view offerings and DVR capabilities in set-top boxes. The result: upward trending subscriber growth -- with a corresponding increased revenue and profit. Meanwhile, all the status-quo players supported a perpetual increase in the ongoing cost of sporting event programming. The assumption was that these high-cost sports channels would be subsidized by the masses. Everyone had to pay the price -- including subscribers that rarely or never watched ESPN. The video entertainment ecosystem was tightly controlled by the business development needs of a few large media companies. Others in the ecosystem had to adapt to their demands -- therefore most complied. Nobody seemed to care that the fundamental business models were...

The early expectations of 3D TV were clearly exaggerated, while current press coverage laments the fact that 3D television has not lived up to its promise. The reality is somewhere between the two extremes. 3D channels have been launched in North America, Europe, and Asia in 2010. More will come in 2011. In addition to linear TV channels, 3D content is being made widely available on pay-TV providers VOD systems. Those who are experimenting with 3D VOD now are expected to make linear 3D channels available as well. The result is an anticipated increase in the number of 3D TV channels to over 100 by 2015, according to the latest market study by In-Stat . "Pay-TV providers around the globe who have HD systems in place have jumped on the 3D content being made available to them at a faster rate than many had expected," says Michelle Abraham, Principal Analyst at In-Stat. Many took advantage of the World Cup 3D coverage to test transmission of 3D over their networks, and som...

Worldwide pre-recorded Blu-ray video disc production is on track to exceed 400 million units in 2010, an increase of nearly 60 percent compared with 2009, according to the latest market study by Futuresource Consulting . When factoring in PS3 titles, overall BD production volumes are somewhat higher. "Moving forward we expect to see continued expansion in BD video production volumes, with our forecasts indicating that annual global output will reach two billion discs by 2014," says Michael Boreham, Senior Consultant at Futuresource Consulting. The BD replication industry has seen capacity utilization improve markedly during 2010. As a result of this output expansion, BD capacity utilisation will hit nearly 80 percent in the U.S. market during Q4 of this year and 75 percent in Europe. This is about as high as it can comfortably get, and given the continued market expansion expected over the next few years, which is being driven by growing player ownership and falling d...

Innovative leaders in the over-the-top (OTT) video market are positioning themselves for what is anticipated to be a high-growth market with multi-billion dollar revenue streams, according to the latest market study by In-Stat . As an example, companies such as Netflix , Blockbuster, Wal-Mart, Best Buy, YouTube, and Hulu are all vying for market share growth in the U.S. marketplace. While these American companies may be leading the field today, it's clear that the ongoing transition in video entertainment distribution is a global phenomenon. "OTT video is happening now, with over 37 million broadband households in the U.S. downloading online video content," says Keith Nissen, In-Stat analyst. "The growing adoption of both OTT video consumption and web-enabled consumer electronics promises to further expand the opportunity content producers and OTT retailers." In-Stat says that they define "Over-the-top" as any video content delivered via a broadb...

The world of advertising is changing dramatically with shifts in consumer behavior and growing online and pay TV video-on-demand (VOD) services, according to the latest market study by In-Stat . These shifts among others are creating a growing market for advanced video advertising, which In-Stat forecasts will approach $5 billion by 2013. Online VoD services, such as Hulu, CBS Interactive and ABC.com, are already driving growing advanced advertising revenue across their platforms. During the next five years, Pay-TV approaches to advanced advertising tied to popular TV shows, videos, movies and music content will come into their own. "The online VoD industry has the early lead for delivering Advanced Video Advertising, but the Pay-TV industry is moving quickly and will surpass broadband VOD by 2012," says Gerry Kaufhold, In-Stat analyst. Because Pay-TV services deliver qualified, repeatable audiences, we can expect them to be able to negotiate higher Cost per Thousand (CPM) fe...

According to the latest market study by Ipsos , recent survey data indicates that younger U.S. consumers (age 18-34) are particularly interested in enjoying 3D video content on consumer electronics (CE) devices -- such as a TV or PC. "Given the broad-based declines in consumer fortunes caused by the Great Recession, entertainment-focused firms have huge motivation to identify the next new thing to drive demand," explains Todd Board, Senior Vice President at Ipsos MediaCT. Because interest in 3D content skews young, and also male, there's a compelling connection between the appeal of 3D video content and the kinds of highly immersive videogames that this group also favors. This same 18-34 market segment also reported the highest intention to buy an HDTV in the next 3 months. "While we can't directly equate holiday season HDTV purchase intent with more broad-based 3D video market potential, we do see the confluence among 18-34 consumers as an important milestone,...

Americans with Internet access are streaming more TV shows and movies than ever before. Recent data from an Ipsos market study illustrates that in the past 30 days, 26 percent of online Americans have streamed a full-length TV show and 14 percent have streamed a full-length movie. This is more than two times the levels measured in September 2008. Not surprisingly, young adults 18 to 24 years of age have been the most ardent supporters of this medium. What is surprising is just how supportive they are -- in the past 30 days, 30 percent have streamed a full-length movie and 51 percent have streamed a full-length TV show, which represent dramatic increases from last year. The rapid rise in longer form video streaming can be attributed to the swift growth of many digital video OTT websites since last year. Hulu, in particular, has experienced heightened exposure and visitation, and has helped pioneer the transition to ad-supported free streaming of TV shows and movies. Now that the ad-supp...

The Hollywood film business achieved a 7.8 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) in the decade ended in 2005, but for the next decade Kagan Research sees CAGR decelerating. Annual increases for most of the next 10 years will be in line with recent inflation rates of 1.9-3.0 percent, although 2007 and 2008 are expected to be above that 10-year average. With the downshift, the growth engine moves from home video -- the industry mainstay since the DVD format was introduced during 1996 in Japan -- to TV media today. Kagan estimates Hollywood theatrical films generated $47.2 billion in global sales in 2005 to all media -- cinema, video, TV and merchandising. The figure excludes direct-to-video and other non-theatrical filmed entertainment, such as TV programs. The Upside Revenue Opportunities According to Kagan, the smallish revenue category of International Pay-Per-View/Hotel/Airline will achieve a 21.5 percent CAGR from 2006-2015 for the biggest percentage gain, and blossom into a $1...