Digital Lifescapes

The global streaming industry has spent the better part of a decade chasing subscriber counts as the primary metric of success. That era is now formally over. New market data from Omdia confirms that the industry has crossed a decisive threshold; one that shifts the competitive playing field from growth-at-all-costs to monetization discipline. For senior executives navigating media, advertising, and technology strategy, the implications extend well beyond entertainment. A Historic Revenue Crossover Online video revenue increased 13.5 percent to $176 billion in 2025, while pay-TV revenue declined 4 percent to $170 billion; marking the first time in the industry's history that streaming has surpassed legacy pay-TV in revenue terms. This is not a rounding error or a statistical artifact; it represents the culmination of more than a decade of structural disruption to the traditional broadcast and cable TV model. Global subscriptions to online video services reached 2.24 billion by the ...

As new app demand grows, we're witnessing a surge in mobile data traffic.  This trend, driven by the proliferation of bandwidth-intensive services such as video streaming, augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and next-generation cloud applications, is reshaping the telecommunications industry. According to the latest market study by ABI Research, global mobile data traffic is set to triple by 2030, challenging network operators to keep pace with this escalating demand and evolving user expectations. Mobile Data Market Development The exponential growth in mobile data usage is a function of more devices being connected -- it also reflects fundamental shifts in how mobile subscribers and enterprises use technology. The ubiquity of smartphones, the rise of the Internet of Things (IoT), and the adoption of immersive digital experiences are all contributing to this surge in mobile data. Mobile network operators now find themselves at the center of a data-driven economy, where t...

The subscription business model has been one of the big success stories of the Internet era. From Netflix to Microsoft 365, more and more companies are moving towards recurring revenue streams by having customers pay for access rather than product ownership. The subscription economy cuts across many industries -- such as streaming services, software, media, consumer products, and even transportation with the rise of mobility-as-a-service. A new market study by Juniper Research highlights the central challenge facing subscription businesses -- reducing customer churn to build a loyal subscriber installed base. Subscription Model Market Development The Juniper market study provides an in-depth analysis of the subscription business model market landscape and associated customer retention strategies. A key finding is that impending government regulations will make it easier for customers to cancel subscriptions, likely leading to increased voluntary churn rates. The study report cites the...

Wireless communications technology applications will gain new momentum in 2022. Looking ahead, wireless device connectivity innovations such as Wi-Fi 6 and Ultra-Wideband (UWB) technology adoption will accelerate new growth. According to the latest worldwide market study by ABI Research, next year Wi-Fi 6 will reach over 1.5 billion annual chipset shipments, while 6 GHz enabled Wi-Fi 6E chipsets are forecasted to nearly triple. Meanwhile, Ultra-Wideband devices are expected to reach nearly half-a-billion units as adoption increases within smartphones, wearables, speakers, personal trackers, and RTLS applications. Wireless Innovation Market Development "The wireless connectivity landscape continues to evolve thanks to the emergence of new technologies, enhancements to established technologies, and continued innovation and competition across the chipset, module and device ecosystems," said Andrew Zignani, research director at ABI Research . 2022 will be a critical year for wire...

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...

Streaming video entertainment services, such as those available from Netflix and Amazon, have already had a significant impact on the pay-TV sector in North America. As a result, European pay-TV operators that witnessed this disruption are eager to consider options that would enable them to transform their business. Amazon Video has announced it will be launching its Amazon Streaming Partners Program (ASPP) in Europe. Amazon operates a platform business model for video; it provides flexible video entertainment services to consumers and content rights holders, plus it's already present in every part of the value chain. Amazon is becoming a credible and more direct competitor to pay-TV service providers, despite not competing with core live content, according to the findings from the latest market study by Analysys Mason. Pay-TV Market Development in Europe This platform business model allows video content owners to offer their own subscriptions through Amazon Video, instead ...

Reports of the doubling in audio and video related mobile network traffic within 2015 highlights the fact that the demand for multimedia entertainment on smartphones and media tablets continues to grow. Meanwhile, revelations of Internet spying by governments, and content vendors worried about the quality of the consumer experience, are driving the mobile communications industry toward end-to-end encryption of more data traffic. According to the latest worldwide market study by ABI Research, apps enabled with content encryption eliminated nearly 60 percent of the traditional video and audio optimization market in 2015. Streaming Media Market Development Moving forward, telecom operators and vendors need to make significant operational moves to protect network performance and create a competitive advantage with streaming media entertainment. "With encryption here to stay, network operators need new tools to manage mobile broadband traffic," said Joe Hoffman, vice pre...

Why are traditional pay-TV services being disrupted by alternative lower-cost video entertainment services? Perhaps it's due to the apparent ease-of-use in searching for something to watch. Or, maybe it's the variety of video consumption options, as well as the huge depth of available television series and movie content. Whatever the primary reason, and despite the widespread availability of inexpensive ancillary online video streaming devices, 32 percent of over-the-top (OTT) TV Users still prefer having the native connectivity of a Smart TV set. This finding is according to data from the latest TDG market study, a survey of 2,000 U.S. adult broadband users -- 60 percent of which use an OTT video streaming service on their home television set. Streaming Online Video Device Preference  When asked which TV streaming platform they prefer, 32 percent of OTT TV Users selected their smart TV. Interestingly, this is pretty much equal to the penetration of smart TVs in general...

Historically, the Grammys event is an annual celebration of songwriter and performing artist accomplishments during the course of the year. It's not usually an event where copyright reform becomes the focal point, or where honorees air their concerns about the state of the music industry. But times have changed. The transition to digital content production and online streaming distribution has disrupted various parts of the entertainment sector -- with the overall recorded music market still adapting to the big changes that have impacted the prior status-quo. The consumption of music on mobile devices is the key trend to watch. It's a huge market. Strategy Analytics says that the total global mobile music market value will grow from $12.8 billion in 2014 to reach $21.3 billion by 2021. New growth will be driven by the combined effect of the dominance of mobile music streaming -- both paid subscription and ad-funded free listening -- in all markets, the transition from phy...

As more over-the-top (OTT) video is consumed by Americans in their homes, this trend has created a positive upside for certain types of consumer electronics -- in particular, streaming media players. Moreover, low-cost on-demand access to video entertainment has disrupted the legacy pay-TV industry. By the first quarter of 2017, 40 percent of U.S. Internet homes will have a streaming media player, bringing the total number of homes with these devices to 39 million, according to the latest market study by NPD Group. At the beginning of 2014 (Q1) only 16 percent of U.S. Internet homes had a streaming media player. Ownership is on track to climb to nearly one-quarter of homes, 24 percent, by Q1 2015 when consumers report device ownership that takes into account their holiday purchases. In its infancy, the streaming media player market was driven by growth from Apple and Roku, but over the past year and a half Amazon and Google have made a significant impact. In addition to streami...

The spectrum of possibilities for device applications within the Internet of Things (IoT) may be limited more by our own imagination than any other factor. As an example, consider the variety of demonstrations for small drone aircraft technology at the International CES 2015 this week in Las Vegas. Imagine capturing live video from a drone aircraft and streaming it over the internet, via a 4G LTE wireless network connection. This is just one of the emerging applications for this new technology category. The Small Unmanned Arial Systems (sUAS) market  -- that's the formal name for a class of drones -- will surpass $8.4 billion by 2018, according to the latest worldwide market study by ABI Research. By 2019, the Commercial sector will dominate the overall sUAS market with revenues exceeding $5.1 billion (that's a 51 percent CAGR from 2014 to 2019), or roughly five times larger than the Prosumer/Hobby market, and 2.3x greater than the Military/Civil market segment. Moreove...

Once again, the recorded music industry is at a pivotal juncture in their evolution. The recent recording artist royalty disputes with Spotify has intensified concern about the economic viability of streaming music subscription services. The latest market study by Strategy Analytics found that despite continuous growth in adoption of music streaming services, current providers are having difficulty turning music streaming into a profit. Given the ongoing financial challenges with this business model, the resolution is still unclear. "Technology is evolving and changing the way consumers discover, listen to, share, and interact with music, but it is also a significant factor in the decline of music industry revenues. Many artists feel they are under compensated by streaming services, but as currently structured the underlying economics won't support higher royalty payments by these service, particularly for free ad-supported services" said Leika Kawasaki, analyst at St...

Consumption of on-demand streaming video continues to grow in American homes, at the expense of broadcast TV viewership. According to the latest market study by Parks Associates, the average U.S. broadband household now watches more than 17 hours of non-linear video per week, compared to 11.5 hours of linear video. The research firm has examined the market for over-the-top (OTT) video entertainment services and streaming media devices and made some assumptions about the key trends shaping consumer demand. "Non-linear video accounts for 49 percent of the video consumed on the TV, and it is already the majority, 60 percent, of TV video viewed by consumers 18-24," said Barbara Kraus, director of research at Parks Associates . Growing consumer demand, alongside new OTT service announcements from HBO and CBS, is driving all players in the video ecosystem to add streaming capabilities to their devices. The negative impact on legacy pay-TV services is likely to be very signifi...

Worldwide ownership of Connected TV Devices -- including smart TVs, smart blu-ray players, IP-enabled game consoles and digital media streamers -- grew 7 percent quarter-on-quarter in Q2 2014 and 34 percent versus the same period in 2013 to reach 500 million units. The growing demand for devices that facilitate the streaming of online video to the large screen TV is creating a highly competitive environment with no fewer than 16 major technology brands accounting for 90 percent of devices in use, according to the latest global market study by Strategy Analytics. Connected TV Devices fulfill a growing consumer desire to access over-the-top (OTT) video content on the big screen within the home. While Game Console vendors and the major TV brands have the largest footprint of such devices, other companies -- such as Apple, Google and Amazon -- are starting to build up a significant base of lower cost media streaming boxes and dongles from which they can tap into the online TV audienc...

The total over-the-top (OTT) video revenue in Europe was up 51 percent in 2013 reaching $3.2 billion and is expected to grow a further 43 percent this year, according to the latest market study by Strategy Analytics. They predict that the majority of this new growth will occur within the online subscription VOD (SVOD) and ad-supported video business models, lifting the market above $9.45 billion by year-end 2018. The growth of OTT video suggests that the audience is shifting towards accessibility and availability over actual ownership of home videos on DVD or Blu-ray discs. "Over time, consumers will shift from content ownership to lower cost means of consuming media. As long as OTT services providers continue to offer attractive video catalogs at a reasonable price, accessibility and availability will trump ownership," said Leika Kawasaki, digital media analyst at Strategy Analytics . The success or failure of OTT video services is heavily dependent upon the quality ...

The low-cost set-top boxes used with over-the-top video entertainment services, such as Netflix and Hulu, were instrumental in early market development -- prior to the availability of internet-enabled Smart TV sets. Market demand is still strong. Streaming media players were added to 6 million American homes over the past year, increasing ownership penetration to 17 percent of U.S. Internet households in the second quarter (Q2) of 2014, according to the latest market study by The NPD Group. Moreover, streaming media player ownership is expected to increase to 39 percent of U.S. Internet households by the beginning of 2017. The current, and future, penetration increases are being driven by three main factors; more brands in the market, more software apps, and lower device prices. "In its infancy, the streaming media player market had two major players driving growth; Apple and Roku – now we have four relevant hardware manufacturers with the addition of Amazon Fire TV and Go...

There have been many attempts to define cloud computing over the years. The abstract notion of something being placed in a 'cloud' somewhere on the Internet can be puzzling. Regardless, for mainstream consumers, the cloud brings with it a level of flexibility unmatched by anything that came before it. In particular, where broadband service providers have established ecosystems of products, the cloud enables seamless interaction, which in turn has raised the bar in terms of what consumers expect from products today -- although most consumers are unaware of it, this convenience is driven by the cloud. Juniper Research forecasts that the number of unique consumers accessing cloud-based services will exceed 3.6 billion by 2018, rising from an estimated 2.4 billion in 2013. The findings from their market study highlight that an expanding group of connected services within cloud-based storage, music and games will drive consumer demand over the next five years. Streaming Mus...

It's coming soon, to a moving vehicle near you. 4G LTE is about to have a significant impact on the adoption of telematics services -- due to network stability and coverage. It's estimated that 76 percent of automotive industry executives expect all new vehicles to be 'telematics connected' by 2022. 4G Americas announced that there are currently 225 commercial LTE networks in 85 countries worldwide. Based on mobile network service provider commitments, that number will increase to more than 464 LTE networks in the coming years. Particularly in the North American, LTE is becoming mainstream -- where coverage in the U.S. market is now nationwide. "The U.S. has emerged as the worldwide leader in LTE connections and innovations are being developed to keep future LTE networks efficient, effective, fast and reliable," said Vicki Livingston, head of communications at 4G Americas. But thus far, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) have taken a piecemeal ap...

No to be confused with the typical 'dumb' set-top box devices used by the legacy pay-TV sector, innovative new devices are being introduced into the global streaming video entertainment marketplace. Creative hardware design and imaginative software user experience enhancements will transform this product category. According to the latest market study by ABI Research, the smart set-top box and dongle market is expected to pass 18 million units in 2013 -- that's higher than originally forecast, due to the arrival of the Google Chromecast. Overall the market is expected to grow with a 10.8 percent CAGR (from 2013 to 2018) with less saturated and developing -- from a new product perspective -- markets like Asia-Pacific and Latin America helping drive this growth. "Despite stiff competition from a range of connected consumer electronics (CE) devices, the smart set-top box and dongle market offers an equally compelling user experience often at significantly lower price...

Fans of recorded music that are already paying for on-demand streaming services will total 29 million people worldwide at the end of 2013, according to the latest market study by ABI Research. Accounting for 32 percent of the premium music service subscribers, Spotify is expected to close the year as the leader -- trailed by Deezer, SK Telecom’s MelOn, and rounded out by Rhapsody and Sony. Moreover, the high-growth cloud music services subscriber base is forecasted to reach 191 million by the end of 2018. "The past two years have seen a remarkable international expansion of streaming as a distribution model, but in terms of its long-term potential we’re still only scratching the surface," said Aapo Markkanen, senior analyst at ABI Research . That’s also something to stress when discussing the role of cloud music services as a potential source of recording artist income. At end-2013 the cumulative revenue from premium service subscriptions will amount to less than $5...