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...

According to the findings from a recent study, Connected TV devices are now in nearly two-thirds of all television households within the U.S. market. There are already more connected TV devices in U.S. households than there are pay-TV set-top boxes. Leichtman Research Group (LRG) finds that 65 percent of American TV households have at least one television set connected to the Internet via a video game system, a smart TV set, a Blu-ray player, and/or a stand-alone device -- that's up from 44 percent in 2013, and 24 percent in 2010. Connected TV Market Development Results Among those with any connected TV devices, 74 percent have more than one device, with a mean of 3.3 per connected TV household. Those with a connected TV generally find them to be easy to use: 70 percent of all with a connected TV agree (8-10 on a 1-10 scale) that streaming services like Netflix are easy to access via connected TV devices, while 12 percent disagree (1-3). The LRG study also found that 7...

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...

People who view long-form video content on their mobile devices appreciate the new higher resolution displays. Quad HD (2K) screens currently occupy the premium end of the smartphone market. According to the latest market study by ABI Research, by 2015 we will likely see Ultra HD (4K) capable mobile devices. Mobile devices with 4K screens are forecast to reach 478 million units by 2019. This resolution race, however, is more about marketing and differentiation than user experience, given current video content that's availability. Considering the relatively close proximity of the screen to the user it is possible for some consumers to see and benefit from these higher resolutions, but differences are incremental and not dramatic for most consumers. "While some content owners and broadcasters have or are preparing to launch 4K programming, video resolution delivered to mobile devices will continue to lag behind screen pixel densities," said Michael Inouye, senior anal...

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 ...

Following a relatively flat three-year period, the global pay-TV set-top box (STB) market managed to achieve the highest annual revenue total in its history during 2013, setting the stage for continued growth through 2015, according to the latest market study by IHS. Worldwide digital STB shipment revenue last year totaled $20.3 billion -- that's up 3 percent from $19.6 billion in 2012. Revenue will set new highs during the next two years and will peak at $22.8 billion in 2015. This follows the period from 2010 through 2012 when revenue remained in the $19.5 billion range. "Set-top boxes proved to be critical to the strategies of pay-TV operators in 2013," said Daniel Simmons, director for research at IHS . Growth in 2013 was mainly driven by multimedia home gateways (MHG) reaching large scale in North America. MHGs are being used by service providers to transition from a legacy broadcast-based pay-TV experience to one that is Internet-centric and better positio...

Worldwide video on demand (VOD) rentals from over the top (OTT) and pay TV operators, electronic sell-through (EST), and DVD or Blu-ray disc sales are expected to increase by 40 percent from 2013 to 2019 -- growing from $30.6 billion in 2013 to over $43 billion by 2019. Physical media sales will continue its decline, while OTT VOD services and ad-based viewing take significant market share from combined physical purchases and EST, according to the latest market study by ABI Research. "New content windowing strategies, such as early VOD and EST release dates, will continue to push consumers to these distribution channels. In addition as pay-TV operators increasingly pursue OTT initiatives the consumers will further migrate to digital distribution," said Michael Inouye, senior analyst at ABI Research . Despite this trend, physical media will continue to play a significant role for many consumers, particularly for those who have extensive DVD or Blu-ray libraries, purchase...

As consumer electronics and video entertainment industry analysts are preparing to descend upon Las Vegas once again, to attend the International CES next week, perhaps now is the perfect time to consider the outlook for the evolving pay-TV sector. Infonetics Research has released excerpts from its latest global market study and associated report, which tracks pay-TV subscribers and video equipment sold to telco IPTV, cable and satellite television service providers. "Pay-TV providers are sweating their existing encoding assets as they wait for the next generation of platforms that support HEVC (high efficiency video coding) so they can reduce current bandwidth requirements while preparing for ultra-definition TV, such as 4K," said Jeff Heynen, principal analyst for broadband access and pay-TV at Infonetics Research . According to the Infonetics global market assessment, demand for contribution encoders among broadcasters will remain steady through 2017, with increases ...

Despite the high expectations for the entry of OLED (organic light emitting diode) displays into the television market during 2012, these TV sets will likely now only be available in very small quantities by the end of this year. With 55" OLED TV demonstrations featured at CES in January 2012, commercial products were expected in time for the Olympics in August. But as the year progressed, the possibility of commercialization in 2012 was being questioned -- due to mass production challenges and expected high retail prices. In September, OLED TVs were once again demonstrated at IFA in Berlin, and even at some local retailers, but were still not commercially available. According to the latest market study by NPD DisplaySearch, OLED TV panel makers and set manufacturers are still forecasting that at least 500 OLED TVs will ship in 2012. While this is a very small quantity in comparison to the total TV market, the start of shipments will be an important breakthrough. OLED T...

After struggling in 2011 with a challenging market environment, due to sliding demand and price erosion, 2012 marks a year of recovery for the flat panel display (FPD) industry. According to the latest market study by NPD DisplaySearch, worldwide FPD revenues will reach $120 billion in 2012 -- that's up 8 percent from $111 billion in 2011, and exceeding 2010 revenues. Among the various FPD technologies, TFT LCD accounts for the majority of revenues at $107.7 billion in 2012, up from $99.4 billion in 2011. However, AMOLED displays once again showed the strongest Y/Y growth, as manufacturing capacity and market players continue to expand. However, with the exception of LCOS (liquid crystal on silicon, a form of microdisplay) all other display technologies, including plasma and passive matrix forms of LCD and OLED, are declining in 2012. In a sharp reversal, AMEPD (active matrix electrophoretic display), which is used in monochrome e-readers, swung from strong growth in 2011 to ...

An OLED (organic light-emitting diode) is a semiconductor where the emissive electroluminescent layer is a film of organic compound which emits light in response to an electric current. OLEDs are now being used to create digital television screens. ​However, OLED TVs are expected to comprise less than 1 percent of flat panel TV sales through at least 2013, reaching 9 percent of the shipped units by 2017. In contrast, LED/LCD TVs, which often offer thinner form factors and less power consumption over traditional (CCFL) LCD TVs, are expected to grow from 35 percent of the market in 2011 to 75 percent in 2017. This year OLED TVs from Samsung and LG are expected to cost well over $5,000 (likely closer to $10,000) at sizes less than 60” -- Sony and Panasonic are partnering to release larger screen OLED TVs in 2013. At these relatively high prices consumers are challenged with selecting picture quality and form factor over size -- consider that an equivalent sized LED TV costs thousa...

According to the latest market study by Infonetics Research, the increased adoption of connected consumer electronics devices -- and various other Internet-enabled devices within the home -- creates exponential demand for high-speed local area networks. "Media tablets, connected TVs, digital media players, and a growing list of other devices are driving sales of home networking devices, and this is nowhere more apparent than in North America, which captured 37 percent of networking device revenue in 2011," notes Jeff Heynen, directing analyst for broadband access and video at Infonetics Research . Infonetics has forecast that the demand for broadband peripherals -- especially those with integrated MoCA chips -- will continue to increase globally as broadband service providers in all regions launch new home automation, energy management, entertainment, and communications services that require high-end networking devices. I anticipate that the upside for new high-speed...

As the number of consumer electronic (CE) devices and their capabilities continue to evolve and converge, many require significantly more communication bandwidth to provide the quality interactive experience users have come to expect. SuperSpeed USB brings significant performance enhancements to the ubiquitous USB standard, while remaining compatible with the billions of USB-enabled devices currently deployed in the market. The additional throughput is required to accommodate the need to transfer large digital media files between devices. According to the latest market study by NPD In-Sta t, they now forecast that SuperSpeed USB-enabled device shipments are on a fast track and will surpass 1 billion in 2014, that's up from 70 million in 2011. "Because the throughput of SuperSpeed USB, ten times that of high-speed USB, is not required in some devices, adoption will not initially be as broad as for full- and high-speed USB," says Brian O’Rourke, Research Director at N...

As High-Definition (HD) video reached its stride worldwide, the TV and film industry are now looking ahead to the next new digital video innovation. 3D TV and Ultra-HD (UHD) are on the horizon, according to the latest market study by In-Stat . 3D video is already out of the gate, with growing proliferation of 3D films in movie theaters. Pay-TV operators are in the early stages of deploying 3D TV capability. Early 3D TV sets and 3D Blu-Ray players will ship in 2010. In-Stat projects worldwide 3D TV shipments will reach 41 million in 2014. 3D Blu-ray player shipments will track closely with 3D TV sets. UHD will take considerably longer to roll out, but has started to garner interest and discussion among long-term planners in the TV, film and technology industries. In-Stat believes the first UHD broadcasts will start around 2017. UHD TVs will reach about 5 percent household penetration in some regional markets in the early 2020s. Technology companies, broadcast systems vendors and consum...

While the market for High-Definition TV (HDTV) has apparently reached the mainstream user, the consumer electronics industry has already started speculating about the commercialization of Ultra-High Definition (UHD) television. Perhaps we'll learn more at the upcoming CES in January. One question that I have, when will there be enough 4k and 8k resolution cameras in the hands of filmmakers and TV producers to create the required UHD video content for this format? In-Stat believes there will be a lengthy time period before the UHD market reaches a critical mass of 5 percent household penetration. However, as the initial market debuts over the next five to ten years, there will be ample opportunities for technology companies, manufacturers, service providers and media companies to experiment with business models and strategies to make UHD a strong business in the long term. "UHD formats provide between four and sixteen times the resolution of Blu-ray or 1080p high definition as...