Pay TV households may increase to one billion by 2018

The growing pay TV subscriber market is set to drive further investment into the technology underpinning multi-screen and OTT TV services as the global multi-screen landscape continues to evolve.

Digital TV Research predicts that the number of households that subscribe to pay TV will reach almost one billion by 2018. 

Combined with the trend of consumers watching more long-form content on tablets and smartphones, this growth in pay TV customers will signal a further surge in multi-screen offerings as operators look to capitalise on demand, offering added value to keep and attract new subscribers.

With competition increasing in the online video market, operators are often trapped by the complexity and pressure of implementing a successful multi-screen strategy.

 International entertainment broadcasting company Modern Times Group (MTG) recently reported a 25 per cent reduction in direct-to-home subscriptions; but increased subscriptions to their OTT services such as Viaplay more than compensated for this. With increasingly high consumer expectations of a quality user experience, new devices continually coming to market, evolving piracy threats and stringent content owner security requirements, many are still struggling to deliver a compelling, revenue-generating multi-screen experience.

However, operators can no longer afford to view multi-screen as a defensive play or an experiment. Multi-screen fundamentally changes the way consumers experience media, and an offensive strategy actually propels business forward and provides a compelling alternative to new market entrants and pirated content.

 With all of these pressures and challenges, a report by the Europe-based Irdeto quoted by Convergence Plus sees four key building blocks to making multi-screen work successfully.

Source: http://cablequest.org/news/technology-news/item/3993-pay-tv-households-may-increase-to-one-billion-by-2018.htmlSource: http://cablequest.org/news/technology-news/item/3993-pay-tv-households-may-increase-to-one-billion-by-2018.html