2014 Global Digital Media - Smart TV, Digital TV and IPTV Trends

In the digital media revolution, consumer choice is the key

The digital TV and video broadcasting industry has changed beyond recognition and it continues to evolve. Consumer habits are shifting from broadcast TV to on-demand content – especially streaming. Traditional TV viewing is increasingly facing competition from other viewing platforms such as smart phones, tablets, and Smart TVs.

Choice is the key. Broadcasters are no longer in charge of the global viewing habits of consumers, who have the choice of, and the ability to access, an enormous amount of movie and TV series content through internet broadband.

Pay TV across the various platforms – including cable TV, IPTV, and satellite TV – continues to rise in popularity, and this trend is reflected in the market’s increasing service revenues. IPTV is the fastest-growing pay TV platform from a global perspective.

Video applications over broadband are being used by many different industries for advertising, marketing, demonstration, entertainment and communication purposes. Online video streaming already makes up the largest component of internet traffic, and is set to continue growing faster than other digital formats.

Streaming video providers face increasing competition as more and more companies enter this extremely promising market. The most successful of these has been US-based Netflix. Since 2010, it has been gradually expanding outside of its domestic market, and has seen its international subscriber base triple between 2012 and 2014.

Besides commercially produced media, users are producing their own videos to share their interests with like-minded people. YouTube proved early on that watching videos on the internet, particularly free user-generated videos, could be hugely popular, and this trend is continuing to grow.

Mobile TV/video is forecast to grow strongly, although not quite as dramatically as initially expected. Due to poor data allowance and steep prices, users tend to watch mobile video over WiFi more than over a cellular network.

The ‘triple play’ concept comprises fixed voice, video and data applications – all delivered over one single access subscription. Many companies also offer ‘quadruple play’, in which mobile voice services are added into the equation. Bundled offers are very popular in parts of Europe, particularly in France, Italy, and the Netherlands. A number of countries in Asia are also leading multi-play developments.

Spending on advertising using digital media channels is continuing to grow in market share despite economic conditions slowing down the growth of overall advertising spending. In 2014 the advertising sector is focused on the future opportunities offered by multi-screen developments. In other words, a cross-marketing approach involving multiple devices including TV, touchscreen tablets, computers, laptops, mobile phones etc. In addition, advertisers and content developers/providers are eyeing off the potential opportunities offered by the Over-The-Top (OTT) content distributed by Smart TVs. Digital marketing as a whole remains a growth area, as marketers shift towards these types of advertising methods at the expense of traditional formats.

Data in this report is the latest available at the time of preparation and may not be for the current year