Pay-TV Operators Look to Second-Screen Apps and Enhanced DVR

CAMPBELL, CA - In a growing number of markets, pay-TV providers are finding under attack as telco IPTV providers, over-the-top (OTT) providers, and consumer electronics companies continue to divert revenue away from them.

This is according to the latest findings from Infonetics Research in its "Multiscreen TV Service Strategies and Vendor Leadership: Global Service Provider Survey," which provides insights into pay-TV operators' plans for multiscreen video services and delivering live and file-based video content to subscribers with multiple devices. Infonetics Research is an international market research and consulting firm serving the communications industry

"In a growing number of markets, pay-TV providers find themselves at a crossroads," notes Jeff Heynen, principal analyst for broadband access and pay TV at Infonetics Research. "Their traditional business models are under attack as telco IPTV providers, over-the-top (OTT) providers, and consumer electronics companies - Netflix, LOVEFiLM, Amazon, Hulu, Apple, Samsung, and others - continue to divert revenue away from them."

"Pay-TV operators are simultaneously grappling with how to address the desire among subscribers to take their content with them wherever they go, whenever they go," adds Heynen. "The net result is a major change in what equipment pay TV operators invest in to ingest, encode, transcode, and play out video content, as well as how they negotiate with content owners for the right to distribute content across multiple formats."

Multiscreen TV Survey Highlights

• Popularity due to the convergence happening in the living room between smartphones, tablets, and connected TVs


• For most pay-TV providers, the tablet has become the de facto second screen: 47 percent of respondent operators support tablets as part of their multiscreen service now, growing to 89 percent by 2015


• Apple's HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) currently leads video streaming protocols in use by respondents; however, Microsoft's Smooth Streaming closes in by 2015


• Among operator respondents, Cisco is the most familiar vendor of multiscreen video equipment and receives the highest rankings for a variety of criteria


• Multiscreen is still a relatively new service offering for many pay-TV operators, making it necessary for multiscreen equipment vendors to demonstrate the reliability of their products and provide support to customers