Craig will note that 79% of the US population now subscribes to "some sort of
pay TV service," while OTT subscriptions are at 78%, at least according to
Ooyala. Not exactly sure what that means, but it sounds like they mean MVPD
service. A bit of an apples and oranges comparison perhaps, but the trends are
respectively down and up.
According to Ooyala, "PwC said that its survey showed nearly 23% of pay-TV
subscribers trimmed the cord in the past year, and some 16% said they had
unsubscribed in the past year." - See more at:
https://www.ooyala.com/videomind/blog/will-2016-be-pay-tv-s-waterloo-new-pwc-survey-says#sthash.6dPshvgG.dpuf
So, the cord shaving phenomenon persists, still significantly outdoing all-out
cord cutting. The numbers don't appear to be slowing down, rather accelerating,
although hard to say for sure.
Another interesting factoid is that millenials, with their different viewing
habits, now outnumber boomers. Whoa.
"One quarter of Millennials without children currently don’t have cable.
'That’s all I need, that’s all I use, an Internet company,' one 25- to
34-year-old female told PwC. 'I don’t need cable because we have Netflix and
Amazon Prime.' Added another in the same demographic, 'Everything I would want
to watch on cable… you can get it all on Netflix.'” - See more at:
https://www.ooyala.com/videomind/blog/will-2016-be-pay-tv-s-waterloo-new-pwc-survey-says#sthash.6dPshvgG.dpuf
This goes to the question of whether OTT is just "a complement." Not
necessarily, not anymore.
Says that "traditional TV viewing" is now 45% of the total, not too different
from the 47% our last numbers claimed.
"Providers are working to raise TVE awareness and usage, cut friction through
streamlined authentication (including home-based), and improve personalization
and discovery among the multitude of TVE apps available. The industry has
further responded by forming marriages of convenience with OTT services like
Hulu to expand audiences and revenues. If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em." (This
is quoted from the Ooyala report whose link is at the bottom of the TV
Technology article.)
I totally agree with the "If you can't beat'em, join'em" sentiment, but clearly
TVE hasn't gone far enough to "join'em." Joining them means rethinking the
neighborhood restrictions and the mandatory proprietary infrastructure
connection. And I'm obviously not talking about the neutral broadband
infrastructure connection.
Nothing surprising here. Reversal of these trends would have been, though.
Bert
-------------------------------------
http://www.tvtechnology.com/news/0002/ooyala-sees-ott-as-gateway-to-broadcasts-future/278070
Ooyala Sees OTT as Gateway to Broadcast’s Future
Company releases second annual “State of the Broadcast Industry” report
March 2, 2016
By Michael Balderston
SANTA CLARA, CALIF.—The state of the broadcast industry rests on OTT, or at
least that is what video platform provider Ooyala claims in its second annual
“State of the Broadcast Industry” report. Over-the-Top services saw a raised
profile in 2015 and are becoming a necessary component for broadcasters big and
small, according to the report.
A key driving factors for OTT’s emergence is the fact that Millennials, as of
2015, are the largest segment of the U.S. population. Pew Research Center
projected that Millennials, totaling more than 75 million, have over taken Baby
Boomers. This has contributed in a shift of traditional TV viewing, as 45
percent of adult viewers no longer strictly adhere to the traditional TV
schedule, instead using OTT, TV Everywhere, and other mobile services for a
more individually-tailored experience. Ooyala reports that a quarter of
Millennials without children do not have cable, which could result in future
children of cord-cutting parents to become cord-never kids.
This is leading pay TV providers to offering OTT services. 2015 was the first
year that pay TV providers suffered a net loss of subscribers during Q1,
according to MoffettNathanson analyst Craig Moffett. A PwC survey reported that
79 percent of the U.S. population had some form of pay-TV service, but 78
percent also subscribe to at least one streaming VoD service. Ooyala forecasts
that traditional linear channels will remain for the foreseeable future, but
will become secondary compared options like broadcast OTT channels, operator
OTT services, catch-up TV and multi-channel networks.
One advantage for pay TV providers in this growing OTT market is broadband. OTT
gains are driving broadband home growth and helping to offset higher
programming costs and video-revenue decline, according to Ooyala. Cable
providers currently control 60 percent of the broadband market, reports
Leichtman Research Group, and many expect them to continuing to expand their
broadband presence.
Ooyala also addresses some of the new technology in broadcast, including smart
TVs and connected TV video-streaming devices, and the emergence of virtual
reality content. Other areas of interest for the report include programming and
advertising.
To read Ooyala’s full “State of the Broadcast Industry” report, click here.
http://go.ooyala.com/rs/447-EQK-225/images/Ooyala-State-Of-The-Broadcast-Industry-2016.pdf
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