Content owners are increasingly purchasing their own video encoders and transcoders in an attempt to bypass the pay-TV operators that have traditionally carried their programming.
ABI Research names US brands including HBO, Disney/ABC, and Fox as some of the content owners looking at multi-format transcoders that support direct to consumer distribution.
“Content owners will grow from 11% of the total encoder and transcoder market in 2012 to 17% in 2017, having already passed the importance of Telco operators for use in traditional IPTV platforms,” according to Sam Rosen, practice director at ABI Research. “Their role in distribution stems from both authenticated access offered as part of a retransmission agreement with a classical Pay TV operator, but will also increasingly include advertising supported free-to-wire services and some standalone content-owner bundles.”
ABI says the total encoder and transcoder markets grow to become over a $1.5 billion market in 2017, a market led by the combined Arris/Motorola, with Cisco, Ericsson, Harmonic, and Thomson Video Networks all playing a strong role.
Envivio leads the file-based multiscreen market while Elemental Technologies leads the live multiscreen market.