Globally, no country regards its premium OTT video market as mature, with even advanced ones seeing themselves as moving from a fast growing to plateauing stage.
Reviewing the findings of a White Paper for Nagra Kudelski produced by MTM, Jon Watts, co-founder and director MTM, said that nascent OTT markets such as Brazil, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nigeria, South Africa and Turkey had few if any OTT services available, being hampered by such factors as poor broadband availability.
Accelerating OTT markets, on the other hand, included Australia, Argentina, Germany, New Zealand, Russia and the UAE. Along with advanced OTT markets such as France, Norway, Sweden, Singapore, the UK and US, they currently fell into the ‘fast growing’ category and would within three years start to plateau. None, however, were expected to reach the consolidation stage.
The average number of OTT launches expected per territory over the next three years was five in both nascent and accelerating OTT markets, while in advanced ones it was three. At the same time, growth in industry investment expected over the next three years was 75%, 70% and 60% respectively.
With new premium OTT launches over the next three years, respondents felt that 25% would be provided on a standalone basis from pay-TV basis. Linear pay-TV services delivered to hybrid platforms would account for 23% and ones from broadcasters 19%. However, the most (28%) would be standalone without pay-TV backing.
Significantly, the availability of rights to a greater range of content was seen as the most important key enabler of growth in the supply of premium OTT services in advanced markets. However, greater confidence in anti-piracy technology was one of the main factors in such regions as CEE.
Looking at key enablers, the paper noted that growth was impeded by demand-side barriers such as lack of consumer willingness to pay for OTT content in some markets. These included Brazil, Italy, Germany, France and Russia.
It also said that 67% of respondents see partnering with third party premium OTT providers as an important opportunity of their business.
The research for the White Paper, entitled Profiting from the OTT explosion: opportunities for pay-TV providers, took the form of an online survey of 90 senior industry participants from 31 countries in Europe, North America, North and South America, Asia, Africa and the Middle East. It also involved in-depth interviews with a cross-section of industry participants.
