Service providers' "ability to offer voice/video/data service bundles" along with combined linear and on-demand content and advanced services like multi-room DVRs is driving continued growth for the pay TV market, Teresa Mastrangelo, directing analyst for video at Infonetics Research has determined.
Mastrangelo's findings, detailed in the company's Cable, Satellite, and IPTV Video Services and Subscribers Report, also said that IPTV services are delivering the strongest revenue growth but that cable services "continue to make up (by far) the largest portion of total video service revenue." Cable growth, however, unlike IPTV is "slowing," the report said.
Interestingly, the most recent American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) said that the same bundled services that drive subscriber numbers are increasingly becoming points of dissatisfaction when initial pricing offers expire and the costs go up.
For now, though, subscribers are paying more for their services, according to Infonetics, which reported that worldwide revenue from all segments of the market, including satellite, climbed 11 percent in 2010 to hit the $240 billion mark.
And, while on the subject of IPTV, the research firm's analysis showed that the much maligned set-top "remains the most visible point of interaction between subscribers and IPTV providers." Among the top features service providers want from set-tops are 1080p HDMI interfaces; an integrated hard drive; USB outputs for external memory; the use of system-on-a-chip in the design and "environmentally friendly features," Mastrangelo wrote.
For more:
- see this news release
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