Different studies by analyst firms Pyramid Research and ABI Research come to similar conclusions: Pay TV operators must--and will--embrace over-the-top content as part of their mainstream offerings, effectively creating a new business model along the way.
"The growth of OTT video services is disrupting the traditional pay TV market and is dramatically driving traffic growth [as] more consumers are watching video on multiple screens," Pyramid Research Analyst Daniele Tricarico said in a Rapid TV News story.
This movement, she added, is "opening up new opportunities for pay TV providers and telcos to implement multiscreen business models."
That's certainly the case in the U.K., which "leads Europe in the adoption of standalone over-the-top services as well as operator-owned multiscreen services," a study by ABI Research concluded.
"While multiscreen services will not catch up with pure OTT services by 2017, the growth of multiscreen platforms will be faster than OTT services," predicted Sam Rosen, ABI Research practice director, in a news release.
The ABI Research study pointed to "traditional pay TV operators" like BSkyB, which has a "respectable penetration" of nearly 26 percent of its total customer base using multiscreen, Virgin, with a new TiVo app and YouView as leading the way in the U.K. space.
For now, Pyramid's Tricarico concluded, the United States is still the leader in OTT consumption, but Europe and Asia are catching up.
"All pay TV providers also have the option to launch their own OTT-like video services and extend their reach to non-customers, thus generating additional revenue beyond the existing customer base," she concluded.
For more:
- Rapid TV News has this story
- ABI Research issued this press release
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