Asia-Pacific Broadcasting (APB) January 2015 Volume 32, Issue 1 | Page 26

26 X-PLATFORM
January 2015

Rapid growth predicted for European OTT market

Driven by lower technology costs and an increasing demand for content of all sorts , the European over-the-top ( OTT ) market is expected to register strong growth over the next three years , according to a recent study conducted by MTM , a UK research and strategy consultancy .
Commissioned by Vindicia and Ooyala , the MTM study revealed that OTT revenues in the UK is expected to grow from £ 110 million- £ 130 million ( US $ 173 million- $ 203.9 million ) in 2013 to £ 390 million in 2017 ; the Dutch market is expected to grow from € 15 million- € 20 million ( US $ 18.5 million- $ 24.6 million ) in 2013 to € 190 million in 2017 ; while the
German OTT market is expected to increase from € 30 million- € 35 million in 2013 to € 117 million in 2017 .
While industry leaders are aware of the challenges when targeting the mass market with film and TV content , premium OTT technology will continue to advance in western markets .
MTM also forecasted “ significant opportunities ” for content providers to increase monetisation of video content in the form of transactional services , ad-supported offerings and hybrid bundles , in addition to the subscription business model .
The next three years will be a real turning point for the premium
OTT market , suggested Gene Hoffman , CEO and chairman of Vindicia . He explained : “ Broadband-penetration levels are rising , connected devices are becoming increasingly accessible and favourable regulations are being introduced , which is paving the way for OTT providers . The emergence of leading players such as Netflix is also fuelling competition and investment in premium OTT business models , while driving consumer awareness and adoption .”
The 30 OTT service providers surveyed identified the main barriers of entry , among them : Exclusivity of access to high-quality , high-appeal content ; consumer consciousness ; and cultural fac­
The European OTT market is expected to register strong growth leading up to 2017 , according to a recent study conducted by MTM , a UK research and strategy consultancy .
tors . Exclusivity in particular , is a “ primary battlefield ” for mass-market services , with content licensing costs inflating as large OTT businesses , including Netflix and Amazon , invest in long-term , exclusive and global studio licensing deals .
As for consumer barriers , the surveyed OTT service providers pointed out that while “ awareness is growing , consumers are slowly migrating from free VoD ( video-on-
demand ) services and pirated content to premium paid-for video content ”.
The study concluded that in order for OTT service providers to succeed , premium subscription OTT must be regarded as one of many ways to profit from video content .”

Anevia inks multi-CDN deployment deal with Cedexis

Anevia , a global developer of software infrastructure for delivering live TV and videoon-demand ( VoD ) services over the Internet , has announced a partnership with CDN ( content delivery network ) load-balancing specialist Cedexis .
The deal sees Anevia implementing Cedexis ’ load-balancing technology to enhance the quality of service ( QoS ) monitoring capabilities of ViaMotion Plus , enabling operators and broadcasters to collect in real time the key performance indicators — performance , costs and availability — of multiple CDNs . Thereafter , operators will be able to adapt the activities of the origin servers according to its preferred QoS and quality of experience ( QoE ) strategy .
Damien Lucas , co-founder and CTO of Anevia , said : “ Integrating Cedexis QoS monitoring gives broadcasters and IPTV service provides the ability to implement a dynamic content delivery strategy by loadbalancing across multiple CDNs . Operators can increase the availability of their content and reduce the delays that arise from single-
Anevia has integrated its ViaMotion
Plus solution with Cedexis ’ loadbalancing technology that will allow operators and broadcasters to collect in real-time the key performance indicators of multiple CDNs .
CDN latency .”
Lucas added that the technological integration provides Cedexis ’ customers with the ability to offload traffic peaks to Anevia ’ s cloud solutions .
Designed for use in catch-up TV , VoD
and cloud-based personal video recording , ViaMotion Plus can be used to deliver live and file-based video to and from multiple content delivery networks for viewing over a wide range of devices .
Controlled from a single suite of software , its capabilities include packaging , streaming and recording while supporting third-party encoders , multiple content delivery networks and multiple digital rights management systems .
Julien Coulon , Cedexis ’ co-founder , added : “ The combination of Cedexis ’ load bal ancing technology and Anevia ’ s ViaMotion Plus allows operators to monitor in real time the key performance indicators of multiple CDNs . Service providers can now adapt their operating parameters to ensure viewers are given the highest possible QoS and QoE .”