Content Delivery Network (CDN) revenue will increase 19 percent to reach $3.36 billion in 2014, fueled by the growing pace of “linear broadcast, media and entertainment’s transition into virtual paradigms,” according to a CDN revenue forecast from Accustream Research. The Seaside, Ca.-based market research company expects double-digit growth rates to persist “across the gamut of global operations” through 2017.
Greater stability in, and the lower operating costs associated with, bandwidth-pricing; marginal performance paybacks; and the ability of value-added services to resolve “tech complexities” are among the factors that will drive strong growth in the CDN market in this and coming years, according to Accustream’s “CDN 2014-2017: Operations & Analytics” report. Deployment of virtual video, including live streaming, VOD, TV Everywhere and enterprise use will also contribute.
The commercial value of media and entertainment video (including views and advertising), along with movies/TV files, music listening and downloads (including self-hosting providers such as Google and Amazon) totaled $3.35 billion in 2013, according to Accustream. Over 30 percent of that (31.3 percent) was delivered via CDN contracts.
Looked at from the perspective of data traffic, online delivery of entertainment video and advertising, TV, movies and music accounted for 2.4+ billion gigabytes (GB) of data transfer worth $1.6 billion in market value at prevailing rates when considering bandwidth and co-fees only, Accustream estimates.
