The global market for broadcast and streaming video equipment will drop around 9% this year, but then pick up and grow through 2017 as telco IPTV, cable and satellite pay-TV providers gear up for the emergence of next-generation, “ultra-definition” TV platforms, such as 4K, that support high-efficiency video coding (HEVC), according to a new report from Infonetics Research.
“Pay-TV providers are sweating their existing encoding assets as they wait for the next generation of platforms that support HEVC (high-efficiency video coding) so they can reduce current bandwidth requirements while preparing for ultra-definition TV,” Infonetics principal analyst, Broadband Access and Pay TV Jeff Heynen was quoted in a press release.
“Demand for contribution encoders among broadcasters will remain steady through 2017, with increases in spending due to the long-term transition to support HEVC and newer video formats.”
According to Infonetics’ latest “Broadcast and Streaming Video Equipment and Pay TV Subscribers” report:
- Content delivery network (CDN) edge servers, which serve as streaming video “pumps” for over-the-top (OTT) and unicast content, are forecast by Infonetics to grow at a 21% CAGR from 2012 to 2017
- Spending on video-on-demand (VOD) playout servers is expected to decline in the short term, though pay-TV providers will continue to use them while shifting spending to CDN edge servers to support multiscreen and OTT video content
- Multiscreen broadcast encoder revenue is anticipated to increase slightly over the next 4 years as operators transition to software-only platforms and encoders with integrated transcoding
