TV Everywhere Platforms Drive Investment, says ABI

Operators are investing significantly in equipment to deliver video efficiently to iPads and other streaming devices, including PCs, mobile phones and connected TVs, according to a new study from ABI Research entitled "Video-on-Demand, Video Server, Ad Server, Content Delivery Network Hardware.”

VOD hardware, historically used primarily for pay-per-view content, is being repurposed to serve any-screen or TV Everywhere platforms, while operators invest in Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) to ensure quality of delivery and efficient network utilization.

The worldwide market for VOD equipment is forecast to grow at more than 3 percent annually, from $493 million in 2010 to $591 million in 2016, while the CDN Server market is expected to grow at 4.3 percent from $600 million to $774 million. The remainder of the total market is comprised of video servers and ad servers.

“The rapidly rising amount of video content is creating challenges for service providers,” said ABI Research practice director Jason Blackwell, in a statement. “CDNs have historically focused on delivery between operator networks. However, to facilitate the rapid growth of video, operators are installing CDNs within the footprint of their own networks. Operators used to plan for very low concurrency rates of about 3 percent on their VOD systems, but increased content and use of these systems on new connected devices is leading concurrency rates to more than 20 percent.”