Juniper Research has forecast that OTT revenues will reach $120 billion by 2022, almost double the level of $64 billion this year. Over a quarter of all global households will subscribe by the end of the period. One of the factors is that Netflix and others are producing more premium content.
Research author Lauren Foye explained:
“Success will hinge on whether these providers can continue to produce hits such as ‘Stranger Things’. As consumers become more fluid in their uptake and loyalty to video services, OTTs could just as easily see users switch off.”
The company also expects that OTT providers will bid for sports event rights with Amazon expected to bid for rights to the Premier League in February 2018.
The research identified that traditional broadcasters hold advantage over OTTs in provision of local content. Some regional OTT services have launched, such as iFlix, but these do not provide the same granular level of local coverage that broadcasters can offer.
The delivery of media via IP will have a benefit to broadcasters in driving consumers to their own OTT services, such as the BBC’s iPlayer – accessed via the ‘Red Button+’ on connected TVs. Juniper forecasts data usage to soar on these devices, approaching 800,000 Petabytes per annum by 2022.
Juniper has a white paper that can be downloaded (registration required)
Juniper’s OTT breakdown by geography – from the Juniper white paper.
