Television-Tv News

DTH markets to converge with OTT services

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 15:42

In its Global Direct-to-Home Markets 4th Edition report, Northern Sky Research (NSR) points out that over the top (OTT) TV services are coming to direct to home (DTH) TV markets around the world.

As per the report, “in 2010 and 2011 DTH operators in developing markets introduced value-driven offerings that provided tremendous growth for platforms particularly across Latin America and Eastern Europe. Elsewhere, DTH operators continued to deploy HD / DVR hardware and branded non-linear offerings, enabling synergies between DTH and OTT services. However, the near-term gains in subscription revenues in emerging markets could represent a significant risk if DTH platforms cannot retain these new subscribers.

“To solve this issue (and diversify revenues), some DTH operators have taken steps to deploy advanced wireless Internet services. Already, DIRECTV’s Sky Brazil announced a new 4G wireless Internet offering for 2012 in selected markets, the first steps towards advanced media distribution service. DISH Network in the US continues to remain silent on plans for spectrum it acquired in 2011, but will likely include a media-distribution component. These new distribution networks will help enable a new synergy between DTH and OTT services.”

NSR reports that the US’ largest TV event, the Super Bowl, will this year be available over the Internet in near HD resolution. Meanwhile, Netflix alternatives continue to aggregate content libraries and expand into new markets. It is believed that an Apple-powered TV service will launch this year.

For more information visit www.nsr.com.

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