OTT 2.0: Understanding the new Pay TV Landscape
PurchaseThe widespread growth of OTT services, including new categories such as cable replacement virtual cable (vMVPD) services, which offer live linear channels on OTT devices and networks, coupled with broadcaster direct offerings, defines the OTT 2.0 era. OTT’s success factors include packaging flexibility, narrow genre choices, wide device availability, national reach and overall lower costs. The smaller size and narrower content of OTT services leads to consumer wallet fragmentation, pushing buying decisions from the household level to the individual level. This interest drive Pay TV revenue worldwide to be somewhat flat, while the growth in video entertainment comes from new categories of services broadly defined as OTT, although the boundaries are shifting somewhat and definition becomes harder. Providers must be ready to launch multiple services to reach different demographics on their terms.