IHS: Take-Up of OTT-Enabled Devices On the Rise

EL SEGUNDO: More than 1.7 billion devices capable of accessing over-the-top (OTT) broadband content such as Netflix and Hulu are expected to ship by the end of the year, according to IHS.

The Consumer Electronics Topic Report from IHS forecasts that shipments of OTT-capable devices will rise 20 percent this year, up from the 1.43 billion units shipped in 2012. With 1.7 billion units, this would mean that there are enough OTT systems to accommodate almost one out of every four people on the planet.

The market is expected to grow by a further 20 percent next year, on its way to around 2.67 billion units by 2017. This will represent an 86-percent increase from 2012 volumes.

These OTT-enabled devices include set-top boxes, Blu-ray players, Internet-connected TVs, game players, digital media adapters like Apple TV, media tablets, PCs and smartphones. They allow consumers to watch content from a wide range of places through an extensive array of playback systems.

“Content owners, operators and consumers all are driving the proliferation of the OTT model,” said Jordan Selburn, the senior principal analyst for consumer platforms at IHS. “Content owners want to expand the market for the films, music and videos they own. Meanwhile, operators wish to use OTT in order to add value to their services and keep subscribers from cancelling TV subscriptions in favor of purely broadband connections—preventing what the industry calls ‘cutting the cord.’ Consumers, for their part, desire access to a wide variety of media at the time and place of their own choosing.”