VoD equipment market to grow to USD 591 mln in 2016

Operators are investing significantly in equipment to deliver video to iPads and other streaming devices, including PCs, mobile phones and connected TVs, according to a study by ABI research. Video-on-semand hardware, used for pay-per-view content, is being repurposed to serve N-Screen or TV Everywhere platforms, while operators invest in content delivery networks to enable quality of delivery and network utilisation. The worldwide market for VoD equipment is forecast to grow at more than 3 percent annually, from USD 493 million in 2010 to USD 591 million in 2016, while the CDN server market is expected to grow at 4.3 percent from USD 600 million to USD 774 million. The remainder of the total market is comprised of video servers and ad servers. The rising amount of video content is creating challenges for service providers. CDNs have focused on delivery between operator networks. However, to facilitate the growth of video, operators are installing CDNs within the footprint of their own networks. Operators used to plan for low concurrency rates of about 3 percent on their VoD systems, but enhanced content and use of these systems on connected devices is leading concurrency rates to more than 20 percent. Operators face a challenge when introducing services. Time Warner Cable recently saw demand for its TWCable TV in-home streaming iPad App, and had to scale back from 30 channels to fifteen due to inadequate server capacity. Some vendors have developed time-based licensing models to prevent this type of problem and to allow for peak-demand periods, such as sporting events that would otherwise overwhelm the servers.