Rise of OTT Market: How OTT boom can take over the digital content market

Affordability and convenience have elevated the stature of OTT, Over-the-Top content, and services. It refers to the delivery of video content on all devices like mobile phones, laptops, PCs, and more, through the internet without the use of satellite or cable connection. Covid-19 (Coronavirus) led to the rise in consumption of OTT content and grew the OTT market. Because of various entertainment and content options on it, it presented itself as a unique streaming service that captured the audience organically.

OTT streaming services to take over big markets

OTT has become as an all-in-one alternative to theatres, TV and other traditional as well as offline options. This rise is growing in statistics year by year. The global OTT market is expected to grow from $129.67 billion in 2021 to $149.34 billion in 2022 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15.2%. The OTT market is expected to reach $262.28 billion in 2026 at a CAGR of 15.1%. Business Research Company in its OTT Streaming Global Market Report 2022 attributed this rise to a favourable increase, which is expected to grow at a quick pace, in change in customers’ social behaviour towards broadcasting services and to over-the-top (OTT) on-demand video and music subscriptions every year from traditional subscriptions. Features like on-demand services and ease of access made OTT a popularly used platform. Big markets like India and China will witness an exponential rise in the number of content streaming users in a video on streaming and pay-per-view services.

Piracy alert: Illegal streaming a roadblock in growth

The threat from piracy and illegal streaming is a key factor hindering the growth of the OTT (Over-The-Top) streaming market. Streaming live TV channels leads to the OTT players’ bulk of traffic. They are also subject to privacy concerns in live streaming. OTT players are finding it increasingly difficult to monitor piracy and illegal streaming with the growth of broadband. The illicit sale of video content in 2019 cost the industry $9.1bn, with analysts predicting it would hit $12.5bn by 2024. Even though Digital Rights Management (DRM), allowing copyright owners to decide how and by whom their copyright is accessible, has always been the go-to choice for delivering content securely and preventing piracy, the fact remains that it is often not sufficient. Motivated attackers also get information published. Therefore, the threat of piracy and illegal streaming might limit the growth of the OTT streaming market.

4K coverage boosts OTT view

4K streaming is a key trend in the OTT streaming market. With 3,840x 2,160 pixels, 4K displays Ultra-High Definition (UHD) which is the highest level of high-definition video quality available to film, television, and sports viewers presently. Major streaming services such as Netflix, Disney+, and Amazon Prime Video have included premium 4K and 4K content in their services. FuboTV launched its first live- TV to provide coverage in 4K with HDR. The only sports that take advantage of this improved visual quality were World Cup matches, but later the company added some NCAA football matches in 4K.

The research found out Asia Pacific to be the largest OTT market in 2021. While the Middle East might be the fastest growing region in the forecast period. The regions under the study are Asia-Pacific, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, North America, South America, Middle East, and Africa. While the countries covered in the OTT streaming market report are Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Russia, South Korea, UK, USA. Major players in the OTT streaming market are Facebook, Netflix, Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Apple, Hulu, Tencent, Rakuten, and YouTube.

OTT Market segments by types

The global OTT Streaming market presents segment –

1) By Device Type: Smartphones, Smart TVs, Laptops, Desktops and Tablets, Gaming Consoles, Set-Top Box, Others

2) By Revenue Source: AVOD, SVOD, TVOD, Others

3) By User Type: Commercial, Personal

4) By End-User: E-commerce, Media and Entertainment, Education and Training, IT and Telecom, Health and Fitness, Others

While other research highlights the fact that in recent years, the OTT market has become highly competitive. Various companies have offered OTT services which increased the competition, lower prices, and better-quality services. OTT providers are forming partnerships and joint ventures to survive the intensely competitive OTT industry. Disney+, for instance, has a successful partnership with the Indian OTT service Hotstar and has drawn in a lot of customers with its alluring content and appealing pricing.

Various OTT Market dynamics are driving the industry, like:

• Improving Internet Infrastructure
• Growing Penetration of Smartphones and Smart TVs
• Rising focus on flexibility to watch any show, which is not the case in traditional cable and DTH services
• Increasing adoption of digital payment services to drive the OTT market

However, there are various downsides to this too:

• Difficult to find good quality content
• Low entry barriers are enabling easy entry into the OTT market
• OTT platforms are a slow response to customer complaints
• OTT services can be expensive if users want to subscribe to multiple platforms