Broadcasters seeking cost-effective delivery models

Broadcast infrastructure is arguably one of the most essential aspects of on-air presentation, and at present, broadcasters are seeking cost-effective solutions to improve their efficiency and overall output. The significant rise in the popularity of over-the-top (OTT) video streaming services, along with ascending Internet penetration, worldwide, is likely to aid the growth of the broadcast infrastructure market in the near future. Owing to remarkable advancements in technology over the past decade, viewers seek the flexibility of viewing content from any location, on any device, and at any given time. Key participants in the market are thus focusing on providing high-quality content across various networks, including digital terrestrial television (DTT) and broadband.

In their quest toward attaining commercial flexibility and agility, market players are developing new solutions in conjunction with the existing ones. This approach has paved the way for infrastructure duplication, isolated systems, and various other operational characteristics. However, at the back of these developments, players in the broadcast infrastructure market have expressed that operational costs are on the rise, and a sustainable delivery model is the need of the hour.

The global broadcast infrastructure market is estimated at USD 12.8 billion by the end of 2019, and further reach USD 21.2 billion by 2027, expanding at a CAGR of 7 percent from 2019 to 2027. Expansion of the broadcast infrastructure market can be attributed to increasing investments in IT infrastructure by the telecom industry, globally, according to Transparency Market Research. North America has been leading the global broadcast infrastructure market and is estimated to account for a substantial share of 33 percent by the end of 2019, with the US being a major market in the region. In Asia-Pacific, it is projected to expand at a notable CAGR of 7 percent over the next 5 years.

Rising digital advertising to propel the market
In the current scenario, marketing leaders are spending more on their websites, digital commerce, and digital advertising than ever before. Not only large enterprises, even small and medium enterprises are shifting from traditional advertising to digital advertising. Enterprises are spending a considerable percentage of their total advertising budgets on various digital advertising solutions. Therefore, the need for media and broadcasting solutions and services for advertisement and data management is growing at a higher pace.

Advent of 5G technology to offer significant opportunity
The advent of 5G in the broadcast and media industry is expected to deliver an increasingly integrated mobile/video customer experience. Thus, the increasing adoption of 5G is expected to create new opportunities for the broadcast infrastructure market. 5G technology, the future of media delivery, is projected to enhance the mobile experience and offer consumers limitless media consumption. 5G broadcast is set to create an opportunity to expand, as it addresses free-to-air (FTA), mobile devices directly.

Terrestrial TV’s surprising staying power
In the 1970S, TV antennas dominated skylines worldwide. In 2020, they may be about to do so again. Deloitte predicts that in 2020, at least 1.6 billion people worldwide, representing 450 million households, will get at least some of their TV from an antenna. And that is the low-end of the estimate; extrapolations from verified data suggest that number may even be as high as 2 billion. Along with a predicted USD 32 billion in 2020 revenues from ad-supported video on demand (AVoD), antenna TV is helping the global TV industry keep on growing even in the face of falling TV viewing minutes and, in some markets, increasing numbers of consumers cutting the pay-TV cord. When TV was in its infancy, the only way to get content in front of viewers was to transmit them over the air, and broadcasters spent billions on TV towers to send their programs to antenna-equipped viewers. This legacy has continued, with many broadcasters offering FTA television to this day.

In countries where retransmission consent fees are material, a shift to antenna TV is better for broadcasters than losing viewers to cord-cutting entirely, but it is a mixed blessing. In countries without those fees, however, antenna TV is an absolutely good thing for broadcasters.

A rising need for content storage systems among end-users
Media consumption around the globe is unceasingly increasing, especially in digital formats. More the volume of content, more the requirement of content storage solutions to manage the content that is stored and intended to be delivered to customers through different platforms. Therefore, the rising need for content storage systems is anticipated to create new opportunities for the growth of the broadcast infrastructure market. Content creators are outsourcing storage space from data centers and require content storage systems to manage their content storage process. This can be seen as an opportunity for broadcast infrastructure providers.

Future of broadcasting
In the current day and age, video consumption patterns have witnessed a drastic change, worldwide. To stay relevant in the market, broadcast companies are gradually leaning away from conventional platforms and embracing cutting-edge solutions such as cloud technologies. At present, VoD is predominant in the broadcasting sphere – a trend that is expected to continue in the foreseeable future, as traditional TV viewing continues to take a hit. Steep pricing models, inconsistent broadcast schedules, and lack of flexibility in terms of access are some of the leading factors that have propelled the demand for online broadcasting. Antenna TV’s resilience is a bright spot in the overall broadcasting landscape, as the traditional TV industry as a whole is facing headwinds. TV may not be growing at the rate it did 20 years ago, but neither is it collapsing, and both advertisers and broadcasters are thinking of it in those terms.