With the core concept of the TV channel fragmenting, 2016 will see a growing number of broadcasters tapping into burgeoning online video spend by selling their content directly to viewers, says research by IHS.
Outlining what it believes will be the top trends for the New Year, the analyst says there will be a number of mega-trends such as Netflix expansion continuing unabated, driving pay-TV channels to offer increasingly direct-to-consumer services, and a general unbundling of pay-TV through the likes of lite packages alongside premium services.
IHS noted that offerings such as HBO Now, Discovery Play and DisneyLife are leading the way in this regard, and it expects more major players to follow suit in 2016. IHS added that under pressure from both pure over-the-top (OTT) players and their content partners’ D2C offerings, pay-TV providers are competing at the lower end of the market with lite offerings such as Sky’s Now TV. Yet IHS cautions that to negate the threat of a significant shift to low-cost services, operators will invest in their traditional TV services to innovate the viewing experience for higher-spending consumers.
The analyst also predicts Sky to set a new benchmark in premium-platform innovation with its forthcoming Sky Q launch, scheduled for early 2016. IHS expects Netflix to double its original programming production output to 31 series in 2016, including debut local productions in the UK and France. This puts it on par with major broadcast networks such as ABC and Fox.