Digital wave spurs demand for video encoders: Frost

• Broadcasters introducing premium service to compete with pay-TV and OTT content
• How vendors can cope with cost pressures and varying customer requirements

NETWORK upgrades, digitisation in emerging economies and coverage of important live events, as well as focus on video quality and bandwidth efficiency, have lent impetus to the global broadcast and digital terrestrial television (DTT) video encoders market.
 
The market will continue to grow steadily as the advent of high efficiency video coding (HEVC) disrupts network upgrade strategies and new vendors compete strongly with traditional vendors to provide a differentiated solution, said Frost & Sullivan.

New analysis from the research firm, Global Analysis of the Broadcast and DTT Video Encoder Market, found that the market earned revenues of US$321.9 million in 2013, and this is estimated to reach US$505.4 million by 2018.

“Broadcasters are introducing premium channels and services in a bid to compete with pay-TV and over-the-top content, thereby fuelling demand for advanced video encoders,” said Frost & Sullivan digital media industry analyst Prayerna Raina.
 
“Emerging countries will witness the highest growth in this market, although emphasis on increasing the number of HD channels and ultra-HD in the mid- to-long term will open up new revenue streams in fully digitised economies,” she added.

Since countries are at different stages of network migration, the test for global vendors is to meet the varying customer needs by offering multi-format, high performance, low-cost and future-proof solutions, Frost & Sullivan said.

Furthermore, in an intensely competitive market where new vendors are successfully addressing network transition challenges, it is imperative for established vendors to proactively build products with customisation capabilities that can also be expanded to new formats.
 
Additionally, encoder vendors must respond to trends that could impact their product evolution strategy, such as migration to IP (Internet Protocol) backhaul, leaner distribution/ backhaul networks, and deployment of end-to-end solutions.

“As broadcasters prepare to provide live transmission of key sporting and political events over the next five years, growth opportunities in the contribution, distribution, backhaul and DTT segments cannot be overlooked,” said Prayerna.
 
“With broadcasters looking to transition their network costs consciously, support for multiple formats, as well as software and field upgrades will be critical to gain market share in the coming years.”
 
To get complimentary access to more information on this research, go here.
 
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