Market Overview

Consumers use various combinations of devices to watch their favorite content. These sources include cable/satellite-supplied set-top boxes, smart TVs, media streamers, game consoles, and personal devices such as smartphones and tablets.

Parks and Associates in their report found that fifty-two percent of U.S. households that subscribe to least one OTT service provider also subscribe to a traditional pay TV service.

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Sixty percent of U.S. broadband households subscribe to at least one OTT video service and thirty-one percent subscribe to two or more

Measuring actual network usage in 2016, network traffic tracker Sandvine found that the average North American household had at least seven active IP devices in use daily, with sixty-five percent of the usage dedicated to video streaming. According to IHS projections, the average number of connected media-enabled devices per North American household will climb to ten by 2019. These trends are replicated worldwide. U.K. analyst Ovum in a report predicted online video subscriptions, which topped 100 million worldwide at the end of 2015, will increase to 177 million by 2019.

Digital TV Research has projected that by 2020 online subscription revenues will reach $21.6 billion, three times the 2014 total. This would mean that the penetration of network usage would be more than 33% in ten countries.

Average North American household has at least seven active IP devices in use daily

In a survey involving participants in the UK, France, and Germany, researcher Trendbox found that, with an average of 3.3 remote control devices per household, consumers are hungry for a solution that overcomes their usage hassles. Eighty percent said they want a control device that’s easy to set up and use for accessing all their content on their TV sets.

As many as forty-one percents of the audience re-emphasized the importance of eliminating the button clutter common to most remote controls, which highlights the importance of a simple and automated solution.

With an average of 3.3 remote control devices per household, consumers are hungry for a solution that overcomes their usage hassles

Acknowledging the confusion while navigating across TVs, Set-top boxes, game consoles, and other content sources, 34% of the audience said they have difficulty getting the content they want onto their viewing screens. 

Ten percent of the respondents in Trendbox survey said they contact customer support to get help when they have trouble navigating among content sources. This is a big headache for cable/satellite providers, who are often held accountable for consumers’ OTT as well as legacy pay-TV usage issues. Such calls, owing to the complexities of the issues, can potentially consume more time than other types of calls leading to an increase in support cost.

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Consumers contact customer support to get help when they have trouble navigating among content sources.

The multi-device usage issues are becoming equally problematic in the smart home realm as consumers engage with multiple applications from different sources.

Gartner predicts the number of installed IoT-related devices in homes and businesses worldwide, not counting smartphones, tablets or PCs, will grow to 26 billion by 2020. Gartner says that by then IoT component and connectivity costs will be so low that just about everything – light fixtures, windows, doors, appliances, toys, and sporting equipment– will be equipped for IoT connectivity to support control, monitoring and sensing.

The adoption rate of these IoT devices is very high among millennials. As IDC noted in a report, by 2018 millennials, who are the leading adopters of IoT technology, will comprise 16 percent of the world’s population, which means IoT adoption will be far more commonplace than it has been so far. Consequently, there’s a growing opportunity for IoT service providers who can aggregate whatever specific applications consumers choose into a unified experience under the control of a single device.

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Number of installed IoT-related devices in homes and businesses worldwide, will grow to 26 billion by 2020