Streaming Pay TV Will Win in the End, Says Report

Online pay TV services will win out over cable and satellite services, claims a report from over-the-top news and opinion site nScreenMedia. Authored by Colin Dixon, the site's chief analyst and founder, the report explains why online services have an advantage and introduces a term that will be new to many: virtual pay TV operator or vPop.

Virtual operators have five advantages, the report alleges: operational costs are lower for virtual pay TV services, an all-IP architecture is easier to update, virtual operators can benefit from improved codecs, streaming services can deliver content to multiple screens, and viewers can view content by channel with a streaming service, which they prefer.

The report includes input from experts at Intel Media, Deutsche Telekom, Vidmind, TVZor, and Amazon Web Services.

“If you are going to build a modern, 21st century television service you’re not going to use technologies that are 20 years old. You’re going to build it on modern web-based technologies, cloud infrastructure, the most modern codecs, application environments that are of this day and age," says Erik Hugger, head of Intel Media. "The real big advantage is this; you move from a closed limited functionality environment to a much more open flexible environment which will allow app developers to truly take advantage of the capabilities of a platform like that.”

vPops have considerable advantages, the report concludes, and cloud-based services are a better platform for the future. To read the report in full, download it for free (registration required).