June 8, 2023
The streaming market has grown by leaps and bounds in recent years, even accounting for the transitory M&E, esports, and videoconferencing boom of the first months of the pandemic in 2020; the total collapse of the live-event market through the middle and later months of 2020; the various market corrections that followed; and the surprising (to many) shifts away from a subscription-driven OTT world to a greater balance between SVOD and AVOD and the striking growth of FAST.
A recent streaming industry survey from Adtaxi reports that 205 million U.S. adults are consuming content via streaming TV, including 91 million cord-cutters. In addition, more than half of all TV viewing is happening digitally, with 96% of adults reporting streaming access and 87% saying they use streaming services weekly.
Meanwhile, even with the aforementioned transition to a more advertising-driven M&E market, subscription-based streaming continues to grow, according to survey data unveiled in early May by Juniper Research. The global subscriptions market, the company reports, is poised to grow by 81% over the next 3 years, reaching a projected worldwide value of $599 billion by 2026.
The New Normal we imagined taking shape in 2020 hasn’t entirely come to pass, with the expectation of streaming-fueled remote work and remote production continuing to buoy the enterprise market and event world and hybrid events becoming de rigueur. But if the rush to remote didn’t stick, the migration to cloud-based infrastructure and workflows continues apace, even as many of those who are leveraging the cloud still cling tightly to the on-prem elements of their workflows that serve them well.
Meanwhile, in the world of live streaming, the most pressing question for every workflow element, tool, service, and strategy remains: Will it scale?
It takes tremendous technological innovation across a wide range of categories to meet the demands of high-quality, reliable, and secure streaming delivery—be it live, on-demand, or live-to-on-demand. Somewhere among the array of tech companies serving the industry is someone offering the right tool (or service) for every job. And if it’s not out yet, they’re working on it.
Seeing the forest for the trees is a challenge in a fast-changing industry, as is identifying prevailing industry trends amid the constant barrage of product announcements and cyclical technology updates that keep the industry moving. This was certainly the case when wandering the Las Vegas Convention Center’s West Hall at NAB 2023, which was packed to the gills with streaming-related technology vendors touting innovative new products.
But, often, it’s the products and services that make and define the industry trends when they signal true innovation and catch on with discerning streaming professionals who know when a product or service not only works or serves their immediate needs, but makes workflows more efficient, enables new approaches, and helps move the industry forward. Streaming Media’s Trendsetting Products and Services of 2023 meet and even exceed those lofty standards.
Bitcentral
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