Informa Telecoms & Media predicts WW OTT-to-the-TV viewers will outnumber IPTV viewers by 2013, thanks to the popularity of services such as BBC iPlayer and Netflix.
By 2015 global OTT viewer numbers will reach 380m-- viewing online video via either connected devices (TVs and games consoles) or STBs from the likes of Google and Apple. On the other hand the analyst predicts managed IPTV service user numbers for 2015 will reach 163m.
The numbers will differ between territories-- in the UK OTT viewers already outnumber IPTV's, and Informa says only 3.6m Brits will watch IPTV (compared to the 27m watching online video on their TVs).
What does this mean for operators? Informa says many users will watch short-form and catch-up TV services on their connected devices-- features operators should be adding to their IPTV packages. If anything, operators should even be seriously considering Pay TV service delivery via connected devices.