The evolution of OTT has been quite astonishing. And today, OTT content and providers offer consumers more choice, more freedom, more flexibility and more innovation than ever before, coupled with superior advances in user experience that years ago, some never thought possible.
But is its the viewing quality of OTT catching up with traditional TV broadcasting?
Well, first of all, consider this: while SVoD is a thriving and vital part of the OTT realm, around 63% of Online Video Service Providers (OVSPs) see live and linear channels as a significant part of their overall offering. Live sports continue to set records, with Akamai delivering 5.5 million concurrent streams only in India!
That said, many OTT providers see the overall broadcasting quality and user experience as two of their primary KPIs when it comes to improving their offerings and connecting with new viewers or subscribers.
OTT has matured and it seems like it’s hot on the heels of traditional TV broadcasting. And as this chart demonstrates, it looks like the future is bright for OTT-based broadcasting:
Source: Akamai
Based on the findings from this survey, a mere 23% of participants believe that it will take up to five years for OTT to exceed TV broadcasting quality, while a notable 35% believe expectations are already being surpassed.
Perhaps at this point, the only tangible roadblock is accurately measuring metrics against the KPIs of online broadcasters, but as technologies continue to progress, this will not be an issue for long.
Chris Carey, Chief Revenue Officer at Verizon Digital Media Services spoke on this topic at NAB, pointing how the live OTT vendors catch up with traditional TV:
Whichever way you look at it, the notion of OTT overtaking traditional TV as a robust, top quality and overall, favorable broadcasting medium is more than achievable - and based on the numbers, we're not the only ones that think so.
Find out what makes a winning OTT service:
