PALO ALTO, CA – Marketers in the $1.3 trillion global telecommunications industry are being both challenged and enabled by free over-the-top (OTT) communications service providers, such as Google, Skype and Facebook. A new Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council study, “Profitability From Subscriber Acuity,” conducted in partnership with HP, shows that while these companies are supplying customers with sophisticated web-based features that are competing with fixed and mobile operators, OTT players are also being courted for [...]

BOSTON — Many operators see the proliferation of OTT as a threat to their established IPTV business models. They fear that OTT will subvert their role in the pay-TV value chain and cannibalize revenue. Not according to Pyramid Research’s new report, “OTT Growth Sparks Innovation Multiscreen Video Business Models.” “We’ve found that the opposite is just as likely to be true,” says Pyramid analyst Daniele Tricarico. “We argue that OTT is serving as an innovation [...]

SCOTTSDALE, AZ – Over-the-top (OTT) revenues are expected to quadruple to $32 billion by 2017, up from the expected $8.2 billion in 2012, according to ABI Research, which analyzes and forecasts trends in global connectivity. Subscription services, like Netflix, have led the OTT markets the past couple of years, which has helped push the market toward healthy growth. By 2014, however, ABI Research expects OTT rentals to surpass subscription revenues. Practice director Sam Rosen commented, [...]

BASKING RIDGE, N.J. – More than half (52 percent) of all U.S. consumers surveyed say Internet service is their home’s most important utility, according to the first in a series of tech consumer research surveys, called the Verizon FiOS Innovation Index: Borderless Lifestyle Survey. And if you have an Internet-connectable device with you at all times whenever you leave your home, there is a good chance that you are one of the nearly 40 percent [...]

LAS VEGAS – Enhanced Telecommunications, Inc. (ETI) has introduced TV.ID, a real-time platform to quickly and cost-effectively support OTT video services by providing subscriber authentication, registration and authorization. The first deployment will be for long-time customer and FTTH deployer Cincinnati Bell. A challenge faced by many video service providers is to deliver OTT content to their subscribers via mobile devices, tablets and laptops without costly integrations between their B/OSS and the content providers; TV.ID solves [...]

OYSTER BAY, NY — Nearly 20 percent of online consumers consider online video as a replacement for pay TV – representing significant risk to the traditional TV operator business of as much as $16.8 billion — according to a new ABI Research Technology Barometer study. With U.S. pay-TV household penetration set to decline approximately 0.5 percent per year through 2017, ABI Research believes this slow migration will continue even with an economic recovery as consumers [...]

OYSTER BAY, NY — Nearly 20 percent of online consumers consider online video as a replacement for pay TV – representing significant risk to the traditional TV operator business of as much as $16.8 billion — according to a new ABI Research Technology Barometer study. With U.S. pay-TV household penetration set to decline approximately 0.5 percent per year through 2017, ABI Research believes this slow migration will continue even with an economic recovery as consumers [...]

AT&T’s 2005 proclamation that they wanted content companies to subsidize their network build for absolutely no solid reason (since content companies and consumers alike already pay for bandwidth) has long since kind of become a cornerstone of “telco think” worldwide, in the process kicking off the modern net neutrality debate. It’s an entitlement mindset forged among the disconnected executives in government-pampered, yes-men packed monopoly meeting rooms, and it has slowly infected the brains of European [...]

CUPERTINO, CA — TriCounty Telecom, an independent telephone company in North Carolina, selected the FusionTV solution from Entone to deliver hybrid TV services throughout eastern North Carolina. FusionTV combines traditional broadcast TV with over-the-top (OTT) content and cloud-based services. With FusionTV, TriCounty Telecom delivers a differentiated pay-TV service that increases average revenue per user and subscriber satisfaction. For more than 57 years, TriCounty Telecom has provided communications services to several communities in eastern North Carolina. [...]

CAMBRIDGE, UK — Pennsylvania-based fiber optic network provider Salsgiver will trial Amino’s Freedom Jump OTT set-top box as part of a premium service offering to its customers. Under the gotlit.com brand, Salsgiver has rolled out a competitive fiber network northeast of Pittsburgh on which it offers high-quality broadband and phone services. It is also deploying an additional 300 miles of fiber in nearby Armstrong and Indiana Counties. Now the company is market-testing OTT-based entertainment services [...]