Amazon’s experience in broadcasting live sports apparently has whet its appetite for more. The e-commerce giant – according to a CNBC report – is in the running for Disney’s 22 regional sports networks that the Mouse Network has to offload as part of its deal in acquiring 21st Century Fox.
Consumers continued to watch video on mobile devices at a record pace in Q2, as global starts on smartphones and tablets topped 62% of all video plays, the highest share ever.
Want one word to describe 5G, the next-gen wireless technology set for widespread global deployment by mid-2020? How about change? Or, better yet, opportunity? Especially for content companies.
At last week’s inaugural Mobile Video Industry Council in London, attendees were told as much as 90% of all 5G traffic could be mobile video, based on current trends and the upward trajectory of mobile video traffic, which has grown more than 50% year-on-year.
Sports rights remain among the most expensive in the industry, and with good reason… they are the last bastion of appointment television, although there’s been some fraying around the edges there, as well over the past couple of years.
Watching video on mobile devices has been one of the consumer trends we’ve been telling you about for a dozen quarters, as the number of plays and length of time watching content has soared.
But live sports and related content likely will probe the true catalyst for mobile video adoption, and some sports teams – and leagues – are launching mobile first initiatives to take advantage of consumers’ – especially the valuable Millennial men demo - migration to mobile devices.
Swing and a miss. Air ball. Hit the post. A rookie move. Dropped the ball. Pick any of those well-known sports adages that define failure, and you’re dead on the money with a description of YouTube TV’s missed opportunity to shine during the World Cup.
The virtual pay-TV service crashed hard during the see-saw England-Croatia match dropping its stream during the second half of the match for about an hour.
Two-thirds of consumers in a recent study say they have live streamed content and nearly half say they are live streaming more content today than they did a year ago. Notably, two thirds also said they intend to live stream the World Cup. Surprisingly, nearly half said they would watch a recording of a World Cup game, suggesting that even sports appointment viewing is losing its allure.
What a great week(end) for streaming.
Revenue from subscription video on demand (SVOD) services now makes up 74% of the 1.1 billion euro video on demand (VOD) market in Germany, with the VOD market expected to more than double to 2.5 billion euros by 2023, a CAGR of some 14.5%. SVOD’s share is expected to rise to 80%, according to a new report.
Video plays on mobile devices continue to increase and Ooyala is forecasting that, by the middle of 2018, more than 60% of all video starts will occur on mobile devices.
The Q3 2017 edition of Ooyala’s Global Video Index (you can download it here) showed the share of smartphone and tablet video plays increased for the 24th consecutive quarter, making up more than 58% of all starts, a record.
New research posits that global revenue from subscription video on-demand (SVOD) will increase 88% to more than $120 billion in 2022, up from an estimated $64 billion this year.
The report from Juniper Research also says more than 25% of all global households will have at least one SVDO subscription in five years.
Sling TV is planning to offer its first-ever pay-per-view (PPV) event, the much anticipated UFC grudge match that features a pair of light heavyweights. UFC 214: Cormier v. Jones 2 features current champ Daniel Cormier against ex-champ Jon Jones who last met in 2015 at UFC 182.