Parks Associates has highlighted the increasing use of OTT by Pay TV operators, including the expansion into pure-play OTT services off-net. In a new report (‘TV Everywhere: Growth, Solutions, and Strategies – Europe and Asia/Pacific’), the research company lists the Pay TV providers who are now leveraging multi-screen to offer OTT services to non Pay TV subscribers, including UK satellite provider Sky, Telecom Italia, Mediaset and FastWEB. Romanian incumbent Romtelecom, UAE-based Etisalat and South Korean cable operator CJ Hellovision have all launched video services that are available to anyone with a broadband connection, Parks Associates reports. “Operators with niche content, such as Telecom Serbia, have also launched new, local-language services to reach segments of consumers outside their home market,” the research firm notes.

“Now that Netflix has entered Europe and large players have acquired OTT services such as LOVEFiLM and Acetrax, the video services market will be increasingly competitive, forcing Pay TV providers to test new services and business models,” says Brett Sappington, Director of Research at Parks Associates. “Operators in Europe and Asia have dramatically increased their multi-screen offerings and some are expanding into pure-play OTT services, with offerings available outside their network footprint.” Parks Associates believes these efforts will increase as new OTT offerings throughout Europe, including Netflix and HBO, threaten operators’ premium TV revenues.

Looking at the wider market, the company says multi-screen services now reach 66% of Pay TV subscribers in Western Europe, 21% in Eastern Europe and 9% in Asia, compared to 90% in North America. The drivers for operators to explore new business strategies in their video services are low ARPU, growing competitive threats and rival multi-screen services, the company reports.

The research firm will discuss multi-screen services and other connected home topics at CONNECTIONS Summit at CES, January 8 in Las Vegas.

From the article, "Parks Associates highlights Pay TV expansion into off-net, pure-play OTT."

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