Subscriber numbers for over-the-top (OTT) TV services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime will increase from 92.1 million in 2014, to 332.2 million globally by 2019, according to new data from Juniper Research.
North America will remain as the leading region in terms of subscriber numbers. This will be closely followed by Asia, a region with growing consumer interest in new OTT services.
Juniper found that consumers will favor connected TVs as their primary screen for watching long-form video on OTT subscription services.
With the long lifecycle of TVs, previously “dumb” TVs will see an upsurge in becoming “connected”, thanks to the availability of low-cost devices such as Chromecast, and Amazon’s Fire TV Stick, as well as the high uptake of game consoles and set-top boxes that provide preloaded services.
This is in contrast to smart TVs that currently offer poor operating systems and user interfaces.
With the growing uptake of OTT services, advertising spending on video-on-demand is expected to grow almost fourfold by 2019, with China and other countries in Asia dominating the market by the end of the forecast period.