Video Trends: 3 Vendors' Views

'Tis the season for predictions, and ARRIS (NASDAQ:ARRS), Pace (LSE:PIC) and Digitalsmiths are all taking a hard look at recent (and coming) trends in video. Multiscreen, OTT, HEVC and UltraHD all figure strongly.ARRIS expects to see four trends driving home entertainment in 2014: the gateway as the hub of the connected home; HEVC and UltraHD; wireless home networking, including new versions of MoCA and WiFi; and new form factors that will open up the ecosystem to new devices, large and small.Pace notes that pay TV operators have largely blunted the threat of over-the-top (OTT) video competition by embracing many of its principles. The company expects sporting events such as the Winter Olympics and World Cup soccer to drive a boom in UltraHD video and HEVC, for pay TV providers to win out over OTT, and for Comcast's RDK to gain traction outside of North America.Digitalsmiths isn't so cheery about the OTT threat, noting that consumers increasingly are seeking on-demand content from third-party video services and OTT services as an alternative to their pay TV provider's on-demand offerings. In a recent survey, the company found that 72.9% of respondents never purchase from their pay TV provider's VOD catalog, even though 19.6% of respondents have their pay TV provider's TV Everywhere app on their tablet and/or smartphone. Additionally, 48.2% of respondents are using subscription OTT services such as Netflix and Hulu, and 28.7% of respondents are using third-party pay-per-rental services such as Redbox kiosks and iTunes.