VOD Down, OTT Looking Up

Infonetics Research's quarterly report "Cable, Satellite, and IPTV Video Infrastructure and Subscribers" indicates that the overall video infrastructure market was hurt by a decline in VOD and streaming content server sales in 4Q10, as well as a slowdown in digital cable and satellite middleware sales. North American video infrastructure dropped 7% as MSOs and telco IPTV operators slowed their purchases of VOD servers as they struggled with slow uptake of pay VOD programming. Worldwide video infrastructure revenue sequentially dipped 3% to $836 million in 4Q10.Over-the-top (OTT) media servers experienced the strongest sequential growth, nearly doubling quarter-over-quarter. Netflix added more than 3 million subscribers in 4Q10, now supporting a subscriber base that exceeds 20 million. Hulu introduced its paid service, Hulu Plus, last year at a similar price point; its subscriber base is expected to exceed 1 million in 2011. OTT media server revenue jumped 90% in 2010 and is forecast to grow to $1.16 billion in 2015.