In 2018, digital content revenues will jump 10 percent to $202 billion, up from $184 billion this year, according to a new report from Juniper Research.
The firm’s report, Digital Content Business Models: OTT & Operator Strategies 2017-2022, found that as major OTT players commit big sums to original content budgets over the next year, Subscription Video on Demand (SVoD) services will be a key factor driving growth.
Netflix and Amazon have each committed more than $5 billion to develop content over the next year, while Apple and Facebook are each reportedly investing at least $1 billion.
Juniper Research contends that there is greater opportunity for content aggregation and curation as the number of households subscribing to more than one SVoD service are increasing. In the United States 76 percent of households subscribe to at least one SVoD service, according to the report.
The findings also indicate that OTT players could be in a position to pick up major sporting rights. Juniper pointed to Amazon or Facebook bidding, and likely winning, at least one major live sporting rights package in the upcoming auction for England’s Premier League football games.
“Amazon is in a particularly strong position here, because sports packages could be bundled within Amazon Prime, with the additional retail spend generated by new customers significantly reducing the scale of net additions required to recoup the rights costs,” research author Windsor Holden notes.
Juniper singles out esports as the next opportunity, with telcos and OTT players increasingly trying to supplement their offering with the acquisition of esports rights.
In October, Hulu inked a deal with ESL, the world’s largest esports company, marking the streaming service’s first foray into esports. As part of the partnership ESL is developing and producing four new esports series to premiere exclusively on Hulu this fall.
According to Juniper’s research, industry players may move on to developing and owning their own esports tournaments.
