Subscription Video on Demand (SVOD) services delivered by players like Netflix and Amazon will drive OTT revenues up to $120 billion by 2022, according to new data from Juniper Research.
The firm found that this figure is up from $64 billion in revenues in 2017, marking a nearly 88 percent increase.
More subscriptions are one of the drivers, with Juniper indicating that more than 25 percent of households worldwide will subscribe to an SVOD service by 2022.
As revenues increase so does OTT video providers’ push to create original content. Netflix will spend more than $6 billion over the next year, Juniper estimates, compared to the $1.4 billion publicly-funded BBC will spend.
Services like Netflix are counting on original content to reduce dependency on back-catalogues, which can be costly, according to Juniper.
“Success will hinge on whether these providers can continue to produce hits such as Stranger Things,” Juniper research author Lauren Foye said in a statement. “As consumers become more fluid in their uptake and loyalty to video services, OTTs could just as easily see users switch off.”
Sporting rights will be another thing OTT providers set their sights on, Juniper said, and the firm predicts Amazon will likely bid for the rights to Premier League, the English professional soccer league for men, in February 2018.
The firm, however, found traditional broadcasters have a foot up over OTT services when it comes to local content.
“Some regional OTT services have launched, such as iFlix, but these do not provide the same granular level of local coverage that broadcasters can offer,” Juniper wrote.
The full report, Digital TV & Video: Network and OTT Strategies 2017-2022, can be found here.
