Video-on-demand (VOD) streams worldwide will grow by two orders of magnitude in just the next five years, from 1.67 million in 2005 to 163 million in 2011, according to ABI Research.

Traditional video-on-demand services may not be growing at a particularly rapid pace, the company said, but the introduction of time shifting, network PVR, and mobile video will propel the demand for VOD technology as the number of concurrent, time-shifted streams of video grows rapidly.

The expected growth of VOD is the impetus behind Cisco’s acquisition of Arroyo, Harmonic’s buy of Entone, Motorola’s purchase of Broadbus, and Cablevision’s network PVR attempts. ABI said the timing of the acquisitions indicates that VOD is no longer a niche market.