On 1/Aug/18 19:43, Tarko Tikan wrote:
We are an IPTV provider in europe and we definetly see share of linear TV (that we are delivering via intra-AS multicast today) decreasing YOY.
OTT plays a big part but even more customers use our own on-demand services including network PVR.
Numbers don't add up yet but in 3-4 years even the intra-AS multicast will not make sense for us any more, easier/better to deliver everything via unicast.
I fully expect this to trend. In Africa, linear (pay) TV is on the down every month, and the only reason it's mostly still seeing some patronage is because of the sports channels which "cannot be" unbundled from the full package. The other reason it's still marginally alive is because of customers that can't spare enough "data" to do the majority of their entertainment online. I know several power users that have deliberately cut the linear TV cord, have gone fully VoD, and have managed to make arrangements to stream sports shows in other ways. The leading pay TV operator in sub-Saharan Africa, Multichoice (DStv) are thinking about their future and are providing the ability for customers to stream all of their channels online, either in real-time or as post-aired VoD content. They've also launched ShowMax, which is their offering to compete with Netflix, Hulu, e.t.c. I was in Malaysia the other day, and Astro are definitely struggling with the declining demand in their pay TV service (both satellite- and IPTV-based). I'm with Tarko when I say in 5 or so years, Multicast for IPTV will begin to die off because customers will be moving more to VoD use-cases. Mark.