SVOD to drive digital content spend past $200bn

Global consumer expenditure on digital content will hit US$202 billion next year, up 10% from the US$184 billion spent this year, with subscription video-on-demand supporting much of the growth, according to Juniper Research.

According to the research outfit’s Digital Content Business Models: OTT & Operators Strategies 2017-2022, some 35% of UK households now subscriber to one or more SVOD services form OTT TV players such as Amazon and Netflix. This compares to 76% in the US.

According to Juniper, the trend towards signing up for multiple subscriptions per household is increasing, leading to more opportunities for content aggregators and curators.

Juniper’s report predicts that OTT TV operators will increasingly target premium sports rights, including possibly the next auction of English Premier League football rights.

“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,” said research author Windsor Holden.

Juniper also predicts that both telcos and OTT TV players will increasingly look to add eSports to their content offerings, including creating and developing their own teams and tournaments.