Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, millions of people are consistently following the lockdown, which has resulted in the increased streaming media use. Every viewer’s hunger for content has peaked during the COVID-19 pandemic, therefore, the media industry is to foresee the lasting effects the crisis may have on OTT consumption. While being almost trapped at home, consumers are constantly looking for new entertainment options. This consumer need has provided ample opportunity for the content owners and distributors to capitalize on the current market trend.
The crucial market dynamics and uncertainties that may externally and internally influence the OTT business basically revolve around the fact of strict following of social distancing worldwide. Due to the massive widespread of the pandemic all over the globe, the governments of various economies have implemented a nationwide lockdown. This has surged the home stays and thus the demand for engaging content. However, due to halt of television industry and theatrical productions, people have shifted to OTT content due to absence of new content on television.
Further, on-demand services allow several users all at the same place to watch different programs at the same time, that too through various devices. On-demand video streaming provides the users with the authority to access video content on televisions, computers, or even mobile devices, irrespective of time, where several providers offer the content to the customers. On-demand video streaming services offer a broad array of video program including entertainment, films, sports, and educational programs.
Though, on-demand video streaming was initially in demand for movie access; however, with the changing preferences of the customers, the service providers have expanded their offering for TV programs and other contents; surging the growth of the onlinevideo streaming segment. Additionally, as the video streaming apps and platforms are heavily dependent on the internet constraint; the growth in penetration of internet is estimated to be one of the factors contributing to driving the OTT market growth.
Among content providers, there has been witnessed a remarkable revolution in video-compression technologies in the last few years to gain efficacies and lower bandwidth consumption. And during the COVID-19 crisis, all this has become even more significant as some of the modifications in streaming behavior are sure to continue even post-pandemic, clearly demonstrating a variation point in use cases. Streaming-video providers should invest in opex optimizations to lay the foundation for a bigger shift from linear broadcast or television in particular, to OTT going forward.
With the NAB Show canceled, companies including Bitmovin, Nielsen, EY and Verizon Media virtually gathered Wednesday for a webinar on the virus’ impact on the OTT and pay TV landscape. But while the pandemic’s lasting effect on consumption remains unclear, streaming services are early beneficiaries. In the week of the first quarter, that is in March 2020, consumers streamed 168.7 billion minutes of content, up from 76.4 billion in the same time period last year (March 2019). This huge hike clearly reflects the positive impact of COVID-19 on the OTT consumption and thus, its industry growth within these times.
