Cloud DVR Market: Snapshot

A DVR or a digital video recorder is an electronic device that has a digital storage. These devices can digitally record videos and store it. Cloud DVRs can help the user to record their favourite television programs and shows and store them through cloud service. Also, cloud DVRs can be accessed from anywhere and any device. Such factors are helping to increase the popularity of the cloud DVR market.

Some of the key driving factors for the growth of the global cloud DVR market are listed below:

• Government Initiatives: Governments across the globe are increasingly marketing the installation of set-top boxes or STBs. The governments are also making it mandatory to digitize the existing cable networks. One of the key driving factors of the global cloud DVR market is the increasing digitization of television networks across the globe. This has considerably helped in the growth of the global market in recent years.

• Lower prices, better service: Another important reason for the growth of the global market in the last few years is the cost efficiency of these services. These services are provided at lower prices and also provide better services. This is attracting many users and helping in increasing adoption and thus ultimately helping in the growth of the global market. In addition to this, digitization of networks has allowed the service providers to offer a number of channels at a lower cost. This has substantially helped in increasing the popularity of cloud DVRs and increased adoption.

• Increased demand for a better quality of a picture: Continuing from the above-mentioned points, another important factor that is driving the global cloud DVR market is the increasing demand of consumers for a better quality of picture and access to a wider range of channels.

A Digital Video Recorder (DVR) is a consumer electronic device with digital storage and DVRs are used to record videos digitally that get stored in the storage device in DVRs. Cloud DVRs enable the user to records television shows and programs on a cloud server and then makes the recorded content accessible to the user on any other end-user device.

Unlike tradition DVRs, which have the drawback of limited storage and simultaneous recording limit, cloud DVRs offer the user more storage to record more content and allow the user to record television shows at same time as they air. Another main difference between tradition DVRs and cloud DVRs is the absence of tradition physical device. The digital recording capability of a cloud DVR is integrated into the local network or cloud services offered by a service provider.

The main components of cloud DVRs include policy manager, scheduler, record manager, network-based DVRs (nDVR) manager, and other E2E components. The component consisting a video data plane in cloud DVRs processes and delivers the content to be stored with the help of a control plane in cloud DVRs that manages the work flow of video content stored by the device. Cloud DVRs are an integral part and modern form of nDVRs and are gaining more and more popularity among end-users and service providers.

Cloud DVR Market – Notable Developments

• Ericsson Media Solutions, a Swedish multinational telecommunications company, recently announced that it has extended its long-term partnership with Telefónica, S.A., a Spanish telecommunications company, to deliver advanced TV everywhere services across is operating business in the Latin American region. Ericsson also declared its aims to capitalize on increasing developments across leading countries in the Latin American region, such as Chile, Brazil, Argentina, Peru, and Colombia, through 2020.

• Hulu, an American entertainment company, recently announced its expansive distribution agreement with Discovery Inc., which is mainly aimed at extending high quality real life entertainment brands portfolio of Discovery to live and on-demand TV subscription streaming services offered by Hulu. With this agreement, Discovery announced to bring five new channels to Hulu’s live television pack, and the channels include Discovery Channel, Animal Planet TLC, the rebranded Velocity network, Motor Trend, and Investigation Discovery.

• Cisco Systems, Inc., an American multinational technology conglomerate, recently announced that it is unifying software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN) and security technologies to enable its customer organizations to adopt its cloud services with a faster speed and the very best of networking and security.

• Dish Network Corporation, a leading American television provider, recently announced that DISH Media – the inventory of both DISH and Sling TV – will join Comscore Campaign Ratings beta along with media companies, which also includes Discovery Inc. The company announced that this will be the first multichannel video programming distributor (MVPD) to join the cross-platform video ad measurement solution provided by Camscore. The company aims to incorporate insights procured from Comscore Campaign Ratings and to enable its clients and advertisers to make strategic business decisions.

Some of the most prominent competitors operating in the competitive landscape of global cloud DVR market include –

• Ericsson
• ARRIS
• Harmonic
• Huawei
• Cisco
• AWS Elemental
• pay-TV
• Nokia
• AT&T
• Liberty Global
• Comcast
• DISH Network
• Hulu

Cloud DVR Market Dynamics

Cloud DVR Technologies Proves More Profitable and Cost-effective for Service Providers

Cloud DVR market is growing at a rapid pace with growing awareness about its convenience and cost-efficiency among video subscribers. However, cloud DVR is creating its place among not only end-users or subscribers, but telecom service providers are also turning to cloud DVR to avail its benefits. One of the major advantages of cloud DVR to service providers is that it slashed their set top box (STB) prices to a great extent.

This way, cloud DVR technologies are enabling service providers to plummet their capital expenses on STBs by deploying less expensive dumber boxes or deploying existing digital STBs in home. With a mounting number of service providers turning to the cloud DVR market to capitalize on the profitable opportunities, the cloud DVR market is likely to get highly competitive in the upcoming years.

Consolidation by Multinational Companies Creates Barrier to Entry for Small Businesses and Start-ups in Cloud DVR Market

While the cloud DVR market continues to witness exponential growth, leading players in the cloud DVR market have consolidated their positions in the market with a huge share in the market growth. Furthermore, leading players in the cloud DVR market are adopting inorganic growth strategy by acquiring local vendors and small- and medium-scale service providers in the cloud DVR market. Thereby, this creates major competitive challenges for new entrants in the cloud DVR market.

Ad-skipping and Time Shifting Features of Cloud DVR Continue to Boost Popularity among Subscribers

Another factor to boost popularity of cloud DVR as well as the growth of the cloud DVR market is its unique features such as time shifting and the feature that enables viewers to skip ads. The time shifting feature of cloud DVR technologies enables end-users to watch and record videos at the same time.

Furthermore, ad-skipping feature is another factor that is fetching viewership to cloud DVR services, triggering growth of the cloud DVR market. Recently, Google announced that it has lifted the ad-skipping restriction on most of the 60 channels, excluding The CW CBS Sports Network, and CBS, on YouTube TV. Thereby, as the viewer fast-forward through advertisements during their favorite television show, this feature is expected to trigger revenues in the cloud DVR market in the upcoming years.

Cloud DVR Market – Segmentation

Based on the chipset, the cloud DVR market is segmented into

• MPEG-4
• HEVC
• Others

Based on the platform, the cloud DVR market is segmented into

• IPTV
• Satellite
• Hybrid

Based on applications, the cloud DVR market is segmented into

• Domestic
• Commercial