Archive for June, 2009

What geographic region is the leader today in broadcast technology? What about tomorrow?

market research | Posted by Joe Zaller
Jun 25 2009

Have you ever wondered which parts of the world have the most advanced broadcast technology?  To find out what people in different parts of the world think about this, I asked the following question as part of the 2009 Big Broadcast Survey (almost 5,000 people in 110 countries participated):

“Which territory is currently the technology leader, and which will be the leader in 3 years?”

  • North America
  • Europe
  • Asia-Pac
  • China
  • Middle East
  • Latin America
  • Africa

 

Not surprisingly, it turns out that opinions about this question differ widely based on the geographic location of the respondent.  But for me, the results become more interesting when you look at how the respondents in each of the regions mentioned in the question view themselves in relation to the rest of the world.

The definition of “technology leadership” is fairly subjective, so when asking this question, I left the interpretation to each respondent.   The broadcast technology landscape varies from region to region, and the deployment of new (advanced) technology is driven by a wide variety of factors.  These could include governmental policy (e.g. analog switch-off), competition (from both broadcasters and vendors), new delivery platforms, new content monetization techniques, and of course a constant stream of new products and innovations. 

Asking which region is the leader today is one thing, but asking broadcast industry insiders to predict which region will be the leader in three years is another matter, and the responses may surprise some people — indeed, respondents from virtually every region of the world expect their own leadership to decrease over the next three years from where it is today! 

I found that North America is the geographical region which is considered by many to be the technology leader today.  However, respondents from every region (including those in North America) expect this lead to decrease over the next three years. 

Many respondents expect to see Asia, and China in particular, emerging as a strong challenger for technology leadership, with EMEA widely expected to lose ground.  Interestingly, respondents in Asia-Pacific do not share this view to the same extent, believing the North America and EMEA will remain dominant in terms of technology leadership.

The following charts show how respondents from each region answered this question. 

 

The view from Europe, Middle East and Africa 

 
Which territory is currently the technology leader, and which will be the leader in 3 years? Responses from EMEA
Respondents in EMEA believe that the current technology leaders (North America and Europe) will be challenged by China in the next three years. In particular, North America’s dominance of the industry is felt to be under threat.

 

 

  The view from North America (USA and Canada) 

Question: Which territory is currently the technology leader, and which will be the leader in 3 years? -- Response from North America

 

North American see themselves as the current technology leaders, and expect this to continue unto the future, albeit by a decreasing percentage.  Like other regions, North Americans see China as an emerging technology leader.

 

 

The view from Latin America 

Question: Which territory is currently the technology leader, and which will be the leader in 3 years? -- Response from Latin America

 Latin American participants see North America as today’s technology leader, but expect it to be eclipsed by Asia over the next several years.

 

 

The view from Asia Pacific (including Australia and New Zealand) 

Who is technology leader -- response from Asia Pacific

Respondents from Asia see North America and Europe virtually swapping places in terms of technology leadership over the next several years.  These respondents also expect China to increase in prominence, even as their own decreases.

 

 

The view from China

 Question: Which territory is currently the technology leader, and which will be the leader in 3 years? - Responses from China

Chinese respondents see North America as today’s technology, and expect this to continue into the future.  Unlike other regions, Chinese repsondents se their own prominence decreasing slightly over time.
 
 
So that’s what the world thinks.  What do you think?

 

 

 

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Broadcasters see streaming / broadband as fastest growing content delivery method

content delivery, market research, technology trends | Posted by Joe Zaller
Jun 24 2009

Almost as soon as I uploaded the post which-method-of-content-delivery-will-grow-the-fastest?  I started to wonder what broadcasters themselves think about this question.  To find out, I ran a query on the data from the 2009 Big Broadcast Survey, and compiled the results in the chart below.

This represents how 1000+ broadcasters around the world answered this question: 

 ”Which of these delivery methods do you think will grow the fastest over the next three years, in percentage terms?”

  • WiMAX
  • Terrestrial
  • Cable
  • Downloads to mobile devices
  • Satellite
  • Mobile TV
  • IPTV
  • Broadband / Streaming (web TV)

 

 #1 by a good margin is broadband / streaming, followed by IPTV and mobile TV. 

 

The fastest growing content delivery methods according to broadcasters

The fastest growing content delivery methods according to broadcasters

 

These top three choices get 72% of the vote from broadcasters on this question.  That’s pretty interesting since these are potentially competitive (and certainly disruptive) to the broadcaster’s traditional business model.

Does this means that broadcasters are predicting their own demise, or does this acknowlement of the  growth of new content delivery methods mean they will embrace them and tap into the new ways of doing business?

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Which method of content delivery will grow the fastest?

content delivery, market research, technology trends | Posted by Joe Zaller
Jun 24 2009

It’s not news that the delivery of video content is changing dramatically.  Consumers want an anywhere, anytime media experience; and content owners are doing all they can to meet their needs.   But with so many choices now available, I was curious to know which delivery method broadcast industry insiders think will grow the fastest.

To find out, I included the following question in the 2009 Big Broadcast Survey:

 ”Which of these delivery methods do you think will grow the fastest over the next three years, in percentage terms?”

  • WiMAX
  • Terrestrial
  • Cable
  • Downloads to mobile devices
  • Satellite
  • Mobile TV
  • IPTV
  • Broadband / Streaming (web TV)

 

Almost 5000 people in 110 countries responded and their answers are shown below, broken down by geography to show regional variation:

 

Which method of content delivery do you think will grow the fastest over the next three years, in percentage terms?

Which method of content delivery do you think will grow the fastest over the next three years, in percentage terms?

 

Keep in mind that this question asked which delivery method will grow the fastest, not which one do you think will win in the long-term, or which one are you willing to pay $50 per month for.  It also asked about growth in percentage terms, so if a distribution method is small today it can grow quickly in percentage terms from a small base, while it’s much more difficult for established content delivery methods such as cable & satellite to grow in percentage terms.

Nevertheless, the respondents expect to see major changes in content delivery methods over the next three years, led by “Broadband / Streaming.”    In fact, with the exception of Asia, all geographies expect broadband / streaming delivery of content to be the fastest growing delivery methods, which is interesting news for CDNs.  In Asia (excluding China), IPTV is predicted to be the fastest growing content delivery medium.  All territories therefore expect the current incumbents (satellite, cable and terrestrial) to lose market share to the internet and to a lesser extent, mobile.

Although the picture is relatively similar across all geographical regions, there are a few key differences, reflecting the relative maturity of each market.  For example, in most markets satellite is already a well-established channel with limited future growth; however in China the picture is different with expected growth being second only to broadband / streaming content delivery.  Chinese respondents also predict the largest take-up of mobile TV.

That’s what broadcast industry insiders think.  What about you?

 
 

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The broadcaster’s view of technology trends

market research | Posted by Joe Zaller
Jun 23 2009

I’ve recently been looking at how broadcast technology trends vary by geographic region, based on the research data from the 2009 Big Broadcast Survey. The examples I have shown previously look at the differences in technology trends based solely on geography. 

Now it’s time to get a bit more granular and look at how just broadcasters view these technology trends, and whether there are regional variations in their opinions.   Approximately 1,400 broadcasters participated in the study.  Each was presented with a list of 15 industry trends and asked to choose the three trends from the list (ranking them 1-3) that they feel will have the most significant impact on the way they do business over the next 2-3 years.  The chart below shows their responses, which are weighted based on how they were ranked by the respondents.  If a trend was ranked most important, its weight=3; if a trend was ranked #2, its weight=2; and if a trend was ranked #3, it is weight=1.  

 

The broadcaster's view of industry trends by region

The broadcaster's view of industry trends by region

 

In general it appears that broadcasters around the world are roughly aligned in terms of overall opinion of technology trends, but there are a few regional variations. 

Just as with the overall market, the transition to HDTV and tapeless workflows are the top trends for broadcasters, followed by multiplatform delivery and file-based workflows.  Interestingly, broadcasters in EMEA rank the move to file-based workflows higher than their counterparts in the Americas and Asia, while ranking multi-platform content delivery lower.

Otherwise, it is broadcasters in Asia  who vary from their counterparts in the Americas and EMEA. 

For example, broadcasters in Asia rank the following trends differently than their counterparts in the Americas and EMEA (although some of these are still at the low end of the range):

* IP content delivery (lower)

* automated worflows higher (higher)

* 3DTV (higher)

* Set-top box PVR (higher)

* Network PVR (higher)

 

Once again, some of the trends that we often read about in the trade press — e.g. the transition to 3Gbps and 3DTV — are relatively far down the list of business priorities for broadcasters (#9 and #11 respectively), which implies that broadcasters are continuing to move to HDTV operations while striving for efficiency in their operations rather than pursuing new technology. 

 

Here’s the full list of technology trends from the study, in the order that they were ranked by the broadcasters:

  Broadcasters — Asia Broadcasters — Americas Broadcasters — EMEA
1 Transition to HDTV Transition to HDTV Transition to HDTV
2 Tapeless workflows Tapeless workflows Tapeless workflows
3 Automated workflows Multi-platform delivery File-based workflows
4 Multi-platform delivery File-based workflows Multi-platform delivery
5 File-based workflows IP content delivery IP content delivery
6 IP content delivery Automated workflows Automated workflows
7 Advanced encoding techniques (e.g. h.264) Advanced encoding techniques (e.g. h.264) Advanced encoding techniques (e.g. h.264)
8 Video on Demand Video on Demand Video on Demand
9 Transition to 3Gbps (1080p) Transition to 3Gbps (1080p) Transition to 3Gbps (1080p)
10 3D TV On-line advertising On-line advertising
11 Set-top box PVR/DVR 3D TV 3D TV
12 On-line advertising 4K production 2K production
13 Network DVR Set-top box PVR/DVR 4K production
14 4K production 2K production Set-top box PVR/DVR
15 2K production Network DVR Network DVR

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Regional Variation in Broadcast technology Trends — HDTV Still Top Trend

market research | Posted by Joe Zaller
Jun 22 2009

In a previous post about broadcast  industry trends, I looked at at a ranking of top trends in the broadcast industry and made the comment that there  is considerable variation in response when you segment data by geography and customer type.  One of the really interesting things about the data in the 2009 BBS is that is can be sliced and diced in many ways, thereby providing insight through granular analysis. 

Here’s an example of how trends can vary by geographic region:

2009 BBS trends -- regional variations

 This chart shows responses to the same question as the previous post — i.e.  ”please choose from this list the top three trends that will most affect the way your company does business over the next 2-3 years” — from the point of view of people in different geographies.  Once again, a simple weighting formula was used to generate these rankings – if  a technology was ranked 1st (weight=3), 2nd (weight=2) or 3rd(weight=1).  This was done to illustrate the relative importance of  each technology trend to the respondent.  The trends in this chart are then expressed as a percentage of the total weighted votes.  As you can see, there are some interesting differences between the views of respondents in the Americas, EMEA and Asia.

While the transition to HDTV is still the top trend for all three geographies, there are differences in how important this trend is to the businesses of the respondents.  In the Americas, the transition to HDTV scores 23.79%; in EMEA is scores 21.92% and in Asia is scores 17.36%.  There are similar difference in the scores of the “file-based workflows” question.  This trend appears significantly more important to Europeans than it is to Americas and especially to respondents in Asia.

 A couple more observations:

  • Transition to HD and tapeless workflows are the top two trends in all three regions — despite the variations in importance of these trends relative to one another
  • Some of the trends that are in the news these days — e.g. transition to 3Gbps and 3DTV did not score particularly high.  Perhaps the reason we read about these trends in trade publications is that this vendors want to push the next new thing, while their customers want to complete the transition (to HD or tapeless for example) that they are in the middle of now, rather than worrying about the next new thing.
  • A few of the more “advanced” trends (multi-platform content delivery, 3D TV) scored higher in Asia than they did in the Americas or EMEA

Here’s the full list of the 15 trends from the study, ranked in order for each region.

       EMEA Americas Asia
1      Transition to HDTV Transition to HDTV Transition to HDTV
2      Tapeless Workflows Tapeless workflows Tapeless Workflows
3      File-based workflows IP content delivery Multi-platform content delivery
4      IP content delivery File-based workflows IP content delivery
5      Multi-platform content delivery Multi-platform content delivery Automated workflows
6      Automated workflows Video on Demand Advanced encoding techniques
7      Advanced encoding techniques Automated workflows Video on Demand
8      Video on Demand Advanced encoding techniques 3D TV
9      Transition to 3Gbps Transition to 3Gbps File-based workflows
10     On-line advertising On-line advertising Transition to 3Gbps
11     2K production 3D TV Set-top box PVR/DVR
12     4K production 2K production 2K production
13     Set-top box PVR/DVR 4K production On-line advertising
14     3D TV Set-top box PVR/DVR Network DVR
15     Network DVR Network DVR 4K production 

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Transition to HDTV tops global trends for broadcast industry insiders

market research | Posted by Joe Zaller
Jun 22 2009
As part of the 2009 Big Broadcast Survey, we surveyed the opinions of almost 5,000 people in 110 countries about broadcast technology vendor brands and industry trends. 

 

This was done by presenting all respondents — including those who identified themselves as technology suppliers such as vendors and systems integrators as well as those who identified themselves as technology buyers such as broadcasters and cable/satellite/IPTV operators –  with a list of 15 industry trends and asking them to choose  the three trends from the list that (ranking them 1-3) that they feel will have the “most significant impact on the way they do business over the next 2-3 years.”

By weighting the results according to whether a technology was ranked 1st (weight=3), 2nd (weight=2) or 3rd (weight=1), the relative importance of the technologies on a global basis, expressed as a percentage of the total weighted votes, is shown in the chart below. 

 
Summary of Globale Trends in Broadcast Industry

Summary of Global Trends in Broadcast Industry

The transition to high-definition operations is the key trend influencing the industry at the moment.  However the movement from tape to file video, and IP content delivery are also key global issues for the industry.

Following those issues in global importance are multi-platform content delivery, advanced encoding techniques, video-on-demand and the transition to 3Gbps within studio facilities.  Trends such as 3D TV are currently viewed as second-tier issues, but are likely to become increasingly important in the near future.

Of course because this chart represents the full sample, it does not account for the difference in opinion between different respondent types and geographic regions.  Doing this shows that there is  considerable variation between customers and regions — I’ll publish some examples of this in future posts.

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IABM Partnership Announcement

Uncategorized | Posted by Joe Zaller
Jun 19 2009

While I was finalizing the first version of the Big Broadcast Survey (BBS), I showed it to a number of people to get their feedback.  One of the first was Roger Crumpton, who heads up the IABM and was the driving force behind the excellent IABM Global Market Study, which is published in conjunction with Screen Digest.

I initially approached Roger to get his view on pricing the BBS.  However, when I took him through the study he got excited about its content and suggested that we work together.    Roger told me that the BBS fills a need in the market and provides IABM member companies with unique insight that was previously unavailable.

We decided to create a partnership  – after the IABM conducted due dilligence on the study, its methodology and its findings — whereby the IABM will help to promote the study in exchange for me offering their member companies a 15% discount.  We also agreed to “synchronize” the segmentation of my future reports with the segmentation in the IABM / Screen Digest report.

I am excited about this partnership as I think it can bring benefits to both Devoncroft and the IABM.

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Devoncroft — Life after Snell

Uncategorized | Posted by Joe Zaller
Jun 19 2009

Having worked for Snell & Wilcox (twice) and having lived in the UK (twice) for a total of thirteen years, I decided that a move back to the UK was not for me when we did the deal to merge the company with Pro-Bel.  

Luckily I had plenty of time to plan what to do next — particularly with the delay of our deal — and this gave me the opportunity to create Devoncroft Partners, a consultancy focused on market research and strategic marketing for digital media companies.

I actually officially left S&W at the end of 2008, but because the merger was delayed, they asked me to stay on as a consultant for six months or so.  During this time we completed the deal and I worked to re-brand the new company, get to the NAB trade show and manage the company’s marketing department.  

Although being a consultant took a bit of getting used to, I enjoy doing it as it frees me to work for multiple companies.  Indeed, I have also been working for AmberFin, a leading ingest, transcoding and media management company.

This work has been rewarding, but I was eager to branch out into new areas — the first of which is market research into the perceptions of broadcast technology vendors. 

I called this first project the “Big Broadcast Survey” (BBS for short) which is an apt description — almost 5000 people in 110 countries participated in this study, making it the largest of its kind ever undertaken in the broadcast industry.

The information in the BBS is really interesting and the industry reaction has been great.  I’ll be posting findings here from time-to-time, so please check back.

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Meeting the Queen

Uncategorized | Posted by Joe Zaller
Jun 19 2009
Here's me meeting the Queen in Buckingham Palace

 

When creating a blog, an obvious question is what to talk about in the first post.  In my case I was playing around with the settings and loaded up this picture of me and the Queen and decided to leave it there. 

This picture was taken during a reception at Buckingham Palace in July of 2007.  I was there with two colleagues from Snell & Wilcox (now called Snell)to accept a Queen’s Award for Innovation for the Kahuna production switcher.   

The picture quality is pretty poor because these are stills grabbed from a video camera.  Rather than have astill photographer in the room, they just video taped the event and grabbed stills from the video. You’d think they would have a better set up in a place that has these receptions all the time — or at least shoot the video in HD.

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