The number of US broadband households accessing web-to-TV content will leap to 24 million – and generate $2.9 billion in revenue from streaming services by 2013 -? according to a report by In-Stat, MediaBuyerPlanner writes.
Nearly 30% of those in the 25-34 age group use game consoles to view streaming video from the internet, but soon, web-enabled TVs and set-top boxes will begin to take the place of game consoles as the main vehicle for accessing web video content.
In five years, there will be 7.4 million US broadband households that use media center PCs for streaming web-to-TV content.
In-Stat analyst Keith Nissen says a growing array of technologies is making it easier to stream web content on televisions, and that by 2011, it will be “very simple and convenient” to do so. Consumers will have either an Ethernet jack on the back of their TVs to access the web, or a web-enabled set-top box, he says (via MediaPost).
Nissen says that, as consumers expand their viewing of on-demand content on sites like Hulu and YouTube, and broadcast and cable nets face continued cannibalization of ad revenue, cable companies and networks will begin to change their business models. While currently, they view online TV as additive to pay TV services, web-to-TV will ultimately force a complete restructuring of today’s video services.
One possible outcome of this could be that television networks will offer a cable-like pay model for premium content, with archived TV shows available on demand.
