New data from Parks Associates (www.parksassociates.com) finds that 51% of pay-TV subscribers are very interested in having unlimited space to store DVR recordings, which indicates strong consumer demand for cloud-based DVR services.
Currently, over 50% of U.S. broadband homes either include a DVR as part of their pay-TV subscription or have purchased one at retail. The research firm estimates the total number of cloud DVR subscribers in the U.S. will exceed 4.6 million by the end of 2015 and total 24 million by 2018.
“Consumer interest in cloud DVR features is strong, particularly the idea of unlimited storage capacity. As with any transition, there are challenges and opportunities for operators looking to expand their services into the cloud,” says Brett Sappington, director of research at Parks Associates. “Operators are interested in cloud DVR because these services will reduce their long-term hardware costs while providing multiscreen capabilities, enhanced features, scalability, improved flexibility, and new revenue opportunities. In this webcast, we will examine the good and bad of the DVR, virtualizing the DVR, content rights issues, the impact of the cloud DVR, and implementation-related issues.”