Two recent reports from analyst house IHS Electronics & Media give food for thought. Firstly, as the chart below illustrates, the global TV market has continued to decline this year:

According to IHS, every category of TV – from LCD, to plasma, CRT and rear projection will suffer a decline and this continues a trend that started in 2010 in Western European and Japanese markets, and 2011 in North America.

Source: IHS Inc. October 2013

Transcoder market set for double-digit growth

At the same time, IHS paints a very different picture of the transcoder market where it predicts there will be over 140,000 encoder and transcoding channels shipped in 2017, an increase of around 25% on 2013. The market will be driven primarily by demand from live multi-format transcoders, digitisation of analogue cable infrastructure and growth in overall broadcast channel feeds. Much of this growth will come from emerging markets in China, India and South-East Asia, which will double in volumes between 2013 and 2017.

The transition from analogue to digital TV has been steadily developing over the past ten to fifteen years, leaving the bulk of opportunity in cable distribution. As cable digitisation in Europe and Asia is completed over 150,000 encoder channels will be needed between 2014 and 2017, accounting for a significant growth rate as existing channels are digitised, new channels added to digital packages, and cable headends are consolidated.

Multi-format transcoding for OTT distribution will be the real winner

While cable distribution will accounting for nearly 25% of the increase in channels shipped to 2017, the real winner will be in live multi-format transcoding needed for live multi-screen OTT distribution. The increase in multi-device and multi-screen viewing on tablets, phones and other devices will drive the need for transcoders that can build multiple profiles for adaptive bit-rate streaming, creating a market that will grow by over 150% in the next four years and account for over 30% of the total growth for encoders and transcoders.

Does your transcoder resource support enterprise growth?

So the writing is on the wall – transcoders hold the key to a successful and profitable multi-screen future for media enterprise operations of all scales, sizes and modus operandi. And in this statement lies the dilemma – how is your transcoder strategy impacted by your business model?

The simple answer is that it is hugely impacted. From day one of your transcode operations you must be absolutely certain that your transcode resources will support your business development and growth strategy. It must never provide a block to growth and development.

Navigating your way through the transcoder resource minefield is a challenge. At AmberFin, this is our raison d’être – we hate to see organizations making flawed investment decisions and creating a transcoding strategy which hinders its ability to join and exploit the multi-screen revolution.

If you wish to know more about the fascinating world of transcode operations why don’t you start by downloading and reading our White Paper on the subject – “Enterprise Level File-Based Workflows: Merging Technology with Sound Business Sense“. 

Alternatively, you could take the old fashioned approach and call us!