Harmonic CEO Sees ‘Clear Pickup’ in Demand for Premium Live 4K OTT Services

The video market for content equipment supplier Harmonic is “opportunity-rich, but still very much in transition, as our customers evolve from traditional broadcast and pay-TV models to new over-the-top models,” said CEO Patrick Harshman on a Wednesday earnings call. The migration from “traditional” pay TV to what Harmonic calls “Over-the-Top 2.0" is very much “poised to trigger a global wave of investment in new unified video platforms that enable delivery of premium live over-the-top services and targeted advertisements with broadcast-like quality and reliability” to large-screen TVs as well as mobile devices, said Harshman. Ultra HD will be a key “additive to these next generation over-the-top services,” he said. “We're pleased to be finally seeing a still early, but clear pickup in customer demand” for such services, he said. The “ongoing wave” of mergers and acquisitions in media and telecom “is inextricably linked to enabling and exploiting this next generation of streaming video services and associated personal advertising,” he said. “The endgame is unquestionably greater investment in next-generation over-the-top streaming platforms, underscoring the opportunity for Harmonic to leverage our strong technology platform and global brand to play a key enabling role in this global re-invention of the pay video business model.” Harmonic shares closed 15.7 percent higher Thursday at $3.50.