MVPDs Seeing Benefit of Cloud TV Shift With OTT Rising, Says Kaltura

A “paradigm shift” is occurring in the pay-TV industry, “with operators acknowledging the benefits of putting Cloud TV at the heart of their infrastructure," said Nuno Sanches, Kaltura general manager-media and telecom. Five years ago it was considered impossible to deliver operator-grade quality of service from the cloud, Sanches said Monday, citing economics and telecom operators not wanting to use the open internet to deliver pay-TV services. Today, multinational pay-TV operators are embracing cloud TV as “the best-of-breed solution to deliver future-proof services." The percentage of U.S. broadband households subscribing to a cable or satellite pay-TV service fell to 62% in Q1 from 67% in the year-ago quarter, reported Parks Associates Monday, while the average amount of video watched per week grew to more than 37 hours per household. The spike in online video consumption, decrease in pay-TV-only households and shift of pay-TV online are widening the gap between over-the-top video and traditional pay-TV, said Parks analyst Steve Nason: “Traditional services are looking to migrate to the cloud to get the best of pay-TV and OTT.” Parks will co-host a webinar with Kaltura on cloud TV Tuesday at noon EDT.