The global streaming devices market will expand at a 13.2% compound annual growth rate, reaching $18.97 billion by 2027, reported Allied Market Research Tuesday. Surging demand for livestreamed content will drive the growth, with bandwidth limitations impeding market expansion “to some extent,” it said. The TV segment is expected to dominate the market throughout the forecast period, rising at a 14.2% CAGR through 2027, it said. North America was 40% of the global streaming devices market in 2019 and is expected to maintain its dominant share for the next seven years.

Roku reminded customers they can watch Disney’s Mulan, which was originally destined for theaters but debuted instead Friday as a streaming offer due to COVID-19 (see 2008050003). The live-action remake is being streamed on Disney+ at $29.99 through Nov. 2. On Dec. 4, all Disney+ subscribers get access at no additional cost.

Samsung is the leading brand of streaming platform services in use across 27 countries, in a market that exceeded 1.1 billion devices, said Strategy Analytics Wednesday. Trailing Samsung’s 14% share are Sony (12%), LG (8%), Hisense (5%), TCL (5%) and Amazon (5%), said SA. Tizen is the leading platform in TV streaming with 11% deployed devices, followed by WebOS (7%), PlayStation (7%), Roku OS (5%), Fire OS (5%), Android TV (4%) and Xbox (4%). Over-the-top TV is a “complex and evolving landscape” vs. mobile devices where two platforms dominate, said analyst David Watkins. “Frequently updated, tactical tracking of platform deployments is a valuable tool in ensuring that services are reaching their highest potential audience.” SA expects internet streaming to dominate TV and video consumption across much of the world over the next decade, said analyst David Mercer. “As traditional television and video platforms continue to decline, TV streaming represents the future of television and video.”

Indiana cities suing streaming services that are seeking to force them to pay franchise fees, "are treading into dangerous legal waters" because a court ruling in favor of the streamers could also be legal ammunition for cable companies to claim they also shouldn't pay, CCG Consulting President Doug Dawson blogged Wednesday. Also problematic would be a ruling against the streamers because it would mean the cities ultimately are taxing some -- but not all -- bits moving back and forth between ISPs and customers, he said. Outside counsel for the cities didn't comment.

Some 78% of U.S. households have a subscription VOD service from Netflix, Amazon Prime, and/or Hulu, up from 69% in 2018, reported Leichtman Research Group Friday. About 55% of U.S. households have more than one SVOD service, an increase from 43% in 2018, it said. Forty percent of adults stream an SVOD service daily. The most active streamers are ages 18-44, with 63% of daily SVOD viewing. Some 30% of respondents said their Netflix subscription is shared with others outside their household, 23% for Hulu and 20% for Amazon Prime. Fifty-five percent of adults watch video on non-TV devices daily, including mobile phones, home computers and tablets; 44% watch video on a mobile phone daily, it said. The pandemic spurred an increase in SVOD and direct-to-consumer streaming video services, said principal Bruce Leichtman.

Major media and entertainment companies have developed stable delivery models to support their streaming services but see challenges ahead, said a June Comcast Technology Solutions sponsored report released Wednesday. It is part of Comcast’s TV 2025 Initiative, an international research program looking at obstacles and opportunities for streaming. Hurdles include multi-platform native application development, maintaining quality of experience -- especially with premium live experiences such as sports -- and delivering complex streaming services like virtual MVPD offerings reliably at scale, said industry participants. International expansion can also be challenging, it said. By 2025, the streaming market will include light-touch services delivering content mostly via third-party streaming platforms and channel marketplaces in a self-service model on one end and fully featured, high-end streaming services on the other, it said. The best streaming TV services, it said, will benefit from an environment that supports delivery of streaming services -- live and on demand -- at scale to major markets around the world; an integrated approach to advertising that allows linear and nonlinear TV and streaming services to be seamlessly transacted at scale; an artificial intelligence-powered industry that uses machine learning and automation to improve workflows, customer experience, content curation and monetization; and more agile, cloud-based broadcasting operations that support a faster pace of innovation.

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.

Audible is previewing a new subscription service dubbed Audible Plus that will offer Audible Originals, audiobooks and podcasts. Content from the $7.95 monthly service can be streamed or downloaded for offline listening, it said Monday. The Amazon company renamed its $14.95 monthly offering Audio Premium Plus; the step-up version includes one credit a month that can be used for any unit of content outside the Plus category, regardless of price or length, it said. Audible Plus signups begin Thursday.

Apple spiced up Apple Music, adding two live global radio offerings and redubbing its Beats 1 radio station Apple Music 1, it said Tuesday. New stations are Apple Music Country and Apple Music Hits, which features songs from the ‘80s, ‘90s and 2000s. Apple Music 1, streaming from studios in Los Angeles, New York, Nashville and London, offers pop culture conversation and artist-led programming.

COVID-19 hastened the trend away from pay TV, Needham analyst Laura Martin wrote Friday. Subscription-driven (SVOD) streaming services grew 20-50% faster than earlier estimates, said Martin, citing as drivers shelter-in-place, lack of live sports, shuttered cinemas and divisive news cycles. She cited a July Roku study saying 40% of cord-cutters say free or extended trials for streaming services encouraged them to cancel a traditional TV package. Because many streaming services drop entire new seasons on one day, they had more hours of nearly completed episodes ready. Needham estimates consumers signed up for two to four new SVOD streaming services, while free ad-driven (AVOD) users doubled. This era is driving more experimentation, including Universal’s multi-year 17-day theatrical window deal with AMC and Disney’s decision to release Mulan for $30 Sept. 4 (see report, Aug. 6 issue). The economic impact of widespread unemployment might negatively affect SVOD streaming services due to less disposable income; or, it could lead users to rotate sequentially among SVOD services rather than pay for multiple SVOD subscriptions simultaneously, Martin said.