Streaming video subscriptions will quadruple by 2019
Online video services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video are undeniably popular, but they are set to explode in the next few years. A study published by Juniper Research suggests that in a period of just five years (2014-2019) the number of people subscribing to streaming video services will rocket from 92.1 million to 332.2 million.
Despite what many people may have thought, it is not growing use of mobile devices for entertainment that will be responsible for the increase. The nearly fourfold growth will be driven by the success of the likes of Google's Chromecast and Amazon's Fire TV Stick.
While sales of smart TVs are on the rise, it is the upcycling of old televisions into connected devices that will really fuel the subscription surge. Mobile sales may be high, but when it comes to boxset splurges, viewers still prefer to settle down on the sofa in front of the big screen. The sheer number of ways to push streaming content to TVs -- set-top boxes, games consoles, and plug-in streaming sticks -- means that more and more people are creating their own smart TVs.
The growing market has spawned more players in the field, and this in turn has led to greater competition, helping to push down prices and further increase demand. While North America continues to see huge growth, China and the Far East also stand to fare well, with a predicted quadrupling of video on demand advertising from 2014 to 2019.
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