Live streaming subs to soar over the next five years

Subscriptions to live streaming services are predicted to hit 91 million over the next five years.

According to a new study from ABI Research, the advancement in the live streaming market is being driven by demand for sports and other live programming. The market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 10% up to 2024. 

One of the key barriers, the study points out, is latency. Broadcast latency is currently only around five seconds, but typical HTTP latency is about 40 seconds. Particularly with sports, this can prove to be a deterrent to cutting the cord. 

Khin Sandi Lynn, industry analyst at ABI Research said: “Sports streaming has proven to be a huge success in the live streaming segment. Many cord-cutters are still willing to get live streaming for sports programs. However, high delay compared to traditional broadcast sources can prevent many consumers from accessing live streaming.”

Latency, the research points out, is also a significant issue for other forms of online activity, such as video streaming, cloud gaming, esports streaming, online betting, and online auctions.

Eric Abbruzzese, research director of ABI Research, said: “These types of applications require a high level of interactivity, and any delay will have a negative result or even completely prevent the experience from occurring, due to latency exceeding minimum possible requirements. The accelerating growth of the cloud gaming and esports markets is also driving the demand for low latency streaming technologies and services with similar requirements to guarantee a baseline user experience.”

The report concludes that in order for live streaming to thrive, service providers and content distributors should properly invest in their streaming solution and choose the correct protocols to use.

Lynn said: “When the evaluation between video qualities, deployment cost, and business cases are done properly for low latency streaming solution deployment, service providers can offer a high-quality streaming service and improve churn and revenue.”