Industrial analysis of OTT market and its implication for Telenor Norway

Abstract

With the rapid changes in the world of technology the boundaries are blurring between telecom and the world of internet. Telecom operators need to struggle hard and quick in order to be ahead of the race. Traditional operators are vulnerable to the new content markets and services being introduced, particularly over-the-top (OTT) services. OTT service basically refers to any type of media that is shared over the internet. The four distinct areas of OTT include; Mobile voice, Media (Video), Messaging and Cloud services. These OTT services do not require a dedicated ISP which controls or is responsible for the content shared. Neither are they concerned with copyrights and control of viewing instead it only uses ISP for transporting IP packets. The content is delivered to an end user device through a third party source. One of the benefits of OTT is that the end point can be a Smart TV, laptop, mobile device, game consoles, tablets or even STB. Some well-known examples of OTT services are Skype, YouTube, Facebook, Netflix, Hulu, WhatsApp, Viber etc. This paper will analyze latest trend in OTT communication services worldwide with specific focus on the video services such as Internet TV, Video on Demand, multi-screen play and mobile media. The television industry is yet another area that is evolving fast with a growing demand of multi-screen video consumption. According to Gartner, growth per user can easily reach up to 50% a year, particularly due to video. Therefore, at this point it is very critical for Telenor Norway and other network operators to embrace OTT and pursue innovative strategies to generate revenue streams and remain in the market. The arrival of smartphones has played a big role in revolutionizing OTT services, mainly because these smartphones have multimedia and advance communication functions such as 3G, Wifi etc. Operators need to create business models that are adaptable and agile to fast evolving consumer behavior. The scope for this project is investigation of latest trend in the OTT market and possible opportunities for Telenor Norway. The project will further discuss some recommendations and strategies that can be opted by Telenor Norway to stay ahead in the OTT market.