NEW YORK–A new report from Amagi indicates that the FAST channel business continues to grow and play an increasingly important role in the streaming sector, particularly among broadcasters who now account for 30% of the top 100 channels. 

The 12th Amagi Global FAST Report found that TV networks now account for 30% of the top 100 FAST channels, driving a 40% share in total hours of viewing (HOV) across these channels. 

The research also indicated that among Amagi-delivered FAST channels, global HOV  was up 31% and ad impressions jumped by 26% during Q2 2024 compared to Q2 2023. 

These findings underscore the significant role that FAST channels play in the rapidly evolving streaming landscape, demonstrating FAST's ability to adapt and thrive in the face of new technologies and viewing habits, Amagi said. 

Those findings come at a time when some researchers are reporting data that the FAST business continues to grow but has become more challenging with a larger number of channels chasing advertising dollars.  

"The latest edition of our report highlights the substantial role FAST plays in the streaming ecosystem," said Srinivasan KA, co-founder and chief revenue officer of Amagi. "With TV Networks accounting for a substantial portion of the top channels and viewing hours, it's clear that FAST provides a great avenue for traditional media companies to draw additional revenues in the digital age. This report also underscores the ongoing double-digit growth in global HOV and ad impressions, demonstrating the robust health of the FAST market."

The newly released Amagi Global FAST Report offers critical data and insights derived from over 50 FAST services and 5,000-plus channels using Amagi Thunderstorm, the company's Server-Side Ad Insertion (SSAI) platform. Additionally, the report incorporates findings from the 2024 Amagi Consumer Survey (April-June), which reflects the preferences and viewing habits of nearly 500 U.S. households across various income brackets.

Key takeaways from the 12th Amagi Global FAST Report (Data based on Amagi ANALYTICS and FAST channels that run on Amagi's platform) include:

• Consumers Increasingly Comfortable With Exploring FAST Offerings: 75% of Amagi's Consumer Survey respondents indicated they would create a free profile on a streaming service to sample FAST channels, and more than half would enter their credit card information.
• Growth of Broadcaster-Owned Channels: The total number of broadcaster-owned channels within FAST increased by approximately 2.5 times.
• Increase of FAST Channels Within O&O Apps: The total number of FAST channels within O&O apps increased by almost 50%.
• Significance of Single IP Channels in FAST: More than 25% of entertainment channels are Single IP channels, driving more than 33% of HOV within the genre.

Amagi will host the webinar "How FAST enhances streaming's many business models" on July 31 at 1 p.m. Eastern Time to discuss opportunities associated with the new report. Attendees can register here.

Amagi provides a complete suite of channel creation, distribution, and monetization solutions. The company's clients include ABS-CBN, AccuWeather, A+E Networks UK, beIN Sports, Cox Media Group, Fremantle, Gannett, Gusto TV, NBCUniversal, Tastemade, The Roku Channel, Lionsgate, VIZIO, MAVTV, DAZN, Astro among others. 

The latest edition of the Amagi Global FAST Report is available here. More information about Amagi and its streaming TV solutions is available at www.amagi.com.

At the NextTV Summit, part of Future's NYC TV Week in New York this week, the panel “RIP Broadcast TV?” looked at the viability of the original TV platform in the era of streaming TV. It also discussed how broadcast TV is extending its reach on newer platforms. Rob Weisbord, chief operating officer and president of broadcast at Sinclair Broadcast Group, spoke about the importance of the broadcast “ecosystem” in retaining its relevance, including diginets and mobile apps. “We look at everything as spokes to a wheel,” he said. 

That includes Sinclair streaming network Stirr and news app NewsOn. 

As much as the major subscription streamers dominate the traditional primetime, Weisbord said consolidation is inevitable for that sector. Programming costs, he added, mentioning Netflix movie The Gray Man, are not sustainable, and perhaps the streamers will consider licensing content to station groups. 

Jim Long, CEO of LocalBTV/Didja, said Sinclair has the right idea about connecting with viewers on all platforms. “Sinclair is doing exactly what they should be doing,” he said. “Be where the consumers are.”

The panelists made the point that, as much as viewers rely on Netflix, Hulu and other subscription streamers, those platforms don’t provide local programming. “Localism is the most important thing to us,” said Kevin Dunaway, VUit VP, affiliate relations & content development, adding how VUit has 300 station partners. “We want to partner with [stations] because that content is important to all those areas.”

Dunaway made the point that a local programming event, be it a sports game or a parade, can often get significant viewership beyond the event’s home market. 

With viewers facing so many viewing options, some say there’s greater demand for local content. “We always say that content is king, but maybe it’s even more true than before,” said Stephane Guez, CTO at Dalet. “If you don’t do it well, people are going to click somewhere else.”

ATSC 3.0 looks to enhance local broadcasters’ relationships with viewers, and users, in their communities. Guez called ATSC “just another way to make it easier to combine traditional broadcast and IP distribution.”

Another unique selling point for local broadcast is over the air, and free. “We have a very attractive proposition,” said Weisbord. “We have 50 plus years of heritage doing this and nothing replaces that heritage.” 

David Bloom, senior contributor, NextTV, moderated the panel. 

This article originally appeared on TV Tech sister brand NextTV.

Gray Television’s total non-political (core) ad revenue last month was about $82 million; during the same month, political ads generated $175 in advertising, said Pat LaPlatney, president & co-CEO of Gray Television Inc. Overall, at Gray TV stations in 95 markets—even through a longer-than-ever political process which began in early 2019—53% of total political revenue came between Oct. 1 and Nov. 3 (Election Day), LaPlatney explained during the monthly webcast of the Media Institute, a Washington think tank, on Monday (Nov. 23).

His summary confirmed earlier reports on the extraordinary reliance on broadcast political advertising this year, even with the impact of early voting in many states.

“Gray Television has never seen spending start earlier than we did for the 2020 cycle,” he added, citing ad buys in Maine for Senator Susan Collins’ reelection effort “a full year before the general election.” He also pointed to the first order (“albeit a small one”) from Democratic primary hopeful Tom Steyer in February 2019.

In remarks that large shared research data from Kantar Media’s Campaign Media Analysis Group (CMAG), which monitors political advertising, LaPlatney summarized the trends of the political arena.

He also confirmed that “sports events were a heavy focus, with many [political] advertisers triple spotting during college and NFL football games.”  He noted that many campaign advertisers ran two spots within a half-hour local newscast and many waived the separation requirements to keep their commercials from being run adjacent to rivals’ political messages.

He pointed out that “the Bloomberg Effect” shattered records and created “unprecedented spending levels” during a six- or seven-week period, reaching levels that most political advertisers barely hit during the entire cycle.

From this year’s experience, LaPlatney said he believes broadcast TV will continue to play a major role in campaign advertising—even with the growing presence of digital platforms.  He also cited the continuing TV commercials in the pending Georgia races for U.S. Senate seats. 

“Campaigns turned much more to broadcast television,” he said.  ““You’ll see the pie continue to grow. Digital will grow; the broadcast share will be similar to where it ended up this cycle—at about 50%” in the next presidential election year.

“These records will be broken in 2024,” he predicted, but he admitted, “It's hard for me to put that into context.”   

In response to questions about the role of NextGen TV (also known as ATSC 3.0), LaPlatney said he expects it to have “a significant effect,” citing the IP-based format for its ability to provide better targeting and click-to-donate options.

“There will be markets where ATSC 3.0 will matter,” he said—and it will increase during the next four year.

LaPlatney said that Gray TV is “fully committed” to the 3.0 rollout, but because many of its stations are in smaller markets, it may be a while before the service debuts throughout its footprint. He said that its stations in Charlotte, N.C., and Cleveland will launch NextGen TV transmissions in 2021 and he’s looking forward to “the competitive advantages we never had before.”

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.—Broadcast TV and video are popular targets for criminals to launch credential stuffing attacks, according to a new report from Akamai that looked at the entire industry landscape.

Credential stuffing is the method by which criminals tap automated tools to use stolen login information to attempt to gain access to user accounts on other online sites, assuming that consumers use the same login and password for multiple services. The use of these stolen credentials can range from just allowing a non-subscriber to watch content via pirated streaming accounts or, more dangerously, stealing personal information.

While the media industry is a prime target in general—Akamai reports that 20% of the 88 billion credential stuffing attacks observed from January 2018-December 2019 were targeted at media companies—the video media sector is becoming increasingly targeted. There was a 63% increase year-over-year in attacks against the video sector, per Akamai. This includes a 630% increase against broadcast TV sites and a 208% increase against video sites. Video services saw a 98% increase in attacks; attacks against video platforms, however, dropped by 5%.

Reasons for this increase in attacks against broadcast TV and video sites includes the rise in on-demand media content in 2019, as well as the launch of new video services (Akamai doesn’t specifically name the services), the kind of things that credential stuffing attackers target, says Akamai.

The U.S. is the number one place for credential stuffing attacks against media companies, with a reported 1.1 billion in 2019.

The “Akamai 2020 State of the Internet/Credential Stuffing in Media Industry” report was delayed from its original April date to July because of COVID-19, but that delay allowed for Q1 2020 data to be added to the report. This included a spike in malicious login attempts against European video service providers.

“As long as we have usernames and passwords, we’re going to have criminals trying to compromise them and exploit valuable information,” Steve Ragan, Akamai security researcher and author of the report, explained. “Password sharing and recycling are easily the two largest contributing factors in credential stuffing attacks. While educating consumers on good credential hygiene is critical to combating these attacks, it’s up to businesses to deploy stronger authentication methods and identify the right mix of technology, policies and expertise that can help protect customers without adversely impacting the user experience.”

The complete Akamai report is available online. 

Among other things, the coronavirus pandemic has prompted a sharp increase in internet usage that service providers were simply not prepared for. Early on in the lockdown European telco Vodafone alone reported a 50% rise in usage since the start of the outbreak. With an unprecedented amount of people confined to their homes for much of the day, broadband providers found themselves stretched to the limit to provide quoted speeds needed for home working and studying, and of course to meet our viewing requirements. In Italy, Telecom Italia reported a 70% increase in traffic due to gaming marathons during lockdown.

Back in March, the EU commissioner asked Netflix to switch to standard definition in order to alleviate internet strain. YouTube also decided to follow suit and downgraded the quality of their streams in Europe. Even the newly launched Disney+ planned to downgrade its quality from the offset. According to Statista, 80% of people in the U.K. have HD or HD ready televisions, so the difference in stream quality would have been noticeable for viewers. Is it  possible that this was one of the factors that contributed to the highest viewing levels in linear TV since 2016, as observed by Ampere Analysis? With Netflix now lifting the quality restrictions, if the trends observed in linear viewing change while widespread lockdowns persist, we could conclude that video quality is a huge factor in viewing choices. 

The numbers of those watching broadcast television has indeed seen a noticeable spike with vast numbers tuning in around the world to watch their leaders’ addresses during the crisis, including the 27.1 million who tuned into watch Boris Johnson announcing the U.K. lockdown on March 23. It would seem that the public are in fact hungry for certainty and accuracy in a time of great unrest and are looking to broadcasters to provide accurate information where other sources including social media sometimes do not. In fact, according to a YouGov poll last year, only 12% of us trusted information given on social media. 

Among the many challenges we all face, there are two important factors that may inhibit broadcasters at this time. The nature of their content and their ability to adapt and be flexible. Those relying primarily on live event content are undoubtedly hit the hardest. Thanks to a slew of cancellations, the source of fresh content has truly begun to dry up, although the German Bundesliga football season did restart recently, albeit behind closed doors. The broadcaster’s saving grace will lie in their ability to be flexible and adapt. 

Interestingly, Ampere Analysis found that the turnaround for broadcast TV in creating new content during the pandemic was faster than that for streaming services. Those who utilize remote working and maintain flexibility will find themselves better equipped to face the hurdles ahead. 

Peter Mayhead is the CEO of Pebble Beach Systems.

Glenn Reitmeier, former senior vice president, Technology Standards and Policy, at NBCU, sees his long career in R&D with Sarnoff Labs and senior technology positions at NBC Universal as a prelude to the next phase of his professional life.

Taking the technology, business—and even legal, in the sense of working closely with lawyers—experience he has amassed over his more than 40-year career, Reitmeier has formed GlennReitmeierTV, a consultancy devoted to helping those who call the shots in the industry navigate their way to success.

In this, the second of TVTechnology’s two-part interview with Reitmeier, the tech visionary talks about the highlights of his time in R&D at Sarnoff and at NBCU, lessons he learned along the way, the future prospects for television and how the tension between traditional broadcast engineering and the onslaught of IT tech and specialists will likely play out and a future in which transition is the order of the day.

(An edited transcript.)

TVTechnology:When you look back at your career it seems like, generally speaking, the first half was devoted to R&D and the second half was spent as a broadcaster. How would you compare the two? And did you ever find yourself at NBCU thinking, “I wish I would have had this or that insight when I was involved in this or that R&D project?” If so, can you give me an example?

Glenn Reitmeier: It might seem like I had two very different careers, but they were more similar than you might expect. If you think about a “technology maturity spectrum” as a left-to-right progression of R&D, advanced development, product design, product manufacturing and user application of products, my Sarnoff and NBCU roles would appear to be as far apart as you can get. But if you take that straight line and wrap it around in a circle, then R&D and user applications become adjacent, and it’s a small step between the two.

How can that make any sense? Well, at Sarnoff we started with technology experts from many different disciplines, and we attempted to come up with R&D projects that would create commercial value—think of that as a “technology push.”

In my role as a technology leader at NBCU, I was able to start with an understanding of our business challenges and attempted to identify technologies and drive the creation of standards that would provide solutions. Think of that as a “technology pull.” So, in both roles I was always trying to “connect the dots” between business needs and technology solutions.

In our Sarnoff R&D efforts, we had to rely on our project sponsors and partners to help provide the deep business insights and context that we lacked. For example, in the Advanced Digital HDTV effort, having NBC’s insights as a broadcaster combined with Thomson and Philips insights as TV manufacturers was extremely powerful. But I have learned that it’s extremely difficult to get business leaders and technologists to collaborate productively. They often have very different perspectives and “speak different languages” that need a translator. Now add lawyers to the mix and there is another whole set of perspectives and vocabulary. The ability to be conversant in the business, legal and technology domains and to “connect the dots” among them is where I hope to create value in my consultancy.

An example of an insight that I wish I had during the Grand Alliance effort is the importance of audience measurement. It was assumed that however audience measurement worked in analog, it would work in digital. In retrospect, maybe we could have done some things that would have advanced the art of audience measurement and commercial relevance in ATSC 1.

TVT:How long will broadcast TV remain viable?

GR: The answer is it’s all up to the broadcasters and the business leaders. If the broadcasters have the commitment to be technology leaders and they continue to innovate and provide valuable services, the services may change and morph, but broadcasting TV as an industry has the opportunity to survive and prosper. If you find yourself painted in a technological corner, if you are at a dead end, or you fail to innovate, then you are in big trouble. I think it is all about vision and leadership.

TVT:How do you see the back-and-forth between broadcast engineers and IT specialists ultimately playing out at stations, groups and networks?

GR: I think in the short-term, it will take a lot of dedicated teamwork. I don’t think we can, nor would we, escape the IT transformation and IP infrastructure changes that are coming over the industry. Short and medium term, teamwork, collaboration and bringing multiple skills to bear will be a necessity.

I think over the long-term, how we think about a broadcast engineer is going to change, and I think there is going to be a little bit of a subset of the IT world that has to deal with real-time signals and real-time computational performance. I think, not just for broadcasting, but for other applications of video, audio and media or lots of things, I think the IT world will become more real-time sensitive.

TVT:What do you see as your top technical contributions during your 25 years at Sarnoff, rising from an entry-level research associate to VP, HDTV and Multimedia Systems?

GR: Early in my career, I was fortunate to play an important role in establishing the ITU-R BT.601 Component Digital Video standard, which was the basis for the SMPTE 259 Serial Digital Interface standard that became ubiquitous and made digital production and broadcast facilities a practical reality. For broadcast equipment, I worked on TV special effects algorithms, the D1 and D5 VTR tape formats and associated error correction and concealment. I worked on digital ICs that miniaturized camera timing and signal generation. For consumer electronics, my team pioneered the use of on-screen display graphics and left-right-up-down/select button navigation for TVs.

We were working on a precursor to the internet in the late 1980s, developing advanced dial-up modems and wavelet-based image compression. That led me to the “crazy” idea that an all-digital TV system might be possible and a skunks-works project that eventually became the Advanced Digital HDTV proposal. Its core concepts of a layered digital system architecture, a packet data transport for service flexibility and support for multiple video formats eventually became core elements of the Grand Alliance system and ATSC 1.0. I’m very gratified that my work at Sarnoff resulted in over 50 patents.

TVT:What about the highlights of your 17 years at NBCU as VP, Advanced Technology, and SVP, Technology Standards and Policy?

GR: At NBCU, I contributed to launching Universal-HD—NBCU’s first HD cable channel—and Weather+, the first national broadcast multicast channel, the first use of real-time video fingerprinting to combat piracy for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the development of subscriber authentication for TV Everywhere access to the 2010 Vancouver Olympics and the 8K-video-over-Internet2 demonstration for the 2012 London Olympics that we did in collaboration with NHK and BBC. And, of course, a lot of effort went into ATSC 3.0 and to establishing A3SA, the ATSC 3.0 Security Authority.

TVT:Any parting thoughts?

GR: The technology changes that have taken place over the course of my career never cease to astound me. While I’m proud of the contributions I have made, I am extremely grateful for the many talented colleagues that I have had the pleasure to collaborate with over the years.

One final observation. Both time and technology advance relentlessly. The incredible longevity of the analog NTSC standard led many industry leaders to believe that the ATSC 1 standard would similarly last for more than 50 years.

They thought that they just had to endure a single transition, and then technology would remain stable. As we have seen in the span of ATSC 1.0 and ATSC 3.0, the pace technology advances is too fast for that model. There will certainly be an ATSC 3.1, 3.2 and eventually a 4.0 and beyond.

So, to the contrary: If you aren’t moving forward, you are falling behind. In an environment of rapidly changing technology, a constant state of technology transition is the new normal. Simply put: If you’re not in transition, you’re in trouble.

More information about GlennReitmeierTV is available online.

Read the first part of the TVT's interview with Glenn Reitmeier.

For a comprehensive source of TV Technology’s ATSC 3.0 coverage, see ourATSC3 silo. 

LONDON—Ofcom’s latest Media Nations report has found that 38% of viewers who watch content online say they “can’t imagine watching broadcast TV in five years time.”

The figure is among a number of key findings in the report, which looks at the state of U.K. TV viewing in 2019.

The report also found around half of U.K. homes now subscribe to a streaming service.

The number of viewers signed up to the most popular platforms—Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Now TV—increased from 11.2 million in 2018 to 13.3 million in 2019.

Ofcom also found that while traditional viewing still amounts for 69% of TV watching time, that figure is rapidly declining. U.K. viewers are currently watching on average 3 hours and 12 minutes of traditional TV a day, 11 minutes less than 2018 and 50 minutes less than in 2010.

Daily viewing of streaming services increased by seven minutes in 2018, to 26 minutes, while viewing of YouTube increased by six minutes, to 34 minutes. For the first time, young people now spend more than an hour on YouTube every day (64 minutes, up from 59 minutes).

Two in five U.K. adults now consider online video services to be their main way of watching TV and film.

The report is available to read on Ofcom’s website.

BETHESDA, Md.—When reports surfaced early last month that Huawei—the giant Chinese telecom manufacturer, best known for its infrastructure equipment and handsets—is planning to make 8K television receivers for 5G video transmissions, fear and skepticism popped up around the globe. Why would a company with a limited consumer electronics presence (aside from handsets, of which it is a world-leader) plunge into the competitive and low-margin TV receiver business? Would the Huawei initiative—if true—affect the dynamics of 5G video distribution? Moreover, given the current political scrutiny around the company (and the U.S. barriers to distribution here), would any 5G TV devices actually be allowed to go to market in the U.S. and other Western countries?

Huawei was quick to deny the reports, which originated from Japan's Nikkei Asian Review. Nikkei said that the Chinese electronics giant was working on an 8K receiver using its own built-in 5G chip that could download data-heavy content, including virtual reality and 360-degree immersive video.

‘WE DON’T DO TV’S’

A senior official at Huawei's U.S. arm told TV Technology, "We don't comment on industry rumors or speculation." Separately, Huawei executives were quoted in Chinese business publications insisting that, "We don't do TVs."

But his further comment—"A big-screen terminal does not necessarily mean a TV"—was parsed into a challenge of whether Huawei is playing with words. Industry analysts in China wondered if Huawei is actually making a TV-like device but will call it by another name. Others cited Huawei's expansive Internet of Things strategy, noting that a high-capacity 5G monitor (as well as mobile devices) could be part of that IoT roadmap—without actually being a conventional TV set.

Another senior U.S. technology expert, who requested anonymity, pointed out that Huawei "certainly has the technology to make it happen," although he acknowledged that "it's not clear what the need is, especially in the U.S."

"You can’t count on the TV being in a location with good 5G reception," he told TV Technology. "Maybe it'll work in urban areas in China."

Indeed there is already considerable speculation that Huawei would make the Ultra High Definition 5G TV receiver initially only for China and possibly other Asian markets—that it would not try to crack the competitive U.S. or European regions, at least not initially. Samsung and Sony have already announced plans for 8K monitors—albeit not with 5G capability. Their initial prices are in $5,000-$70,000 range, depending on size.

COMPLEMENTARY, NOT COMPETITIVE

No matter what eventually emerges from the Huawei TV tease, other developments augur a lively evolution for 5G's relationship with the conventional broadcast TV industry. From Korea to Germany—with hints of U.S. projects in the works—5G TV is emerging as a viable companion to the broadcasters’ ATSC 3.0 (aka “Next Gen TV”) platform.

Madeleine Noland, the new president of the Advanced Television Systems Committee, said that she doesn't perceive 5G as a competitor to "next-generation terrestrial broadcasting using ATSC 3.0 technology."

"ATSC considers the two transmission systems complementary," she said. "Each has benefits in terms of a variety of factors, things like efficiency, coverage, robustness and so on... We think the one-to-many architecture of terrestrial broadcasting and the big, robust data pipe of ATSC 3.0 make Next Gen broadcasting ideal for many applications.

"That said, down the road we envision service providers delivering data and video via the platform best suited to each given use case, and to devices that are equipped to receive data via multiple delivery methods,” Noland added.

Mark Aitken, vice president of advanced technology for Sinclair Broadcasting—who has advocated collaboration between 5G and ATSC 3.0 technology—said he "certainly can see 5G receivers playing a role as the fiber/cable alternative ‘from the curb to the home.'" Although he said he had no inside knowledge about the presumed Huawei plan, he expects such integrated devices to emerge.

"It would not surprise me to see a product like [a 5G TV receiver] that also incorporates an ATSC 3.x receiver as a gateway device, making available content from both wireless connections for distribution through the home/office," Aitken said. He foresees a "network hub" device that uses the home network (wired and/or wireless) as the distribution platform.

"We have a roadmap for the chip that may yield a 5G/ATSC 3.x integrated SoC [system-on-a-chip]," said Aitken, who also holds roles at Sinclair-affiliated technology companies ONE Media and the India-based semi-conductor maker Saankhya Labs.

"If there is a market, we will chase it," he said.

5GTV TESTS UNDERWAY

Meanwhile, other initiatives to marry 5G and advanced TV platforms are emerging around the world.

A German broadcast TV field trial dubbed "5G Today" debuted in early May. The project in the Bavaria region is a collaboration of the Bavarian Broadcasting Corporation, IRT, Kathrein, Rohde & Schwarz and Telefonica Germany. Its backers say that it could lay the foundation for the efficient transmission of broadcasting content to millions of future 5G devices.

Using the new broadcast mode FeMBMS (Further evolved Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service), 5G Today is expected to transmit signals out to about 60 km on Single Frequency Network channels 56/57 (750-760 MHz). Telefonica Germany is making the appropriate frequencies available for the trial. The project will test how 5G broadcasting can be used to create an overlay infrastructure that simultaneously reaches millions of 5G mobile devices in a way that is neither a burden to the regular mobile networks or which puts extra costs on consumers, according to the consortium that is running the test.

In South Korea, KT Corp. (formerly Korea Telecom) began offering a full-scale 5G IPTV service through set-top boxes and mobile devices in April, following more than a year of trials and special events (such as the 2018 Winter Olympics). Seoul Broadcasting Systems is working with KT to develop broadcast capabilities for the 5G technology. Under the new agreement, TVU Networks will work with KT Corp. to deliver UHD broadcasts over KT’s 5G enterprise network. Under terms of the agreement, KT and TVU Networks will work collaboratively to establish an enterprise 5G network and related broadcast capabilities in Korea.

These developments come as more research surfaces about the collaborative prospects for 5G and advanced broadcasting. The Ericsson Consumer and Industry Lab issued a "5G Consumer Potential" report last month in which it concluded that, "Consumers themselves predict massive changes in future usage on 5G, with video consumption set to peak."

In particular, Ericsson pointed out the cord-cutting appetite that 5G video will serve.

"Consumers in the U.S. would prefer to cut the cord from cable TV and instead use streaming services via 5G," according to the report. "Chinese consumers expect to live in a 5G-connected smart home; and South Korean consumers would love to go shopping in mobile Virtual Reality"

"Four in 10 [Americans] state that 5G home wireless broadband would be a strong incentive to cut their ties with cable TV, as it would then come bundled in with streaming services," Ericsson explains. "5G home wireless broadband offers an additional broadband choice to users if consumers are made aware of this alternative."

Although many of the respondents in Ericsson's analysis still think of handsets as their major vehicle for video consumption, the study opens the door to 5G delivery to other monitors.

"Consumers expect to increase their video usage drastically with 5G," says Ericsson. "Half of smartphone users in our survey say they will start watching YouTube and Netflix in 4K and will download more HD video content once 5G is available… One in five say that they could spend more time [watching streamed videos] provided that devices improve in screen size and battery life [and] data plan allowances."

WHAT HUAWEI COULD DO

The Ericsson finding brings the focus back to the impact of Huawei's reported plan to accelerate video delivery to a home monitor via 5G. The company holds more than 1,500 patents for 5G technology—about twice the number of Qualcomm, its largest U.S. competitor, according it IPlytics, a German intellectual property research firm.

Huawei also has strong relations with wireless telecom operators (especially in China), which will support a 5G video service. These existing connections would help Huawei install 5G base stations and small-cell stations within a region—part of the ecosystem needed for 8K delivery, according to C.Y Yao, a technology analyst at TrendForce, a Taipei research company, quoted in Asian publications.

In addition, Huawei has extensive connections in the TV business, as a supplier of chips to receiver manufacturers such as Hisense, Skyworth and Changhong. In particular, its modem chips will be essential for 5G service. Analysts believe that Huawei would work with Chinese or Korean suppliers of large-screen displays, although no specific speculation has yet emerged.

Most significantly, the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), a standards organization affiliated with the International Telecommunications Union, is working on 5G standards and an evolved IP Multimedia Subsystem. More than a year ago, 3GPP initiated a program seeking "improved support for television services to both mobile devices and stationary TV sets over eMBMS (enhanced multimedia broadcast and multicast system)." The goal is to let mobile/wireless operators deliver "superior TV services" via their networks.

As one observer put it, Huawei's move toward a 5G 8K project would expand its brand into a new market and boost its role in the evolving ecosystem.