5 Main Trends in IPTV

A decade or two ago, television customers were not very demanding. They simply wanted to be able to watch the programming they loved from the comfort of their own home. Nowadays, they still want that, but they also want and demand a whole lot more, and they are getting all of the things that they want through IPTV.

While that's great for the customers, it can sometimes be difficult for the IPTV providers to keep up with all of the demands of their clients, but, with all of the competition that exists in the industry, they certainly have to. Otherwise, they risk losing their clients to other companies.

Whether you are an IPTV company trying to stay on top of the latest trends in the industry or a company that is thinking about branching out into IPTV, it is extremely important that you know what the main trends are in the IPTV world. That way, you can determine if they are necessary for your business to have success and, if so, what you need to do to offer them, how to market them, and what to charge for them. To help you get started, you'll find below a discussion of some of the most popular trends in the IPTV industry right now.

It is no secret that Smartphones and other mobile devices, such as tablets, have pretty much taken over the world. According to statistical reports, people are constantly on their phones or other devices, and they expect to be able to access anything and everything from them, and that includes their favorite programming.

As a result, it becomes crucial to be able to offer your clients the option to view both on demand and live programming from their phones and tablets.

It is even common nowadays to have a mobile remote control app that will allow users to control their television from the app.

Again, this is a lot to offer, but the important thing to keep in mind is that if clients are willing to pay for these features, then you should be willing to offer them to them. It will only benefit you in the long run.

Another thing to be aware of is that modern day OTT providers are offering all kinds of services to their customers including the ability to use programs like Netflix and Hulu, small niche programming, mobile viewing, and more. With so much competition out there, it is absolutely imperative that your offerings are on par with the others and that you are able to keep up with and even out-perform the competition. Otherwise, you run the risk of losing clients.

Thanks to the internet and its convenience and speed, people are used to being able to search information easily and to discover new things quickly and easily as well. Your IPTV services should feed into this desire by making it easy for your clients to not only search through available content and programming but also to discover new content that they are likely to enjoy.

For example, to have success, your IPTV service should include a search function that, on any device, allows customers to search content by at least the following:

• Program/film title
• Name of the director
• Name of any actors involved in the work
• Video frame

You should also have some kind of system in place that can look at a customer's viewing activity and, based on that, make recommendations for other content that the viewer is likely to enjoy. Many IPTV service providers even feature a "rating" system that allows users to rate content based on how much they enjoyed or did not enjoy it. This information is then used to make "guesses" about content that clients are likely to watch.

While this might seem like a lot of work on your end, keep in mind that, not only are these types of services beneficial to the client, but they are also very beneficial to you as well. They allow you, first of all, to gather important information related to your clients' viewing activity. You can use this information to make informed judgment calls about which services to offer or continue offering, which services to charge more for, and which services and programming to do away with.

Furthermore, if you can recommend new programming to your viewers and get them to enjoy it enough, you can always make the decision to charge additional fees to access that content. If the clients want it badly enough, then they will be willing to pay more for it, which means that you can end up making even more money.

Keep in mind too that, with the recent tightening of anti-piracy laws, it is incredibly important to adhere to all rules and regulations to avoid fines, fees, and other problems. At the same time some of the countries (mostly in developing countries) pass the laws about transition from analogue and cable tv to IPTV, which is a quite strong market growth driver.

Finally, make sure that you are offering a wide range of packages with a wide and varied pricing range. You want to appeal to every client and to every budget, so the more packages you can offer and the more distinct each package's pricing, the better it will be for everyone involved.

Now that you know what some of the major IPTV trends are, it is time to take a look at your current offerings or your planned offerings and to see where you are doing well and where you are falling short. Then, you can make changes that are going to help your business and that are going to help to keep your clients satisfied and coming back for more. With so much competition in the industry today, your business literally cannot afford to not take these steps.

Something else to keep in mind is that, as fast as it comes about, IPTV technology changes and evolves into something newer and better. So, if you are not keeping up with trends now, imagine how far behind you can fall in just a few short months. Don't fall behind and become outdated- that's the worst thing you can do in this industry. Instead, start staying on top of the major trends now so that your services can evolve as quickly as they do.