Half of TV viewing to be on-demand by 2020, predicts Ericsson

By 2020 consumer TV viewing habits will be made up of 50% live, linear viewing and 50% on-demand or time-shifted programming, according to research by Ericsson. 

Outlining its vision for TV and media in 2020 in the first of its six-part ‘Ericsson Game Changers’ series, Ericsson said that viewers will soon be used to fully-personalised, targeted content across live, linear and on-demand content – with social recommendations driving on-demand viewing.

This compares to “generally weak search” functionality today across EPGs with hundreds of channels and VoD stores with large catalogues.

Ericsson also predicts that by 2020 there will be an increase in “real-time consumer content” within programming, and that consumer interaction will extend across social, gaming and live and immersive content.

“Consumers are rapidly evolving their values and assumptions around the discovery, access, payment and experience of TV content and the media industry must adapt to meet these expectations,” said Per Borgklint, senior vice president and head of business unit support solutions, Ericsson.

“Content owners and broadcasters must change programming formats, distribution rights and advertising models. TV service providers must become ultimate aggregators and enable their viewers to pick and mix content, discover content in a targeted way and find everything on anything.”