Netflix poses further threat from Smart TVs
April 7, 2015
New ranges of Smart TVs are going on sale in Europe from brands such as Panasonic, Sony, Toshiba and others. What makes these latest models different is that they have a dedicated ‘Netflix’ button on the remote control, as reported by Advanced-Television last week.
More often than not the Netflix option was already available to consumers, but to access the option users had to sift through the TVs own on-screen options in order to access a dedicated website from Netflix. That changes, and becomes much easier, with the Netflix button.
Netflix admits that it has been working closely with TV manufacturers to optimise its service for users.
The news prompted a note to clients from investment bankers Exane BNP-Paribas, which warned that this sort of improved technology as well as content offerings posed further risks for established pay-TV broadcasters and even commercial broadcasters such as ITV, and threatens the existing status-quo for EPG providers.
“We estimate digital video will represent 23 per cent of UK video consumption by 2018 (vs 15 per cent in 2014, 8 per cent in 2010),” said the bank’s note. “We see the UK ad market structure as relatively protected from these changes in the short term but changes to lower barriers to entry longer term. We reiterate our neutral rating on ITV and Sky.”
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