As with other regions of the world, consumers in the Asia-Pacific region are increasing the amount of hours that are spent online via those various connected devices, content consumption patterns are starting to change, giving wings to a surge of cloud-enabled, over-the-top (OTT) content and video on demand (VOD). That puts conventional service providers into a transition mode, with fresh challenges to face—but also buckets of opportunity to dip into.

In Asia-Pacific, the region is marked by high media consumption, actually surpassing Europe and western markets, especially via mobile devices. According to a Nielsen report on the changing Asian media landscape, Asian markets rank amongst the top globally for media consumption with four of the top five nations for home TV and online video usage located in the region. Asian countries also took all five spots when it comes to mobile video usage.

Check out our full analysis of the market and operator opportunities, here.

The international flavor this week continues with the news that under the newly signed five-year extension and professional services agreement, Vivacom, a Bulgaria-based quad-play service provider, will be deploying the real-time, converged BSS platform from NetCracker (News - Alert) Technology in order to monetize its quad-play services.

Ivan Cholakov, IT director at Vivacom, said, “Extending our relationship with NetCracker is a logical step as our business grows and advances because of the success of our ongoing partnership. We look forward to benefitting from NetCracker’s real-time transaction functionality and common platform approach as we execute this strategic upgrade of our core BSS capabilities.”

NetCracker’s offering of BSS solutions combined with professional services, managed services, and implementation expertise, are designed to enable service providers to operationalize next-generation connectivity, maximize the convergence of network and IT, monetize content, and deliver a compelling customer experience. For all of the deal’s details, click here.

The set-top scene is shifting globally as operators like Vivacom continue to innovate in services. Broadcom (News - Alert), once thought of as mostly just a player in the North American cable set-top box market, has extended its market share 4 percent to command nearly half of the STB silicon market globally, including in the satellite, IPTV and DTT markets.

ABI Research (News - Alert) (News - Alert) said that it now holds a 49 percent market share. With the exception of MStar, all of the other vendors in the market saw revenues nearly flat or falling during 2013. It found that saturation is an issue in the market, as STB shipments through 2018 will decline in North America and Western Europe (especially in saturated cable platforms that are losing subscribers to telco and satellite alternatives). However, they are set to grow strongly in Asia-Pacific and Latin America, where subscribers are gaining access to pay-TV platforms for the first time.

You can read full details and the market forecast, here.

And finally, looking to boost innovation in digital distribution for video, NBCUniversal and Comcast (News - Alert) are planning to host an inaugural “hackathon” from June 21-22. The event is aimed at getting developers to work on compelling ways of integrating licensed content into their applications.

Participants will gain access to APIs for NBCU’s cross-platform content portfolio, including CNBC, USA NBCNews.com, Universal Pictures, Telemundo, Universal Home Entertainment and NBCU-owned TV stations; and will be able to tap relevant technology from Comcast’s MSO side of the house, including TV Everywhere platforms.

To that end, developers will also be able to use APIs from a range of ancillary apps like the second-screen app company Beamly (formerly Zeebox), Gracenote automatic content recognition, onine video publisher thePlatform (News - Alert) (News - Alert) (which is Comcast-owned) and Radius Networks, which offers location-based services. 

There’s much more import to the move, detailed here.

To check out more details on all of this and more, visit our homepage. And have a great weekend!