As broadcast TV, movies, and other professionally produced content gets moved onto the Internet, huge opportunities are emerging for vendors who provide hardware, bandwidth and services, reports In-Stat. The value of the annual infrastructure build-out for online entertainment services is expected to quintuple between 2007 and 2011, reaching more than US$4.1 billion, the high-tech market research firm says.

“Bandwidth is the largest value category, with Hardware holding onto a solid share,” says Gerry Kaufhold, In-Stat analyst. “Key growth opportunities will arise for vendors who provide value-added services, such as online publishing, asset management, distribution, and interfaces for billing and advertising services.”

Recent research by In-Stat found the following:

• North America is the key market for online entertainment services, with Asia coming on strong in 2008.
• Online entertainment will be leveraged to improve TV network negotiating positions for Video-on-Demand.
• The “big name” media companies will establish ascendant positions for online entertainment.

The research, “Online Entertainment Infrastructure”, covers the market for Internet video entertainment. It provides forecasts for online video entertainment infrastructure by region and by category through 2011. It analyzes the key trends and developments necessary for online entertainment success including the complex online video delivery chain. It also features analysis of several key content delivery networks and publishers.