Through a mix of originals and content licensing, Netflix and Amazon upped their investment in programming last year to $7.5 billion, eclipsing CBS, HBO and Turner, as well as several countries, including South Korea and Australia, per a new study from IHS Markit.

Between 2013 and 2015, Netflix and Amazon more than doubled their annual expenditure on programming – with Amazon’s output rising from $1.22 billion to $2.67 billion, and Netflix’s jumping from $2.38 billion to $4.91 billion in that timeframe, according to data from the IHS study – World TV Production Report 2016.

“The levels of investment we are seeing from Netflix and Amazon are only topped by Disney ($11.84 billion) and NBC ($10.27 billion),” Tim Westcott, senior principal analyst at IHS Technology, said, in a statement.

Westcott also warned that “it’s premature to declare that the era of linear TV is already over,” noting that investments by OTT players have “come hard on the heels of a boom in production of original drama and comedy by the likes of AMC and FX in the U.S.”

Notably, there were 148 new scripted shows aired by basic cable networks in the U.S., up from 138 the year before and 96 in 2013, per the report.

So far this year, there have been 113 scripted basic cable shows, versus 78 on the networks, 31 on premium cable, and 57 online.

On a regional basis (see chart), TV programming spending in 2015 was largest in North America ($46.6 billion), followed by Western Europe ($39.03 billion) and the Asia Pacific region ($27.85 billion). Total global spending last year was $129.8 billion, up a bit from $128.7 billion in the prior year period. However, growth was seen in 29 of the 40 countries covered in IHS’s report.

RELATED: CES 2016: Netflix Goes (Almost) Global

“Amazon and Netflix, though they are US companies, are now commissioning for multiple territories, so we have treated them as global platforms,” Wescott noted.

Thanks in part to the rise of smartphone-powered virtual reality platforms such as Google’s just-announced Daydream View, the installed base of VR headsets will soar from 4 million in 2015 to 81 million in 2020, IHS Technology predicts.

On the higher end of the VR headset spectrum, IHS also expects Sony’s PlayStation VR platform (for PS4 consoles) to outsell the two main PC-connected platforms – the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive – in 2016.  This year, IHS Technology forecasts that PlayStation VR will sell 1.4 million headsets, and generate $134 million in spending on VR entertainment, versus $69 million for PC-based headsets.

However, mobile VR headsets, such as the Oculus-powered Samsung Gear VR and Daydream View, will nab the biggest share. IHS sees smartphone VR headsets representing 87% of the market’s installed base by the end of 2016.

RELATED: Google Unveils Daydream View VR Headset, Controller

On the mobile side, IHS expects the Gear VR to have the largest installed base of all major branded headsets with 5.4 million this year, but expects the Daydream View to “slowly disrupt Samsung’s dominant market position” and become the most popular headset for VR by 2019.

RELATED: 360 Video: VR’s Path to the Mainstream

IHS also expects consumers to spend $1.6 billion on VR headsets this year, bolstered by more expensive platforms like the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Sony PS VR.

“Smartphone VR headsets will represent the largest addressable market for VR content because of cheaper pricing,” Ian Fogg, senior director at IHS Technology, said in a statement. “The smartphone VR base will be a major opportunity for VR content experimentation

“Smartphone VR headsets’ share of the VR installed base will be 87 percent at the end of 2016.”

However, the firm also expects higher-end VR headsets to dominate content monetization, with IHS predicting that consumer spending on VR entertainment will hit $3.3 billion by 2020, up from a mere $310 million in 2016.

RELATED: PlayStation VR Lands on October 13

“There will be a polarization of the VR market between lower volume premium VR headsets, which will have strong paid content conversion rates, and higher-volume cheaper smartphone VR headsets, which will monetise content at a lower rate,” Piers Harding-Rolls, director of games analysis at IHS Technology, noted. “A $3.3 billion VR entertainment market by 2020 will represent less than 1 percent of overall entertainment spending worldwide.”

The first quarter of 2016 presented mix results for TV makers as global shipments drooped, but 4K TV shipments surged

Worldwide TV shipments in the period fell 2%, to 49.1 million units while the global 4K TV market surged 99% year-over-year, according to IHS’s TV Sets Market Tracker.

Noting that categories such as 4K are critical to the stability of revenue and profits for global TV brands, 4K TVs shipments reached 9.3 million units, or 19% of all units shipped.

Additionally, the average TV screen size globally increased to a new high of 40.6-inches.

Demand for big screen TVs (55-inches and larger) were particularly strong in China – up nearly 80% in Q1 -- thanks to declining prices that fueled consumer upgrade activity, IHS said.

Large-screen TV shipments in China rose from 2.1 million units in the first quarter of 2015 to reach 3.8 million units in the first quarter of this year, the firm said, adding that nearly two-thirds of big-screen TV shipments in China in Q1 were 4K models.

IHS said 4K TV prices for 55-inch and larger sizes declined more than 36% year over year, with some brands offering 65-inch 4K sets for less than $900, below the average global price of more than $1,700. Additionally, the average screen size of TV shipments in China also reached a new high of nearly 45-inches in Q1.

 “North America has traditionally been viewed as the key region for large-screen TV growth, owing to the region’s long history of leading global average sizes,” said Paul Gagnon, director of TV sets research for IHS, in a statement. “However, in recent years China has surpassed North America in terms of average TV size, and the country has enjoyed much stronger growth in the 55-inch-and-larger category in the past year, even surpassing North America’s share of large-screen TVs.”

Aided by steep price declines, adoption of Ultra HD technology will expand in the coming years, with about 34% of U.S. homes having 4K TVs in 2019, IHS found in a new forecast that also expects most 50-inch-and-larger TVs worldwide to feature 4K resolution. 

With respect to 4K TV penetration in other world markets, it will reach 25% in the European Union in 2019, led by Switzerland (32%) and followed by the U.K. (31%).  Despite Japan’s slot as a developed premium TV market, 4K home penetration there will reach just 14%, while China’s 4K TV penetration is poised to hit 24% in 2019, per IHS

“With the Japanese consumer preference for smaller TV screens, it will be more difficult for 4K TV to expand its household penetration in the country, even though UHD broadcasts are set to begin in 2018, in the run up to the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2020,” Hasakazu Torii, IHS’s senior director of consumer device research, said in a statement.

In emerging markets where homes currently have smaller LCD TV orr CRT TVs, 4K penetration is also anticipated to be lower – Russia (11%), Brazil (8%) and India (2%).

Parks Research recently issued a report finding that  Samsung accounted for 28% of 4K TV purchases made within the past year by U.S. broadband homes, while Best Buy captured 40% of the 4K TV retail market, topping the sector.

The global broadband CPE (consumer premises equipment) market rose 5% in Q2 2015 versus the previous quarter, to $2.9 billion, as unit shipments climbed 11%, to 61 million, IHS found in a new report.

FTTH optical network terminals in China moved the needle, as unit shipments there more than doubled year-over-year --  from 9.8 million to more than 20 million.

Global broadband CPE revenues rose 7% from the year-ago quarter.

Among other categories, DSL CPE unit shipments dropped 1%, to 23 million, while cable CPE  units inched up 1%, to 11.6 million. DOCSIS 3.0 modems, at 13%, posted the highest growth in the cable CPE category, per IHS.

Fixed LTE CPE shipments jumped 4%.

Based on big investments underway in China, IHS also upped its 2019 global broadband CPE forecast by 8%, to $12.4 billion (see chart).

“The primary source for raising our global broadband CPE forecast is the massive investment currently ongoing in China,” Jeff Heynen, research director for broadband access and pay TV at IHS, said in a statement. “Despite reported economic headwinds, the Chinese government continues to subsidize telco investments in fiber infrastructure to expand accessibility and throughput. The result is heavy spending on GPON and EPON ONTs.”

Softness in the cable broadband access market continued into the second quarter of 2015, as global revenues dropped 2% versus the previous quarter, IHS said in a new report that keeps track of spending for cable modem termination systems (CMTSs), edge QAMs, the Converged Cable Access Platform (CCAP), and coaxial media converters (CMCs).

IHS said revenues for that product group totaled $465 million in Q2 2015, while DOCSIS channel shipments in North America dropped 25% after rising 13% in the previous quarter. “[R]evenue was also down 19 percent due to a slowdown among a handful of larger operators,” IHS said

On the brighter side, global revenues in the second quarter actually rose 12% on a year-over-year basis. Additionally, spending on CCAPs, high-density, lower power consumption chassis that combine the functions of the CMTS and edge QAM, grew 34% in the first half of 2015 versus the prior year period (see chart). 

Operators spent heavily in the second half of 2014 and are now in the process of getting those products and that additional channel capacity deployed, Jeff Heynen, IHS’s research director for broadband access and pay TV, explained.

He noted that the effect of potential mergers (Charter Communications’ pending acquisitions of Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks, for example) “did have some impact on purchasing, especially in North America.”

IHS also expects spending to pick up in the second half of 2015. Heynen added that the market is still waiting for the cBR-9, Cisco Systems’ new CCAP, and expects volume to pick up once that product becomes more widely deployed.

Heynen said slowness in the first half of the year will cause pent up demand and see shipments pick up in the fourth quarter as operators “go gangbusters on buying new cards and new licenses.”

He is also seeing some steady growth in the coax media converter market, which is picking up some steam in China and other emerging cable markets in the Asia Pacific region. That product category, now part of the overall Cable DOCSIS specifications, is opening up a total addressable market that will primarily benefit China-based suppliers such as Huawei and Sumavision. CMC product revenues represents 6% of the market in Q2 2015, up from less than 3% of the market a year ago, according to Heynen.

On the vendor front, Arris led the cable broadband access market in Q2 with 54% share of revenues, followed by Cisco (21%) and Casa Systems (15%), according to IHS.

Research house IHS Technology added to the growing evidence that cord cutting emerged as a real threat in the second quarter, releasing a study that reports that the pay TV business lost more than 658,000 subscribers in the second quarter, driven by sluggish performance in the IPTV sector.

In its study --  State of the U.S. Pay TV Operator Market – IHS said that IPTV, which includes telcos AT&T and Verizon – reported video customer growth of less than 1% in the period, compared to 3% in the prior year.

“Until the fourth quarter of 2014, IPTV had been the only pay TV category to experience growth; however, by Q2 of this year, IPTV’s significant forward momentum had been lost,” said IHS Technology’s principal analyst of television and media Erik Brannon in a statement.

The IHS report is the latest in a string of research that has shown in the past few months that cord-cutting has reared its ugly head and is becoming a force to be reckoned with in the pay TV industry. Other reports from MoffettNathanson, Leichtman Research Group, SNL Kagan and others have shown that the second quarter was apparently the tipping point for customers to shed their pay TV shackles in significant numbers. 

Cable operators showed a very slight improvement in Q2 2015 over Q2 2014, as the effective bundling of faster-than-IPTV broadband and video gave cable TV companies a small local advantage over IPTV. “In much the same way that cable companies had to make room for satellite and IPTV operators, the maturity of IPTV is a signal that U.S. pay TV companies must now strike a balance with over-the-top TV offerings,” Brannon said.

According to the latest IHS State of the US Pay TV Operator Market report, both of the satellite operators in the United States lost significant numbers of video subscribers in Q2 2015. Although Dish attempted to mask losses by including Sling TV subscribers, IHS estimates that the company lost 285,000 total subscribers, while DirecTV lost 133,000, without NFL Sunday Ticket promotions to fall back on.

AT&T U-verse TV experienced its first quarterly loss in Q2, and the company now claims to be focused mainly on high-value subscribers. “AT&T competes with the larger cable operators that are becoming more savvy,” Brannon said. “However the company is less effective against both Comcast and Time-Warner Cable, because U-Verse cannot match the broadband speeds offered by those companies, its service is no longer new in the pay TV market and its prices are very similar to incumbent cable subscriptions.”

Consumer adoption of 4K TVs has not yet reached critical mass, but one research firm is already putting out predictions on coming 8K-TVs that can handle 7680 x 4320 pixel resolutions.

Noting that 8K broadcasting in Japan for the 2020 Olympics will “spur a new round of resolution increases,” IHS Inc. predicts that 8K TV shipments will rise from a mere 2,700 units in 2015, to 911,000 in 2019.

In an earlier forecast, IHS said 4K-capable TV panels will reach 40 million units this year, representing a penetration rate of 15%.

That new 8K TV forecast, the firm noted, hinges on the 65-inch screen size, which has by far the highest volume in production and will account for almost 80% of 8K TV shipments in 2019.

“The biggest inhibitor to the growth of 8K TV will be consumer screen size preferences,” said IHS principal analyst Paul Gray, in a statement. “8K requires a very large screen or the higher resolution becomes invisible at normal viewing distances. The average screen size in the TV market has grown by an inch each year over the past decade, but it is still a long haul before sizes over 70 inches become commonplace.”

IHS notes that new LCD fabs in China are scheduled to come online in the next three years, a move that will dramatically increase capacity to make 65-inch 8K TV displays.

The worldwide broadband CPE market had an okay first quarter, but it didn’t blow the doors off the place either.

Total revenues hit $2.8 billion in the first quarter of 2015, up 3% year-over-year, but down 2% from the previous quarter, IHS found in a fresh report on the sector. Unit shipments, at 54 million, were flat as service providers expanded fixed broadband service capabilities.

"Overall, the CPE market remains strong, with revenue up 3 percent year-over-year. We expect both DOCSIS 3.1 and G.fast to help add momentum to the cable and DSL CPE market segments and FTTH to continue at its current pace, driven by deployments in China, North America and EMEA," said Jeff Heynen, research director for broadband access and pay TV at IHS, in a statement.

DOCSIS 3.1 is the emerging platform for HFC networks that will support multi-gigabit speeds, with initial deployments expected to start later this year. G.fast is a standard that aims to bring gigabit capabilities to DSL networks when delivered over relatively short loop-lengths and is viewed as a platform that could prolong a telco's migration to FTTP.

IHS said the the top performers in 1Q15 were EPON and fixed LTE, which both saw double-digit percentage increases in unit shipments, and noted that the firm is seeing growth in the market for mobile broadband routers, expecting unit shipments there to jump past 622,000  in 2019. 

Adoption of 4K TVs has yet to reach a mainstream audience, but even more advanced 8K video is starting to creep into view in the form of some small, limited demos tied to the FIFA Women’s World Cup tournament. 

Fox Sports and NHK, Japan’s national public broadcasting organization, are holding invitation-only demos this week and next of live 8K coverage of two tournament match-ups –Japan vs. Cameroon (June 12), and U.S. vs. Nigeria (June 16) – at the Zanuck Theater on the Fox Studio lot in Los Angeles.

They’re billing it as a first for North America, noting that the live feeds will be presented in 8K/Super Hi-Vision in 22.2 surround sound. The live feed from the stadiums will come with no on-air commentary, “just as if you’re really there,” they noted in the invitation.

Sadly, I won’t be able to check out the 8K demo or enjoy the refreshments, but those who do make it should be in for a treat. I did get a chance to check out the pre-recorded 8K demo Comcast and NBCUniversal put on in 2012 around the London Summer Olympics, and it was worth the trip.

So, when can we expect 8K to be ready for prime time? Phil McKinney, the president and CEO of CableLabs, told the crowd at the recent Cable Congress event in Brussels that he believes it’s “on track to go commercial in 2020.”

With that expecation, the NHK/Fox Sports demos will certainly offer a glimpse into the future of TV.

In the meantime, 4KTV sales are slowly rising, despite a relative dearth of content available in the format. According to a fresh forecast from IHS, shipments of 4K-capable TV panels will reach 40 million units this year, representing a penetration rate of 15%.

The first quarter represented a mixed bag for cable broadband access network equipment suppliers as DOCSIS channel shipments climbed but overall revenues in the category dipped due to aggressive pricing and a surge in software licenses, according to a new report from IHS that tracks shipments of cable modem termination system (CMTS), converged cable access platform (CCAP) and edge QAM products.

Thanks to ongoing upgrades, DOCSIS channel shipments rose to 1.8 million in Q1, up 14% from the previous quarter and up 48% from the year-ago quarter, but revenues tied to combined shipments of CCAP, CMTS, CMC and edge QAM equipment fell 7% sequentially in the first quarter, to $474 million.

"The cable broadband market got off to a mixed start in the first quarter,” Jeff Heynen, research director for broadband access and pay TV at IHS, said in a statement. “Despite the first quarter typically being a slow one, DOCSIS channels increased yet again. But revenue was down due to a combination of aggressive pricing and a higher proportion of software licenses.”

While the scuttled Comcast-Time Warner Cable merger was expected to dampen the cable access market in North America, “the overall cable broadband market remained healthy, setting the stage for a strong 2015,” IHS said in its report.

Among vendors, Arris dominated the market in the first quarter, due in part to the early availability of the E6000, Arris’s integrated CCAP, IHS said. Arris rival Cisco Systems introduced its integrated CCAP, the cBR-8, in May during the INTX show in Chicago, noting that shipments were underway with MSOs such as Comcast and Altice Group.

Update: Heynen said Arris represented 51% of revenue share in the product category (CMTS, CCAP, edge QAM and CMC equipment) in the first quarter,  followed by Casa Systems (18.8%) and Cisco Systems (18.7%). 

Consumers may be viewing video on mobile devices at a growing rate, but that apparently won't stop TV panel makers from turning in a banner year, according to a new forecast from IHS. 

Shipments of 4K-capable TV panels will hit 40 million units this year, representing a penetration rate of 15%, IHS said, noting that 4K TV panel shipments are expected to grow 108%, with Korean panel makers nabbing a 57% share of the market, followed by Taiwanese manufacturers 27%, and Chinese manufacturers (12%).

Global TV panel shipments, meanwhile, are expected to rise 5%, to 265 million units, in 2015, also a record.

Thanks to strong demand for larger TVs and 4K capabilities, TV makers are bracing for possible tight panel supplies, even as the rising dollar cuts TV import prices, the research firm said. That, IHS added, will create a 27% jump in larger displays of 49-inches to 55-inches, with displays of 58-inches and 65-inches expected rising 26%. Displays of less than 40-inches will grow at less than 2%, IHS predicted.

“Global first-tier TV brands, like Samsung and LGE, are sticking to their aggressive shipment plans for 2015, while Samsung Display and LG Display have less room to increase volume to meet area demand from their captive customers’ demand for larger TV panels,” said Yoonsung Chung, director of large-area display research at IHS, in a statement. “These two Korean panel makers could experience a tightening of capacity in the second half of 2015, because of planned production-line adjustments.” 

The global base of streaming media players will reach 50 million units by the end of this year, with Google’s coming Android TV platform poised to shake up the market, IHS Technology predicted in a new forecast.

In the U.S., IHS expects the installed base of streaming media players to reach 24 million, up from 16 million last year, and 10 million in 2012.

While Roku and Apple TV currently dominate the global market, Android TV, a platform that is seeking to find a home inside not just smart TVs but specialized streaming devices, could disrupt it and possibly loosen their grip, the research firm said.

Android TV, unlike the much-maligned Google TV platform, appears ready to provide the functionality and ecosystem to make serious inroads against TV-focused streaming media players from Roku and Apple. But of those two market leaders, IHS believes Android TV is best positioned to wreak havoc on Roku's position.

Google unveiled Android TV in June at the company’s I/O developer’s conference, announcing that TVs from Sony, Sharp and TP Vision, as well as streaming media devices from Asus and Razr would be among the initial wave of products that would use the new platform. Google hasn’t announced precisely when Android TV products would become commercially available, but the company has reportedly begun to send out kits to developers.

“Today Roku and Apple TV continue to dominate the U.S. installed base for streaming media players, with a combined 94 percent share in 2013, and Amazon’s Fire TV is a significant recent entrant. However, the arrival of Android TV is expected to significantly affect the competitive dynamics of this market over the long run,” Paul Erickson, senior analyst for the connected home at IHS, said in a statement. “Although standalone media player products utilizing Android TV do not have the brand recognition, established brand equity, or level of retail distribution that products from companies like Apple, Amazon, and Roku possess, over time these standalone players are expected to create competitive pricing and positioning concerns by delivering previously absent levels of polish, capability, ecosystem integration, and content access to consumers at lower price points.”

By 2017, IHS expects the number of installed streaming media players to reach 44 million by 2017. When factoring in Blu-ray players, smart TV, and game consoles, the research company expects the total U.S. installed base of connected TV devices to eclipse 213 million units by 2017, up from 169 million now.