Boom Times for Some - But Not All - Video Software

According to Synergy Research Group, client software is the fastest growing software category within the video infrastructure software market, followed by headend software. The two segments have grown by 10%-20% in the past year while the third major category, content security, has declined. In total the video infrastructure software market has grown by 7% on rolling year-on-year basis. Some individual sub-segments have grown by more than 30%, including TV Everywhere, search and recommendation, and cloud DVR software.

In a market that is now generating annual revenues in excess of $5.5 billion, Cisco is the leader with a 20% market share in Q2 2014, followed by NAGRA, ARRIS, Rovi, Ericsson, Irdeto, Accenture and TiVo. Since Q2 2013, Ericsson has gained the most market share due to its acquisition of Microsoft’s IPTV/middleware business. The next biggest market share gainer is NAGRA, whose growth was also assisted by M&A activity, in this case the recent acquisition of content security specialist Conax.