The State of the Future of Television in Six Visuals

We cover many emerging markets in the startup ecosystem. We previously published posts that summarized Financial Technology, Internet of ThingsBitcoin, MarTech, Artificial Intelligence, Retail Technology, Health Technology, and Connected Transportation in six visuals. This week, we do the same with the Future of TV. At this time, we are tracking 664 Future of TV companies across 11 categories, with a combined funding amount of $13.5B. To see all of our Future of TV related posts, click here!

The six Future of TV visuals below help make sense of this dynamic market:

  1. Market Overview: Breakdown of Future of TV into categories.
  2. Number of Companies Per Category: Bar graph summarizing the number of companies in each Future of TV category.
  3. Average Funding By Category: Bar graph summarizing average company funding per Future of TV category.
  4. Venture Funding in Future of TV: Graph comparing total venture funding in Future of TV to the number of companies in each category.
  5. Global Breakdown of Future of TV: Heat map indicating where Future of TV companies exist.
  6. Median Age of Future of TV Categories: Bar graph of each Future of TV category by median age.

Below you’ll find our Future of TV sector map as well as the categorical breakdown of the sector.

1. Future of TV Market Overview

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Video Consumption Platforms: Video Consumption Platforms enable users to consume television content through the Internet and across multiple screens. They include destination and over-the-top video platforms, as well as set-top boxes and connected TV devices.

Social Video Platforms: Social networks built around video/TV content, and applications used by the end-users alongside TV programs to offer enhanced viewing experiences.

Video Advertising Platforms: Video Advertising Platforms include ad networks that help marketers by finding and aggregating the supply of publisher inventory, ad servers that facilitate the delivery of ads from a stored server, and marketplaces that connect buyers and sellers over digital advertising space.

Content Distribution Platforms: Companies that provide a network of servers to deliver content to users based on their geographical location, and platforms that enable users to upload their videos and automatically distribute content across a variety of destinations.

Content Management Platforms: Content Management Platforms handle the organization of video content such as processing videos for uploading, managing ad operations, and tagging video content with metadata to enhance targeted advertising.

Video Creation Platforms: Video creation platforms enable users to create or produce video content to be distributed across the Internet or other medium.

Video Infrastructure Platforms: Video Infrastructure Platforms provide the backend system that support video streaming services. These include general infrastructure platforms as well as data management platforms that store and utilize user demographics and consumption data.

Multi-channel networks (MCN): Multi-channel networks are entities that aggregate content from multiple YouTube publishers into one channel.

Video Licensing Platforms: Video Licensing Platforms manage and monetize the copyright of television, film, and digital video content and syndicate them with advertisements to deliver to publishers.

Video Analytics Platforms: Video Analytics Platforms measure and provide viewer analytics and social media data around TV shows to publishers and content creators.

Video Discovery Platforms: Companies that help users find and curate relevant video content based on preferences and data analysis, as well as providing viewers with supplemental TV program information (e.g. descriptions, showtimes).

2. Number of Companies Per Category

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The bar graph above summarizes the number of companies in each Future of TV category to show which are dominating the current market. Currently, the “Video Advertising” category is leading the way with a total of 132. The category with the least number of companies is “Video Licensing” with 32 companies.

3. Average Funding By Category

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The bar graph above summarizes the average company funding per Future of TV category. The “Video Creation” category leads the way with an average of $67.6M per funded company. The Video Creation category includes platforms that enable users to create or produce video content to be distributed across the Internet or other medium.

4. Venture Investing in Future of TV

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The graph above compares total venture funding in Future of TV to the number of companies in each category. The “Video Consumption” and “Social Video” categories seem to be the ones with the most traction.

5. Global Breakdown of Future of TV

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The following infographic is an updated heat map indicating where Future of TV startups exist across 33 countries and 202 cities. Currently, the United States is leading the way with 383 companies. The United Kingdom is in second with 45 companies followed by Israel with 18.

6. Median Age of Future of TV Categories

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The bar graph above summarizes Future of TV by median age of category. The “Content Management” category has the highest median age at 9 years, followed by “Video Infrastructure” at 8.5 years.

7. Recent Trends in the Future of TV

Some of the more recent trends we’re seeing in the sector include the following:

The rise of second screen and viewer participation — As viewers consume video content on television, most of them are also engaging on social media and other websites through another device. Nielson data estimates that 85% of American television viewers are also browsing on a second screen while watching television. Viewer participation has also moved from the background to the foreground, as viewers no longer just sit back passively and comment through social media, but actively influence the production of the content by voicing their opinions about it. (Source)

The growing popularity of mobile content — With the prevalence of mobile devices, the quality of mobile video content has also grown drastically. With better compensation and less executive intervention, talented writers are increasingly moving from the film industry to the television industry, making premium television content now available to anyone through all devices. Another trend is that viewers are now watching longer and longer video content through mobile devices, contrary to the previous prediction that only minute-long video content would be consumed on mobile. (Source)

As the Future of TV continues to develop, so too will its moving parts. We hope this post provides some big picture clarity on this booming industry.

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