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Articles by Ed Barton
IBC 2026: What media tech vendors need to know
As the industry prepares for IBC 2026 in Amsterdam, media tech vendors face a complex and rapidly changing landscape. Under pressure from a consolidating market and shifting buyer priorities, navigating the show floor requires a clear understanding of what customers truly value. Based on our latest analysis, here is what vendors need to know to succeed in this challenging environment. The overarching trend shaping the industry is consolidation, which is a natural response to declining markets.
MWC 2026 trends: agentic AI, AI-native 6G and the future of cognitive telecoms
The Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2026 in Barcelona confirmed a crucial shift from the "buzz" surrounding generative AI to its practical, deep integration across telecommunications infrastructure. The primary focus of the event was Agentic AI and the acceleration towards AI-Native 6G networks, promising to fundamentally transform the industry's operational technology. Our team attended MWC, sharing some of the key trends and insights that emerged from the event.
Why media infrastructure is shifting to COTS | Caretta Research
The media industry is undergoing a significant transformation in how infrastructure is bought and used, probably the biggest that will happen in the lifetime of anyone reading this. For years, broadcasters and other organisations producing TV shows relied on proprietary hardware for their studio, control room and OB van infrastructure. This hardware was often dedicated to a single use case—multiviewer, converter, colour corrector—with embedded software and a perpetual licence.
TBI Tech & Analysis: Reflecting on results & Disney’s direct model
TBI Tech & Analysis: Reflecting on results & Disney’s direct model Ed Barton & Tim Westcott, senior analysts at TBI sibling Omdia, explore what the recent half-year results tell us about Covid-19’s impact on programming spend and provide their take on the global impact of Disney’s decision earlier this year to close its UK kids channels.
Interactive Space Posters
Previous Set of Related Ideas Next Set of Related Ideas Curiscope's Multiverse Posters Features an AR Design References: curiscope & coolhunting Curiscope's Multiverse posters come to life with Augmented Reality. Consumers can simply point their phone or tablet at the posters and interact with the planets in detail: explore hotspots, satellites and examine the interior with a voiceover guide. Consumers can choose from the Solar System, Earth, Mars and the Moon.
Research: Disney’s pivot streams into focus
Ed Barton, chief analyst at Ovum, considers the prospects of Disney+ in an increasingly crowded streaming market. The launch of Disney+ in November represents a critical milestone in Disney’s strategy to lessen its reliance on pay TV and TV advertising by building a direct-to-consumer streaming service. This is no ordinary streaming launch.
A Simple Way to Capture Additional Service Revenue
In a quick review of dealership’s websites, I find that many are almost entirely sales focused and tend to neglect the one department that brings the most significant percentage of profit… service. Go ahead. Take a look at a few dealership websites. Service tends to be the red-headed stepchild; often neglected and forgotten. Yet it accounts for 50% or more of a dealership’s revenue.
CDW 2016: SPs must go beyond best-effort techniques to advance with OTT video - Ovum
Conventional wisdom has held that ever-increasing broadband speeds will always provide the necessary room for video streamed over the top (OTT) of the public Internet to grow in scale and sophistication. However, at this year’s Content Delivery World (CDW 2016) conference, held in London on November 8–10, service providers (SPs) were urged to adopt new techniques to ensure that best-effort delivery remains good enough for tomorrow’s viewers.
Enterprise mobility: A vital piece of the digital transformation puzzle - Ovum
Digital transformation is, undoubtedly, a hot topic and an area of significant interest to organizations across the globe. It’s important to remember that digital transformation means different things to different organizations and encompasses many different themes and considerations. There are, however, common areas that are imperative to any digital transformation effort, and mobility is certainly one of them.
Infinera announces a meshponder to address the need for 200G and 400G - Ovum
The next-generation PIC in Infinera’s meshponder provides 2.4x the capacity of its previous PIC, 200G, and a roadmap to 400G. The new meshponder can be connected to different meshponders with different slices (channels) directed to the appropriate meshponders. The slicing capability is enabled by the new Flexgrid ROADM. Infinera’s solution can slice “elephant flows” of traffic for data centers and “mouse flows” for carriers and everything in between in 100G increments.
Digital tools still need to work with analog brains - Ovum
There is no doubt that digital productivity tools, delivered via laptops, mobile phones, and tablets, are useful in enabling users to create, share, and distribute their work efficiently. However, research suggests that there are significant educational benefits to some old-fashioned analog skill sets that can be critical to the way we think and solve problems.
Four short-term challenges for broadcasters - Ovum
The outlook for broadcasters over the next five years is difficult to predict, but in Ovum’s opinion, they have four key challenges to face in the short term.
Four short-term challenges for broadcasters - Ovum
Being a broadcaster is a challenging occupation: A dwindling audience for linear TV, slow commercial broadcasting revenue growth, the complexity of OTT distribution and monetization, and concerns about the long-term survival of the traditional high ARPU, high commitment pay-TV market all make for a difficult operating environment.
Infinera announces a meshponder to address the need for 200G and 400G - Ovum
On November 17, 2016, Infinera announced the Infinite Capacity Engine, a meshponder for 200Gbps+ that utilizes Infinera's fourth-generation Photonic Integrated Circuit (PIC). Infinera has been lagging the market with its 200G+ solution and point solutions in regional networks, so this will allow it to compete more effectively by offering higher capacity and purpose-built point solutions for high traffic scenarios.
$2.1 trillion in communications capex up for grabs in next five years - Ovum
Ovum’s new capex forecast projects that communications provider (CP) capex will exceed $2.1 trillion over the next five years (2017–21). Well over $800bn of this capex will reach vendors. Spending their technology budgets wisely, though, will continue to challenge CPs as revenue growth rates slow. Total revenues for the three types of communications providers (CPs) we track will grow from $2,851bn in 2015 to $3,427bn in 2021.
Analyst Opinion: Are cloud and digital the saviors of big-ticket IT outsourcing?
Analyst Opinion: Are cloud and digital the saviors of big-ticket IT outsourcing? The European IT outsourcing (ITO) market has evolved into one of the most active IT services markets in the world. The volume of ITO contracts recorded by Ovum’s IT Services Contract Analytics (ITSCA) tool continued to grow strongly in 2015, driven by small applications- and workload-centric contracts. But it’s not these low-end (sub-$25m) contracts that are having the greatest impact on the European ITO market.
Analyst Opinion: IBM Bluemix OpenWhisk offers serverless microservice architecture development options
IBM announced a number of new tools and services at the February InterConnect conference in Las Vegas. New and noteworthy is IBM Bluemix OpenWhisk, an event-driven environment that allows microservices based applications to be built, with the infrastructure required to run them fully automated and hidden from the developer. In addition, IBM announced a strategic partnership with GitHub to offer a dedicated GitHub Enterprise Service on Bluemix.
Analyst Opinion: IBM mobile ROI study shows crucial role for company board
A recent IBM mobile strategy ROI study shows the importance of gaining board-level support. The study surveyed 1,000 C-suite and mobility executives across 19 global industries to better understand the measure and use of ROI in enterprise mobile initiatives. The top influence in achieving high ROI in mobile initiatives is C-level support. These results will help organizations assess and improve their mobile initiatives.
Analyst Opinion: IBM makes Swift a first-class citizen for client and server-side development
IBM announced a number of new tools and services at the recent InterConnect cloud and mobile conference in Las Vegas. Of interest to developers is the expansion of IBM’s work with Apple to support the Swift programming language on Bluemix, allowing server-side applications to be built with Swift on the IBM Cloud. On the mobile front, IBM has added a tool called Mobile App Builder to its MobileFirst platform to help rapidly create mobile apps. The tool will be available at the end of March.
The Curiosity Machine
As these alternate realities and technologies develop we should look at how they might impact the role of the school. The physicality of the school experience and interaction will always be essential. But there is an opportunity for informal, complementary learning that occurs beyond the classroom. Learning built on the foundations of interest. Currently, we educate children through an education system: a set of rules, procedures and structures.
Analyst Opinion: Coming to a device near you - the enterprise digital workplace
Analyst Opinion: Coming to a device near you – the enterprise digital workplace Persistent and rewarding customer experiences are designed, delivered, and managed using enterprise software and line-of-business applications. And, as every CIO knows, providing access and support to users of these systems is a costly and complicated business, especially in a heterogeneous end-user computing environment that is peppered with legacy applications and processes. So, what’s the solution?
Analyst Opinion: Hype declines, reality settles in for NFV at MWC
Analyst Opinion: Hype declines, reality settles in for NFV at MWC This year’s MWC was not home to many high-flying NFV announcements, but a few show that operators are trying hard to find the right balance between vendor dependence and risk/cost. While some will choose to integrate NFV themselves, most operators are now faced with a range of options from large NEPs, small vendors, open source, and everything in between.
Analyst Opinion: Digital transformation needs to be built on a strong foundation
Analyst Opinion: Digital transformation needs to be built on a strong foundation Digital transformation has already become one of the IT industry’s hot topics, and will continue to grab headlines through 2016. Ovum has found no shortage of organizations globally that are achieving substantial outcomes from their digital initiatives. Building on these successes, experienced managers with digital credentials are being recruited across geographic boundaries to drive change initiatives.
Prepare for an m-commerce explosion
The total global user base for mobile payments will increase from an estimated 689.99 million users in 2014 to 4.77 billion users in 2019, according to global analyst firm Ovum. Of the three segments covered in the new forecast* – m-commerce, person-to-person (P2P) mobile money transfers, and mobile proximity payments – m-commerce is the biggest in terms of users and transaction value. Ovum forecasts 452.78 million global m-commerce users in 2014, rising to 2.07 billion users in 2019.
Analyst Opinion: The hype around blockchain is only adding to the confusion
Analyst Opinion: The hype around blockchain is only adding to the confusion With its recent report, “Distributed Ledger Technology: beyond block chain,” the UK Government Office for Science has become just the latest organization to put blockchain/distributed ledger firmly on top of the hyped-technology pile. As the level of activity, investment, and hyperbole reaches a fever pitch, blockchain is rapidly being viewed as the cure to all technology ills.
Analyst Opinion: If you are not customer-adaptive your survival is at risk
Analyst Opinion: If you are not customer-adaptive your survival is at risk The purpose of marketing has long been to attract customers through the promise of good things to come. However, the rules of the game have shifted: today’s customer has suitors from all over the world, is better informed, and can make more knowledgeable choices.
Analyst Opinion: Augmented reality - Alibaba takes Magic Leap funding to $1.4bn
Chinese digital marketplace Alibaba has led a Series C funding round in Florida-based augmented reality (AR) start-up Magic Leap. The $739m round also included Google and Qualcomm, both of which invested in a Series B round valued at $542m. Although Magic Leap has yet to demonstrate a product, the assortment of companies investing – which includes entertainment company Warner Bros. – shows the potential of AR technology beyond traditional tech circles.
Insurance industry growth to fuel IT investment in 2016
Insurance industry growth to fuel IT investment in 2016 As premium growth in most markets returned to positive growth during 2015, many insurers have some confidence to seek ways in which they can use IT to grow their business, according to a new report* from global analyst firm Ovum. This confidence however is against a backdrop of accelerating demographic and customer change, which is likely to be another key driver of investment.
Analyst Opinion: IBM is putting cognitive at the heart of its social collaboration strategy
Analyst Opinion: IBM is putting cognitive at the heart of its social collaboration strategy One of the biggest challenges that CIOs face globally is managing information in an environment that is increasingly data driven. Organizations need to seize and exploit large quantities of data to give themselves a competitive advantage. This challenge has led to the rise of big data and cognitive technologies, a trend that has been accelerated by the shortage of related talent in the industry.
Analyst Opinion: Venmo takes its first steps toward in-app payments
Analyst Opinion: Venmo takes its first steps toward in-app payments The PayPal-owned digital wallet provider Venmo is expanding beyond person-to-person (P2P) mobile money transfers to support in-application payments. To be a successful in-app payment platform Venmo will need to win widespread support from merchants and other third parties. It will also have to hold its own against players such as Apple Pay and Android Pay, which will not be easy even with the assistance that PayPal can provide.
Analyst Opinion: Visa aims to power a friction-free rewards ecosystem
Visa has entered the loyalty and rewards space with the launch of the Visa Commerce Network, which allows merchant partners to deliver targeted promotions and rewards to Visa cardholder customers. This kind of proposition is not new in itself – several third parties offer platforms of this kind. What makes the Visa Commerce Network one to watch is its potential for significant scale, given that it is based on connecting transactions between merchants on the huge VisaNet payments network.
One SIM per person on the planet, but still too many unconnected
One SIM per person on the planet, but still too many unconnected Global mobile penetration reached 100% at the end of 2015, meaning that on average there is one SIM card per person on the planet, according to global analyst firm Ovum. Ovum’s latest research* illustrates the phenomenal growth seen in the mobile industry in the past decade, with global mobile penetration expanding from just 33% at the end of 2005 to 100% at the end of last year.
Ovum Comment: Visa doubles down as a technology player with the launch of Visa Developer
Ovum Comment: Visa doubles down as a technology player with the launch of Visa Developer “The recent launch of Visa’s Developer platform marks a significant shift for the global payments network, and indeed the broader digital payments space. With a host of API’s offering a full mix of payment functionality, all built on Visa’s underlying core network, Visa is opening up its full capabilities directly to the broader digital ecosystem while cementing its place in the future of payments.
Analyst View: The replacement for Safe Harbor has more red tape, but no surprises
Analyst View: The replacement for Safe Harbor has more red tape, but no surprises Following lengthy and complicated negotiations, the European Commission has agreed a preliminary deal with US institutions to replace Safe Harbor, which was effectively struck down by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in October 2015.
iTNews: NSW LMBR delays put UK software business on the rocks
Ovum’s public sector lead analyst Kevin Noonan said there were also consequences for buyers who become known as a risky client. “Having a reputation as a bad customer can have a number of knock-on effects, like fewer bids for contracts and higher prices as bidders budget in risks. The market will make a commercial assessment of what it will cost them to take on that risk,” Noonan said. “There is some business that is simply not worth bidding for.” Read more here.
Analyst Opinion: Applying artificial intelligence to digital processes
As more business processes become digitized, tasks such as monitoring, decision making, and optimization that would previously have been carried out by human participants are beginning to be augmented or replaced by machine-based algorithms and artificial intelligence.
Analyst Opinion: Oracle is reaching critical mass with SaaS business
The crowding of the cloud platform and services market reflects the fact that cloud deployment is moving to the front burner for most organizations. Ovum’s ICT Enterprise Insights research shows that roughly 40% of enterprises plan to increase their cloud spend in 2016.
Analyst Opinion: Leveraging R&D in enterprise applications
Debate over the merits of a suite versus best-of-breed approach has persisted since the dawn of enterprise applications. But as these solutions become more of a composable business service platform, Oracle’s belief that it represents the best of both worlds is exemplified by the notion that business process automation and unified business intelligence are key differentiators in the world of modern cloud applications.
Analyst opinion: Oracle grows data-as-a-service
At its CloudWorld event in New York City, Oracle demonstrated its growing data-as-a-service (DaaS) offering. DaaS (decoupled from applications and combining both internal and external data) is a new way to connect the growing world of business applications. Oracle rightfully showcased its ID Graph technology, which combines the Oracle Marketing Cloud and Oracle Data Cloud to enable marketers to connect customer identities across disparate channels and devices.
IT- TNA: Cisco: Despite Findings, Security Picture Brightening
“In 2016, the security plaudits should go to software and service providers who can identify threats earlier and provide organisations with the quality of security intelligence they need to keep data safe,” stated Andrew Kellett, Principal Analyst, Software – IT solutions, and author of the Ovum report. “More realistically, it is likely to go to vendors who can spot security breaches soon after they occur and deal effectively with the aftermath of remediation.” Read more here.
Analyst Opinion: Oracle rounds out its PaaS portfolio
At its CloudWorld event in New York City on January 20, 2016, Oracle provided details on how close it is to completing its platform-as-a-service (PaaS) portfolio. As shown in Figure 1, most planned services are now available. The next wave of releases in the next few weeks include the Big Data, Big Data SQL, and NoSQL Database services, as well as the Application Container (Node, Java SE) and Application Builder services.
White Paper: Addressing Enterprise Needs with a Software Defined Network Platform
Enterprise customers have virtualized their IT platforms, adopted agile development techniques, and started to make the transition to cloud-based services within their IT infrastructure. Customers are now looking to find managed network solutions that can integrate and align with this infrastructure, cloud services, SaaS-based applications, and a distributed workforce.
Analyst Opinion: 10 trends from CES 2016
The Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas provides a glimpse of new technology and innovation to come during the rest of the year. There was more evolution than revolution to this year’s event, with many companies launching “me-too” or upgraded versions of existing products rather than breakthrough concepts. It’s a welcome sign of maturity for many new categories, which have suffered from poor design and misguided concepts in the past.
Analyst Opinion: Successful digital transformation is dependent on more than technical skills
Analyst Opinion: Successful digital transformation is dependent on more than technical skills Although governments have not completely given up on behemoth IT projects, the majority have started on the journey to adopting incremental, digitally focused approaches to IT programs in support of public service transformation. However, most government agencies have yet to embrace the wider changes to organizational structures that are required.
Higher education institutions must grow the strategic role of IT to differentiate themselves in the market
Higher education institutions must grow the strategic role of IT to differentiate themselves in the market Factors such as rising costs, declining affordability, disruptive technologies, and for-profit competitors mean that now is the time for institutions to grow the strategic role of IT to differentiate themselves in the market.
Ovum " Analyst Opinion
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Opinion As more business processes become digitized, tasks such as monitoring, decision making, and optimization that would previously have been carried out by human participants are beginning to be augmented or replaced by machine-based algorithms and artificial intelligence. This is a natural progression in the transition to digital, and we expect to see it advance rapidly […]
By Matthew Bailey, Nick Thomas, Tim Jennings, Ed Barton, Mark Newman Verified, Nick Wallace, Rob Gallagher, Mike Sapien, Ian Redpath
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Ovum
Analyst Opinion: Smart home focus shifts to making things simple
On November 18, Ovum chaired the Smart Home & Wearables stream at the Apps World conference in London. Talk focused on enabling mass-market adoption and the fact that product design has to evolve, with simplicity at the center. According to Ovum forecasts, smart home solutions such as smart security and smart energy will see mass-market adoption in developed countries over the next five years.
White Paper: Operating under new interchange regulations - new models for driving consumer and merchant loyalty
White Paper: Operating under new interchange regulations – new models for driving consumer and merchant loyalty The retail banking industry is facing unprecedented disruption. New entrants, the convergence of activity on mobile devices, and rapidly rising consumer expectations are creating a huge customer engagement challenge. At the same time, interchange regulation has removed the revenue used to fund many loyalty offerings. Despite this, retail banks have huge customer assets at their disposal.
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