Analytics show HSD usage growth accelerating for the average household, presenting both challenges and opportunities for the Mid-Tier MSO market

WAYNE, NJ; September 22, 2014 –OpenVault, the leading provider of easy-to-use tools to help Multiple System Operators (MSOs) increase revenues, reduce costs and manage growth, today announced key year-over-year High Speed Data (HSD) usage metrics derived from data collected from over 150 North American Tier 2/3 MSO’s using our platform’s Analytics toolset.
The News:
Users over 250 Gb:Mo
Average monthly usage grew approximately 33% from 2012 to 2013 and that growth has accelerated to 60% from 2013 to 2014.1
Median usage has also increased significantly, from 16GB in 2013 to over 30GB today, indicating that usage is increasing across the subscriber base and not just amongst the top users.1
The percentage of subscribers exceeding 250GB per month has also grown significantly. In 2012 we observed just over 1% of subscribers exceeding 250GB, growing to 2.5% in 2013 and now standing at nearly 7% one year later. 1
“While its no surprise that HSD usage continues to grow it is quite amazing that the growth rate appears to be accelerating.” said Mark Trudeau, CEO, OpenVault. “Since 2012 when OpenVault began collecting subscriber usage behavior information from MSO networks we have seen overall average usage per month more than double, from under 35GB to over 70GB for the average household in recent months. The challenging thing for the MSOs is that usage is growing faster during peak times than the rest of the day. This stresses their networks as they strive to keep up with peak time demand. Helping MSOs understand what’s going on in terms of usage behavior is a big focus here at OpenVault as we strive to assist them in dealing with these challenges.”
“Giving the MSOs the tools they need to understand the growth trends on their own HSD networks helps them plan for future capacity needs as well as model new product offerings,” said Mr. Trudeau. “We have been thrilled to work with our customers to build predictive models, implement usage management policies and align growing demand with growing revenues. At the end of the day our customers offer a product that is in high demand and the demand only seems to be accelerating.”
The Other Impact: Revenue
“It’s not a one-sided story either, in our market those who have engaged in usage based billing of various flavors have also been able to offset the additional costs incurred by the heavy demands placed on the infrastructure by subscribers.” said Rich Evans EVP Sales & Marketing. He continued, “Beyond usage based billing operators still have a tremendous opportunity to drive higher revenues by right-sizing their subscribers onto the appropriate speed tier for their level of usage. As operator margins continue to be further squeezed in the video business, it’s important that they start aligning the growing demands in their HSD networks with growing revenues.”
About OpenVault
Supporting over 150 operators on 4 continents, OpenVault helps MSOs better manage their networks, saving time and costs while increasing revenue and subscriber satisfaction. Network operators use OpenVault’s easy-to-use tools to dramatically improve visibility into their networks and to automate management functions to proactively handle congestion, forecast network requirements and communicate with subscribers. The solution is offered on a pay-as-you-go basis, allowing service providers to immediately realize benefits without large up-front costs.
1 Source: OpenVault LLC Copyright 2012-2015 data from MSOs ranging in size from a few thousand subscribers to hundreds of thousands.