It seems the beginning of the year brings two things—an endless slate of college football bowl games and everyone’s lists of trends in the broadband industry. Last week, we revealed our top ten predictions for 2012. We’re always eager to compare notes with the broadband press, so we eagerly awaited CED Magazine’s annual “Broadband 50”—the top trends and benchmarks as determined by CED’s learned editors and “high-ranking industry execs.” Not surprisingly, they chose a number of topics related to IP video—a subject near and dear to us at RGB:

#1 – IP Migration: A perfect circle: IP continues its inexorable progression to being the basis of all the services operators offer, not just video. The pace is quickening though as operators realize they can take advantage of the flexibility and economic advantages of IP to expand their TV Everywhere services.

#6 – Multiscreen on the move: TV Everywhere has left the proverbial drawing board for real-world mobile devices, and though not fully ready for primetime, advanced trials and early deployments are progressing nicely thanks to second generation transcoding and adaptive streaming technologies.

#12 – Transcoding for multiscreen: So many different viewing platforms, so many different screen sizes, so many different networks, and programming coming to headends in both MPEG-2 and H.264 – you bet TV Everywhere requires transcoding, and a lot of it (no complaints here!).

#20 – Putting the advertising puzzle together: Interactive “clickable” ads remain poised to move from trials into the mainstream, as are hyper-targeted ads, a leading-edge revenue booster we first discussed here.

#24 – Adaptive bit rate streaming: The secret sauce for seamless video delivery to mobile devices and PCs, adaptive streaming compensates for the bandwidth fluctuations inherent in today’s overburdened networks. Now a requirement for streaming video, look for more announcements from RGB in 2012 on additions that enhance our adaptive streaming solution.

#26 – TV Everywhere: Waiting game: Live TV on smartphones and tablets remains the next big thing. The technology is in place and we’ve had success in many trials in 2011, but it’s the content rights that are holding the industry back from full-scale deployments. With recent developments in this area, we believe the waiting game will soon be over.

It’s clear that IP video delivery will remain at the forefront of the broadband industry in 2012, with developments on both the technology and contents sides pushing it ahead. We look forward to helping make video a key component of the new mobile lifestyle for consumers around the globe.

Not to be left out of the trend of posting a trends blog, we’ve put together a round-up of the key trends in IP video that we expect to see over the year ahead. Here are our top 10 predictions for 2012:

1. Increase in uptake of multiscreen IP video services

Over the coming year we can only expect the uptake of multiscreen solutions to continue increasing. With a greater number of IP devices available on the market than ever before (just take a look at what next week’s CES holds in store for us…if you have any doubts), operators are going to continue to be pushed by consumers to up the ante on their TV Everywhere offerings.

2. Content remains king

Even as this posting was being written, things were changing in the world of content rights and we expect to see more. With Comcast and Charter signing significant content deals this week for multiscreen delivery, the landscape is shifting, opening up the floodgates for larger deployments of TV Everywhere services—declared by Neil Smit, president and chief executive of Comcast’s cable division, to be “…the future of entertainment.”

3. Accelerated opportunities presented by the Olympics

The London Olympics is going to present a massive broadcast opportunity in 2012 with content streamed all over the globe. Network infrastructure will have to be ready and advertising solutions firmly in place if operators are going to truly capitalize on the opportunities available. And not too far on the heels of London, the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia will greatly accelerate the deployment of new television services in Eastern Europe (which we expect to be in evidence at the upcoming CSTB show in Moscow in February).

4. Advertising ups and downs

Talk of a double-dip recession will continue over the coming year, and with this will come concerns over the fate of the advertising market. New market opportunities, such as those presented by multiscreen strategies and adaptive streaming technologies, should work to alleviate these fears.

5. Social TV/second screen strategies will increase in use

The increased adoption of multiscreen strategies has led to changes in not only where content is viewed, but also how it is consumed in the home. A recent study by Ovum, a business/technology research firm in the U.K., found that almost 40% of TV viewers discuss particular TV shows via social media while they’re watching them. Adopting a ’second screen strategy’ will become the norm going into 2012 and operators will look to capitalize on this trend to encourage further loyalty and buy-in to programming.

6. Increase in sales of connected TVs

Research in this area suggests that this market is set to increase exponentially. According to Digital TV Research’s Connected TV Forecast report, the number of TV sets connected to the internet will reach 551 million by 2016, up from 124 million in 2010, bringing the IP video experience to the traditional living room TV (not to mention intense competition amongst manufacturers—especially if rumors of an Apple TV are true).

7. Increasing struggle to maintain subscriber loyalty

The competition is only going to increase further as more content is available and operators struggle to maintain loyalty in an ever crowded market. Traditional video service providers must deploy new services that support subscribers’ on-the-go digital lifestyle.

8. Standards still not standard

We expect to see progress in two important standards areas this year. A new adaptive streaming standard—MPEG DASH—has just been approved as a draft standard, with publication expected this March. We will be sharing some thoughts on the adoption of this new standard in a blog to be posted later this month. The second important area for standards development is for multiscreen ad insertion. After years of investment in SCTE standards, it will be important to integrate them with new adaptive streaming ad insertion techniques.

9. Working together

As you might imagine, delivering hundreds of streams to an ever-increasing number of devices isn’t an easy task—there are a lot of parts that must work smoothly together to ensure the reliable and efficient delivery of multiscreen IP video services. We closed out last year with the formation of a consortium of companies that delivers a best-of-breed multiscreen solution. We expect to see a lot of cooperation (by us and others) to continue to build out integrated solutions, adding new pieces as the ecosystem evolves and ensuring that operators have a proven solution for meeting their IP video goals.

10. Live TV continues to make its mark

Consumers may have benefited from the advent of on-demand services and this has altered the way that content is consumed, however, live TV continues to play a major part in consumers’ viewing habits. With competition-based shows like X Factor, American Idol, Strictly Come Dancing and Dancing with the Stars that encourage voters to watch in real time, live sports and award show remaining as popular as ever, and the growing engagement of social TV tied into all of the above, live TV will certainly continue to hold its own.

What do you think about these trends? Do you agree with us? What have we missed? As always share your thoughts with us here!