CALIFORNIA, USA: Worldwide video infrastructure revenue sequentially decreased 15 percent in 1Q10 to $533 million, as operators continued to keep their infrastructure investments to a minimum while new subscriber growth remains tepid and existing subscribers forgo upgrades to new services.

This is according to market research firm Infonetics Research's three video-related market research reports, 'Set-Top Boxes and Subscribers' and 'Video Infrastructure and Subscribers', and its new 'IPTV Services Deployment Strategies: Global Service Provider Survey'.

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Jeff Heynen, directing analyst for broadband and video at Infonetics Research, said: “The overall video market is in a state of transition. Pay-TV providers are trying to figure out how to grow their subscriber base in a hyper-competitive environment, while looking over their shoulders at Google, Apple, and other over-the-top video providers who could threaten (or enhance) their long-term growth prospects."

Huawei holds on to its lead in video-on-demand and streaming content server revenue market share despite a significant drop in revenue, followed by Arris and Motorola, the only two vendors with positive server revenue in 1Q10.

"Personalizing the video experience via video-on-demand and targeted advertising remains a strategic focus for all pay-TV providers, especially as new subscriber growth is difficult to come by. Meanwhile, anaemic subscriber growth coupled with a traditionally weak first quarter hurt worldwide IPTV set-top box sales," he added.

Infonetics expects the STB market to resume single-digit growth in ensuing quarters. However, that doesn't’t calm the current turbulence of the video market.

Even spending on VOD and streaming content servers took a hit this quarter, after consecutive quarters of growth, although the upcoming rollout of Comcast and Time Warner's TV Everywhere service should drive more growth in VOD and streaming content servers.

Infonetics forecasts the worldwide video infrastructure market to grow to $3.1 billion in 2014, driven by cable, telco, and satellite operators investing in equipment to offer VOD, start-over services, remote storage digital video recording (RS-DVR), targeted advertising, expanded channel lineups, and more HD and 3D TV content.