Fragmentation of the Single Market for On-Line Video-on-Demand Services : Point of View of Content Providers

The study examines the factors of success and the factors of fragmentation. In doing so, the study aims at reflecting the interviewees’ perspectives, in particular in Section 3 and 4. Section 5 critically evaluates some of their statements. The study concludes that VoD services face many obstacles in their development, related to the fact that the VoD market is far from being established. VoD services are in search for profitable and sustainable business models and need to be inserted in complex value chains where stronger players sometimes use their market power to keep their strong position. Recommendations include: better technical infrastructure, support for standards, facilitation of online payment, digitization of archive, anti-trust regulation. VoD services also face many constraints that limit their cross-border activity. Regulatory harmonisation was seen by the interviewees as potentially able to further promote cross-border activity of VoD services