• by Wayne Friedman , April 9, 2015

Growing over-the-top TV services could hit 100 million global subscribers this year.

New research from Ovum says that OTT services will get into 6% of all those homes capable of getting subscription video-on-demand services -- including the already launched efforts from HBO Now, CBS All Access and Dish Network’s Sling TV.

By 2019, Ovum expects the OTT market to grow to 177 million global subscribers -- around a 10% penetration rate of those who can get subscription video-on-demand services.

In the U.S., Sling TV is reportedly agreed to a 2 million subscribers "cap," according to deals with big TV content providers, according to Ad Age. The analysis is that big TV media wants OTT services to complementary to other services -- not as competitors who can cannibalize core businesses.

Some TV executives believe that the next step for the already established OTT services -- Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and others --  will be to bid on sports franchises. In order for this to occur, one Juniper Research analyst believes an OTT provider would need to have at least 10 million paying subscribers.