Video is critical for NZ telcos growth prospects. While there is an attractive opportunity for a direct strategy, we believe telcos best strategy is to be an enabler of video by partnering with video operators whether OTT and increasingly traditional. We view Spark as the exception to a partner strategy, but can it get scale?

Video is increasingly key for telcos for two principal reasons. Core telco services are increasingly commoditised with lower pricing power as a result. Second, video is the biggest driver of network traffic (expected to grow 3x fold and constitute >85% of network traffic by 2019). Therefore telcos need to determine where future growth will come from and how the traffic will be managed (and costs recouped?). This report looks at these issues and the likely strategies for telcos.