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Piracy, the need for better data and analytics, and a more personalized user experience are all having major impacts on traditional pay TV operators, according to a new report from content protection and multiscreen television solutions provider NAGRA.

Looking at the top trends set to impact the pay TV industry in 2018, NAGRA also pinpointed the implementation of new business strategies and the convergence of traditional pay TV and OTT services as other top items for the industry to be on the lookout for.

“There are significant opportunities for those that embrace and evolve with the changes that are happening in the industry,” said Ivan Verbesselt, SVP of marketing for NAGRA. “By understanding the trends that are emerging in the TV and entertainment ecosystem, pay TV operators, broadcasters and content owners can make the intelligent business decisions that will build tomorrow’s TV landscape.”

NAGRA puts the “Post-OTT Era” as the No. 1 shift facing traditional pay TV providers, with both the providers and consumers eventually treating the two as the same thing, regardless of how content is distributed and consumed. Operators will increasingly leverage scalable — and flexible — cloud-based environments in order to migrate to IP delivery of content, with legacy environments coexisting with new infrastructures.

Personalized user experiences also ranked high, with operators offering new options to meet individual demand, including voice user interfaces (VUIs), artificial intelligence, machine learning, and virtual and augmented reality.

Content piracy remains a major concern for all content companies, and for pay TV operators the focus will be on mitigating the impact piracy has on live sports and other live events, by fighting IPTV and Kodi add-on piracy by using end-to-end content value protection.

The use of big data, AI and analytics to gain broader visibility, in order to make better strategic decisions and to increase business, is also on the radar, with pay TV operators using all the data they can get their hands on in order to better understand TV viewers’ tastes and recommend actions to boost both customer satisfaction and bottom lines.

Rounding out the top five concerns for pay TV operators is the rise of new business models, with continues expansion of skinny bundles and OTT offerings that are geared toward steering viewers away from cord cutting. “In addition, virtual MVPD services are expanding their subscriber base in the U.S. market (i.e. Sling TV, Hulu Live, PlayStation Vue),” the report reads. “We can expect this trend to continue developing globally over the course of 2018, especially in regions where content licensing terms provide room for new business model options.

The report comes as NAGRA begins work on its 2018 Pay TV Innovation Forum research program, now in its third year. For more information visit dtv.nagra.com/paytvif.