It’s no secret that pay-TV operators feel threatened by the increase of over-the-top (OTT) providers. In fact, over half (53 percent) of recently surveyed industry professionals feel threatened by OTT plaguing traditional broadcasting and pay-TV options, according to recent research from Irdeto.

While TV Everywhere (TVE) has been a key strategy in the pay-TV industry’s fight against OTT providers and cord-cutters, is it the key to unlocking success? According to the aforementioned research above, 41 percent of survey respondents point to smart or connected TVs as a critical piece in their future strategy against OTT in large part due to the variety of content increasingly available on a “big screen.” Moreover, survey respondents identified tablets and smartphones as other important devices for future content revenue.The usage of connected TVs in U.S. households was up by more than 25 percent last year, according to eMarketer, a number that is expected to increase at a double-digit rate through 2016. In fact, by the end of 2013, eMaretker predicts that 35.1 million households in the U.S. will have at least one television connected to the Internet.

The proliferation of connected TVs and the demand for online content make it so that if operators want to compete with OTT, they need to offer TVE services. “The trend research we conducted at IBC only underscores the increasing importance of compelling multi screen services,” commented Irdeto’s VP marketing, Godert Burghard. ”Broadcasters and operators must move from the experimentation stage and focus on the multi screen experience, as that’s what really drives revenue and loyalty.”