THE 7TH

ANNUAL
BITMOVIN
VIDEO
DEVELOPER
REPORT
Shaping the future of video 2023/2024
CONTENTS

Welcome 4 BUSINESS INSIGHTS

Key findings 6
Development frameworks 50
Methodology 8
Dev team resource and support 51

Content distribution 52
T H E S TAT E O F T H E S T R E A M I N G I N D U S T R Y
Monetization 53

The biggest challenges 12 Content protection and DRM 54

Innovation and priorities 14 Ads and understanding market concerns 56

AI and machine learning 18 Ads architecture today 57

Sustainability 20

A N A LY T I C S
VIDEO WORKFLOWS
Video analytics providers 60

Encoding 24 Collecting video data from various sources 61

Video codecs 28 Measuring video performance 62

Audio codecs 30 Resource and time spent 63

Live streaming formats 32 Investigating streaming-related issues 64

Distribution streaming formats 34 Your analytics platforms 65

Low latency streaming 36

CDN 38

Content aware encoding tech 39

Codebase 40

Platform and device support 42

 turbulence that’s followed it. It’s not a secret that Another notable finding from this year’s Video year in the world of codecs, specifically for AV1,
the last couple of years have been incredibly Developer Report is that respondents are following Apple’s announcement of a dedicated
challenging for the video streaming industry and becoming increasingly appreciative of the AV1 hardware decoder for its iPhone 15 Pro
the tech industry overall due to huge market power and future potential of AI and ML. Only a and 15 Pro Max. Our results show that there’s
corrections not seen since the tiny minority have no plans to use AI and ML in an uptick in developers planning to use AV1 for
dot.com bubble. In the last 12 months, the 2024, with the vast majority planning to use it live and VOD, and AV1 is the codec that video
majority of companies have been hyper-focused for use cases that include audio transcription, developers plan to adopt most for VOD in 2024.
on their bottom line and implemented a number speech-to-text, personalization, and tagging Overall, H.264 and HEVC remain the most used
of cost-cutting measures that have stifled and categorizing video. AI has truly had a codecs for VOD and live.

Welcome
growth and innovation. transformative year, and it’s amazing and super
exciting to see the uptake that will help make us As I wrap up my summary, I would like to thank
However, I am feeling more optimistic about a more innovative and efficient industry. the video developer community for the time
2024. I believe that we will see a much-needed to complete our survey - your insights and
It’s a huge honor and privilege to share the return to monetization and growth in the coming One new question we added to this year’s feedback are invaluable and help make our
7th edition of the Bitmovin Video Developer 12 months, and this year’s Video Developer Video Developer Report is how companies industry better! A huge thank you to everyone
Report with you! We published our very first Report gives me greater confidence in my are prioritizing sustainability. We added this on the Bitmovin team who helps make the
Video Developer Report back in 2017, and since optimism. One of our flagship questions for the question because there has been a much report a reality every year and provides
then, it’s grown to become a recognized and Video Developer Report asks respondents to bigger commitment from companies in the streaming professionals with a snapshot of the
respected guide for streaming professionals rank where they see the biggest opportunities video streaming industry to make it more trends shaping the future of video. Thank you
who want to keep their finger on the pulse of for growth, and this year, advertising topped sustainable, but we wanted to understand how to you for reading this report and to everyone
the trends shaping the future of video. In recent the list, up two places from last year’s report. much of a priority it is, especially when the who’s ever read the previous editions of the
years, we’ve also had to evolve the report, Many streaming companies, such as Netflix and more sustainable solution is not always the Video Developer Report. We appreciate the time
revamp some of the questions, and provide a Disney+ have already pivoted from traditional most cost-effective. Our research found that you take to download, read, and share it with
deeper and more comparative analysis of the Subscription Video on Demand (SVOD business most companies see sustainability as a priority. your network.
insights from developers to ensure the report models to hybrid monetization models which However, cost is the main driver of business
still provides value in the context of global offer ad-supported tiers to their services. decisions. It’s clear that while progress has been Here’s to a great 2024 for all of us!
macroeconomic trends. Additionally, Amazon offers everything from an made and there is a desire and commitment to
ad-supported tier to a FAST service. What this become more sustainable, we as an industry S T E FA N L E D E R E R
Our most recent editions of the Video year’s Video Developer Report tells us is that need to take more meaningful action. CEO, Bitmovin
Developer Report have been produced under monetization will be the big priority in 2024,
seismic changes in the wider world, including which will help supercharge our industry’s I can’t summarize our Video Developer Report
the COVID19 pandemic and the economic growth once more. without talking about codecs! It has been a big

4 5
 KEY FINDINGS

Growth and challenges with ad workflows Commercial solutions rising, DIY declining
Ad Insertion was at the top of the list for biggest challenges, up from #3 last year. When it comes to building vs buying solutions, several categories leaned toward buying
Advertising was also the area where respondents saw the most opportunity for this year. This is likely due to a combination of a maturing market and risk-reduction in
innovation in their services. a year when many companies lowered their headcounts and capacity for building their
own solutions.
AVOD was the top monetization model utilized by 56% of respondents, while 39% said
they were using FAST workflows. Both of these saw big jumps from last year, up from For the player codebase question, Commercial solutions took back the top spot, used
40% and 26% respectively. by 41% of respondents, followed by in-house solutions built on open source with 39%.
In-house solutions NOT built on open source saw the biggest decrease, cut in half from
SSAI was the top method of ad insertion, used by 67% of respondents, followed by CSAI
last year down to 10%.
workflows at 51%. These also both saw significant upticks from last year’s responses of
55% and 44% respectively. Third-party CDN services were deployed most often, while in-house CDN usage
declined substantially from 23% last year to 13% this year.

Use of commercial DRM providers was most popular, growing to 54% of respondents,
while use of in-house solutions dropped from 24% to 18% this year.
More interest than action for sustainability
For the first time, we asked questions around the prioritization of sustainability
initiatives. For the majority of respondents, there was interest in more sustainable
solutions, but cost was still the main driver of business decisions.

24% said that sustainability was a high priority that factored into their decision making
and 6% said it was a top priority. We hope to see these numbers increase in the coming
years and with our GAIA project, develop new methods that make the greenest solutions
the most cost-effective.

6 7
METHODOLOGY

METHODOLOGY
Methodology
This is our 7th year of running our Bitmovin C O M PA N Y S I Z E JOB TITLE
Video Developer Report. The survey was
conducted between October and November
2023. The responses provided strong 16% 39% 20% 8% 10% 3%
representation of the global market, coming ԋԆ‫ڂ‬Ք‫ڂ‬Ԇԅԅ ԉԅԅ֕ MANAGER / CEO / VP TECHNICAL
M ANAGE R
ARCHITECT /
CONSULTANT
S ALES &
MARKETING

from a diverse range of video developers and

industry experts working at companies located 15%
in 42 different countries. Participation by region Ԇԅԅ‫ڂ‬Ք‫ڂ‬ԉԅԅ

was led by EMEA with 45% of our participants,

followed by North America at 32%, the Asia 30%
Pacific region at 15% and Latin America with 7%
Ԇ‫ڂ‬Ք‫ڂ‬ԋԅ
of total responses. 35% 10% 5% 8%
D E VE LOPE R / E NGI NE E R PRODUCT R&D OTHER

As a number of the questions are multiple-

choice, you will notice that a number of these
REGION INDUSTRY
multiple-choice/answer questions have an
aggregate that will not add up to 100%. In these
cases, the number indicates the percentage
32% 27% 4% 4% 3%
of respondents that chose each option. Like
7% NORAM OT T ST R EAMING SERVICE PUB LISHER TELCO/CABLE SOCIAL MEDIA
last year, we have used a ranking option for
LATAM
a number of the questions and have adapted
some of the questions to align with the recent 15%
advancements in technology development.
APAC
Please keep in mind that the survey was open
for everyone to participate, but the results may 45%
be somewhat skewed toward the Bitmovin EMEA

customer base.
10% 15% 13% 23%
INTEGRATOR ONLINE VIDEO B R OAD CAST OTHER
PL AT FORM

8 9
The State of the
Streaming Industry

This report is aimed at providing you with a snapshot of where the industry is today and
giving a broad overview of growing trends and opportunities. 2023 was a challenging
year for streaming services and the wider tech industry that brought financial concerns
to the forefront. Even with all the buzz around AI and machine learning, innovation and
technological advancements were often delayed in favor of addressing higher priority
economic needs and goals, something we see reflected in this year’s responses.

The report is broken into the following three sections. Part 1 an overview of the big
challenges, areas of opportunity, how innovation is being prioritized and a picture on how
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning can and will affect the industry. In Part 2 this
report will dive deeper into the detail of Video Workflows. We cover topics from Codecs
through to Low Latency needs and advertising functionality. To come to a close, Part 3
outlines additional data into business insights and video analytics.
THE BIGGEST CHALLENGES

THE BIGGEST CHALLENGES

Ad insertion
33%
Controlling cost (e.g. bandwidth, storage)
29%
Playback on all devices
27%
Live (low) latency
25%
Consistent monitoring and analytics
23%
Finding the root cause of quality issues
20%
Sʡʄʡͮǵˍ‫ڂ‬żʡʄʎͮ‫ڂ‬ġǵ˱ǵʄɟ˪ɟ˱ͮ‫ڂ‬ԲSżġԼ
19%
What are the top three Viewer engagement with video

biggest challenges you 17%

Implementation skills in either software development or video engineering

are experiencing with 17%

video technology today?

Żͽǵˍʡͮΰ‫́ڂ‬ɿ‫^ڂ‬Ϋ̵ɟ̿ʡɟ˱ɂɟ‫ڂ‬ԲŻ́^Լ‫ڂ‬ɿ́̿‫ڂ‬Ξʡɟ΢ɟ̿͝
14%
Quality assurance and testing
13%
This is our traditional warm-up question It’s also somewhat expected that
Delivery (CDN issues)
and helps us get a good understanding of Controlling Cost remained near the top
12%
what’s top of mind from all of our survey of the list given the economic conditions
Sustainability / Green Streaming
participants. This time around, the topic the industry has faced in recent times.
9%
of Ad Insertion continued its climb to Playback on All Devices is back up to
Żͽǵˍʡͮΰ‫́ڂ‬ɿ‫ڂ‬Ɖɟ̿Ξʡɂɟ‫ڂ‬ԲŻ́ƉԼ‫ڂ‬΢ʡͮʎ‫ڂ‬Ȼǵ˱Ɏ΢ʡɎͮʎ‫̿ڂ‬ɟͮ̿͝ʡɂͮʡ́˱͝Մ́ɿɿˍʡ˱ɟ‫ˍ̵ڂ‬ǵΰȻǵɂ˅
the top of the chart, passing Controlling number 3 on the list after a slight drop
7%
Cost, which came in second. This is not last year, so it seems that challenge is
Connecting point solutions
too surprising as the past year saw more still ongoing.
6%
and more services adding ad-supported
Other
subscription tiers along with the rise in
6%
popularity of FAST channels.

12 13
I N N OVAT I O N A N D P R I O R I T I E S

I N N OVAT I O N A N D P R I O R I T I E S
Advertising
36%
AI generated content and video enhancements
32%
Low latency
31%
Content recommendations
27%
Live streaming at scale
26%
VoD-to-Live channels with personalized content
23%

Where do you see Enhanced color such as HDR or Dolby Vision

the most opportunity

21%
Media delivery and distribution

for innovation in your Stream and device testing

18%

service? 17%
Sustainability / Green Streaming
16%
Taking the top spot this year is Advertising. Coming in a close second was a new
Content protection and security
Ad-based monetization models saw option, AI generated content and video
14%
significant growth with some industry enhancements. With all the AI hype and
Content preparation and production
heavyweights like Netflix getting into them advancements over the past year, there’s 13%
for the first time since we last ran our clearly a lot of interest and potential for
Immersive audio (e.g. Dolby Atmos)
survey. Pluto TV’s FAST channel success its application to video workflows. It will 10%
was followed by both new and established be interesting to see how much of it is Virtual reality applications
companies entering that space in an effort actually deployed into production over 8%
to squeeze some revenue from the bottom the next year. Other
of the market. It’s clear from these results 3%
that despite the growth, there is still plenty
room for innovation and improvement.

14 15
I N N OVAT I O N A N D P R I O R I T I E S

I N N OVAT I O N A N D P R I O R I T I E S
39%

Potential for

62% 36%
cost savings

Potential for
added features /
revenue streams
Budget and time
restrictions

31%

Another sign of the current economic

times, Budget and time restrictions are
In-market 31%
trends / competitor
the top factors limiting the prioritization
trends
of innovation. Many companies needed 4%
to focus on their bottom lines and core OTHER

What dictates the businesses this year, so it’s not surprising to

Limitations
of existing
prioritization of see this shift. Hopefully the tide will turn in
2024 and allow companies to reach beyond
technologies

innovation? their current capabilities.

16 17
AI AND MACHINE LEARNING

AI AND MACHINE LEARNING

Audio transcription and speech-to-text
55%
Personalization
39%
Tagging and categorizing video
37%
Video quality optimization
35%
Recommendations
34%
Scene or shot boundary identification
28%
Obscenity detection, breach of compliance laws or copyright, content infringement
23%
In picture brand/logo detection to report to sponsors or advertisers

For which of the

23%
Object detection
Audio Transcription and Speech-to-Text
following video use was the top use case for AI and ML, by
22%

cases do you expect

Żͽǵˍʡͮΰ‫́ڂ‬ɿ‫^ڂ‬Ϋ̵ɟ̿ʡɟ˱ɂɟ‫ڂ‬ԲŻ́^Լ
a wide margin. It’s the most mature use
19%
case we have for AI in the video workflow
to use machine space and remains the most practical Żͽǵˍʡͮΰ‫́ڂ‬ɿ‫ڂ‬Ɖɟ̿Ξʡɂɟ‫ڂ‬ԲŻ́ƉԼ
16%
learning (ML or and important for both accessibility and
discoverability. No plans to use AI/ML

artificial intelligence Other

6%

Personalization saw a significant jump

AI to improve the from seventh place to the second most 4%

video experience for important use case, while tagging/

categorizing and video quality optimization
your viewers? remained near the top.

18 19
S U S TA I N A B I L I T Y

S U S TA I N A B I L I T Y
Lowering data transmission with more efficient encoding and energy-efficient network technology
52%
Optimizing playback efficiency and power consumption of end-user devices
38%

40% 30% 24% 6% Utilizing cloud native services and data centers in regions with “green” power sources
35%
I’m not sure, but I am interested in learning more
19%

We’d like to prioritize it, It’s not something we It is a high priority and It is a top priority, I am not interested
but cost is the main are focusing on or factors into our business regardless of cost 10%
driver of business factoring into business decisions, even if it means
decisions decisions paying a little more Other
5%

Which option most

closely matches We asked this question to gauge public
perceptions of the opportunities for making
your company’s Where do you see streaming more sustainable. Most green

current approach the most opportunity

streaming initiatives are fairly new and
there is still some uncertainty around

and prioritization of While it’s encouraging to see the majority for reducing the where efforts should be focused for the
of respondents are at least interested in greatest impact. Hopefully in the coming
Sustainability and prioritizing more sustainable solutions, it carbon footprint year we will get some solid guidance from

Green Streaming seems the economic realities of the last

year have dictated that cost is still the main
of streaming organizations working on this problem like
our GAIA project, Fraunhofer Fokus and
initiatives? driver of business decisions. workflows? Greening of Streaming.

20 21
Video
Workflows

With AVC now over 20 years old and HEVC over 10, we’re still firmly
living in a multi-codec world, despite the availability of several
newer, more efficient codecs. Last year we separated Live and
VOD codec usage for the first time and this year we added a few
new questions to gain some insight into live contribution formats
and how content type affects encoding and turnaround time
expectations. Keep reading to learn more about the trends observed
and what they mean for our industry in the coming years.

Don’t forget, you can join the conversation on social media

using this hashtag #VideoDeveloperReport
VIDEO WORKFLOWS

VIDEO WORKFLOWS
High value cinematic / episodic 26% 32% 24%
57%
Catch-up TV / clips
57%
Ads
֏‫ڂ‬Ԇԅ‫ڂ‬Ɖ^HľĩS Ɖ ԆԆՔԉԅ‫ڂ‬Ɖ^HľĩS Ɖ ԉԆՔ ԍԅ‫ڂ‬Ɖ^Hľ ĩSƉ
49%
B2B (mezzanine output)
43%
UGC
16%
Other 17% 1%
4%

ԆՔԇ‫ڂ‬ġÄ ĩƣƗ^Ɖ ԇ֕‫ڂ‬ġÄ ĩƣƗ^Ɖ

When transcoding
Which of the We asked this question for the first time to
get a better understanding of the types of
short (<2 minutes) With the increase in ad-based workflows

following VOD VOD content respondents are encoding. videos for ABR over the past year, we wanted to capture
There was a decent mix and some overlap the current expectations for encoding
encoding workflows with High value cinematic content and streaming, what turnaround time of ads and other short form

exist in your Catch-up TV/clips at the top. Somewhat

surprisingly only 16% reported they were
is your expected content. The most common response was
1130 seconds and only 18% expected it to
organization? working with user generated content (UGC. turnaround time? take more than a minute.

24 25
VIDEO WORKFLOWS

VIDEO WORKFLOWS
Software encoder - private environment
LIVE 40%
VOD 46%
Hardware encoder - appliance on-premises Commercial encoder
LIVE
46%
LIVE 47%
VOD 31% VOD 38%

Software encoder - public cloud Both

LIVE 34% LIVE
30%
VOD 37% VOD 40%

Managed encoding service - public cloud Open source encoder

LIVE 33% LIVE 20%
VOD 33% VOD 28%

Managed encoding service - private environment N/A

LIVE 21% LIVE 6%
VOD 22% VOD 7%

Where do you
encode video?
We have broken down the analysis like
we did last year between Video-on-Demand encoders in public clouds did increase
VOD and Live Encoding to understand from 28% last year to 34% this year.
the impact of content types on encoding Do you use a
location. Use of managed encoding services in This year’s responses show a slight shift
the public cloud saw slight decreases commercial encoder toward open source compared to last year
For Live encoding, running hardware
encoding appliances on-premises is still the
for both Live and VOD, while running
software encoders in private
or an open source for VOD encoding, while Live encoding still
shows a strong preference for commercial
most common scenario, but using software environments gained some ground. based encoder? encoding solutions.

26 27
VIDEO CODECS

VIDEO CODECS
LIVE ENCODING In production In planning VOD ENCODING In production In planning

86%
84%

46% 48%

34%
32%
27% 28%
8% 7% 6%
6% 18% 7%
14% 9% 8% 14% 14% 6%
7% 13% 12% 8% 7% 7% 12%
7% 8%
5% 5% 5%

H.264/AVC H.265/HEVC VP8 MPEG5/EVC VP9 AV1 H.266/VVC MPEG5/LCEVC H.264/AVC H.265/HEVC AV1 MPEG5/EVC VP8 H.266/VVC VP9 MPEG5/LCEVC

H.264/AVC is still far and away the most

popular video codec, with its successor

Which video codecs are you using HEVC seeing some modest gains for both
Adoption of newer generation codecs is still
Live and VOD compared to last year.
in production and which codecs are disappointingly low, but AV1 seems to have

you planning to implement within Another “older” codec VP8 is still seeing
a bit of use in WebRTC workflows, but its
the most optimism around it for the coming
year, likely driven by Apple adding support
the next 1224 months? numbers are on the decline. to its latest mobile and desktop processors.

28 29
AUDIO CODECS

AUDIO CODECS
LIVE ENCODING In production In planning VOD ENCODING In production In planning

87%
83%

37%

36%
24%
18%
30%
26%
19%
15% 12%
19% 6% 18% 18% 9%
16% 4%
14% 8% 5% 7% 6%
11% 10%
7% 7% 6% 7%
5% 1% 5%

AAC Dolby Dolby MP3 Opus DTS Vorbis FLAC AAC Dolby Dolby MP3 Opus DTS FLAC Vorbis
Digital / Dolby Atmos Digital / Dolby Atmos
Digital+ Digital+

Which audio codecs are you using

in production and which are you Atmos also has the highest percentage of

planning to implement within the AAC and Dolby Digital+ remain the #1 and
#2 on the chart, but Dolby Atmos moved
people saying they’re planning to add it, so
it will be interesting to see if it becomes the
next 1224 months? into 3rd, replacing declining MP3. most popular Dolby audio codec next year.

30 31
L I V E S T R E A M I N G F O R M AT S

L I V E S T R E A M I N G F O R M AT S
In production In planning

54%
51%
48%

29%

22%
21% 13%
14%
17% 16%
13% 12% 13%

7%

RTMP HLS SRT RTMP Zixi SMPTE 2110 NDI

Protected

Which stream formats do you use for Live

contribution feeds and which are you
planning to use within the next 12 months?
In past surveys, we focused on distribution Stalwart RTMP was most popular, but HLS
formats, but we added this question to start and SRT were close behind and had more
tracking the use of different “first-mile” people saying they’re planning to add them
contribution formats for live streaming. in the coming year.

32 33
D I S T R I B U T I O N S T R E A M I N G F O R M AT S

D I S T R I B U T I O N S T R E A M I N G F O R M AT S
LIVE STREAMING In production In planning VOD In production In planning

80%
75%
69%
62%

33% 31% 29%

27% 23%
20%
22%
18% 19%
16% 15%
14%
11%
8%

HLS DASH CMAF RTMP WebRTC HLS DASH CMAF Progressive

passthrough (single-file
based)

For VOD workflows, DASH saw the

Which streaming formats are you using biggest increase, from 51% last year to
Live streaming distribution formats were 69% this year.
in production for distribution and which roughly similar to last year, with the

ones are you planning to introduce exception of CMAF DASH/HLS surpassing

RTMP passthrough, which declined from
What are your thoughts on this? Join the
conversation on social media using this
within the next year? 38% to 23%. hashtag #VideoDeveloperReport

34 35
LOW L AT E N C Y S T R E A M I N G

LOW L AT E N C Y S T R E A M I N G
Current latency Latency expectation

Not using low latency streaming

28%
41% 27%
28%
ĖĖՔ ĖƉ
25% 23%
37% 24%

ĖĖՔSƉ 19%
18%
29% 19%

WebRTC
18% 13%

džɟȻ‫ڂ‬Ɖ́ɂ˅ɟͮ͝ 12%

10%
džɟȻżƗH‫ڂ֐ڂ‬dž ÄŴՄdž ^Ŵ
9%
3%
Other
6%
֏‫ڂ‬Ԇ‫͝ڂ‬ɟɂ́˱Ɏ ֏‫ڂ‬ԉ‫͝ڂ‬ɟɂ́˱Ɏ͝ ֏‫ڂ‬ԋ‫͝ڂ‬ɟɂ́˱Ɏ͝ ֏‫ڂ‬Ԇԅ‫͝ڂ‬ɟɂ́˱Ɏ͝ ֏‫ڂ‬ԉԅ‫͝ڂ‬ɟɂ́˱Ɏ͝ ԉԅ֕‫͝ڂ‬ɟɂ́˱Ɏ͝

What is your current

Which technology latency, and what is
do you use for low your expectation /
latency streaming? demand? The spread of responses is likely due to
variations in content type and applications,
LLHLS was the biggest gainer compared to WebRTC saw a decline this year, but Last year, the most common response was but overall there is a trend of moving toward
last year, up to 37% from 23%. LLDASH also WebRTC → WHIP/WHEP was a new option 5 seconds, but this year <3 seconds took lower latency, especially when looking at the
saw increased usage, up to 29% this year. that probably captured some of its share. the top spot. expectation numbers.

36 37
 C O N T E N T AWA R E E N C O D I N G T E C H
CDN

35% 13% 4%
Multiple third-party CDN services In-house ĩ́‫ڂ‬HSĩ‫ڂ‬Ք‫ڂ‬Ɖͮ̿ɟǵ˪‫ڂ‬
ԻSÄǓԼ‫ڂ‬HSĩ ɿ̿́˪‫̿́ڂ‬ʡʄʡ˱

39% 34% 27%

No, not using content-aware Planning to use it Yes, using

34% 12% 1% encoding and not in the next 12 content-aware
Ɖʡ˱ʄˍɟ‫ͮڂ‬ʎʡ̿ɎՈ̵ǵ̿ͮΰ‫ڂ‬HSĩ‫͝ڂ‬ɟ̿Ξʡɂɟ Hybrid Other
Բɂ́˪Ȼʡ˱ǵͮʡ́˱ plans to add it months encoding
of third-party
ǵ˱Ɏ‫ڂ‬SÄǓԼ

Are you using

or planning to
use content-
aware encoding
technology? the current economic conditions where
companies were deferring making drastic
Running a CDN is a specialized, complex changes or exploring new innovations. For
and costly operation and we see the trend These numbers are all roughly unchanged, many of them, adopting content-aware
toward more use of commercial solutions and which means the people who said they encoding would actually save them a

Which CDN solution less companies building in-house solutions.

This year only 13% of respondents rely on
were planning to use content-aware
encoding last year didn’t actually get around
considerable amount of money in the long
run, so hopefully more will be able to take
are you using? their own CDN, down from 23% last year. to it. This is likely another side-effect of advantage of it in the coming year.

38 39
CODEBASE

CODEBASE
31%
41%
Hybrid solution
(open-source, 10%
native, commercial)

In-house
Commercial

39%
solution not built
solution
on open-source

In-house solution 2%
OT HE R
built on open-source

Following a trend we’ve seen in some other

categories this year, more people opted for
using a commercial solution for their player
Which player codebase, over building it themselves with

codebase are open source software. The biggest drop was

for in-house proprietary solutions NOT built on
you using? open source, down from 20% to 10% this year.

40 41
P L AT F O R M A N D D E V I C E S U P P O R T

P L AT F O R M A N D D E V I C E S U P P O R T
HTML5 in Browser 91%

BROWSER
HTML5 on Android 69%

HTML5 on iOS 68%

Android TV 59%

CONNECT TV
Apple TV 59%

Chromecast TV 55%

Comcast X1 13%

Fire TV 48%

Roku 37%

Nintendo Switch 5%

CONSOLE
PS4 21%

PS5 19%

Which of the Xbox One 21%

Xbox Series X or S 21%

following platforms Native Android 65%

MOBILE
and devices do you Native Fire OS 35%

support to stream
Native iOS 67%

Hisense 33%

SMART TV
video or audio LG 48%

content?
Panasonic 23%

Philips 27%

Samsung 51%

HTML5 in desktop browsers was by far the On iOS and Android, use of native players Sky Q or Sky Glass 11%

most common response again this year, increased and is roughly even with HTML5 Sony 38%

used by 91% of respondents. usage on those platforms. Vizio 22%

WebView (Android) 30%

OT HE R
Games consoles remain the smallest Samsung and LG are still the most popular WebView (iOS) 29%
category overall, having roughly the same Smart TV brands, but Sony, Hisense and
Set-Top Box RDK 17%
numbers as last year, with the exception of Philips all saw increased numbers compared
HbbTV 21%
the decline of Nintendo Switch down to 5%. to last year.

42 43
P L AT F O R M A N D D E V I C E S U P P O R T

P L AT F O R M A N D D E V I C E S U P P O R T
HTML5 in Browser 24%

B R OWSER
HTML5 on Android 25%

HTML5 on iOS 19%

Android TV 26%

CONNECT TV
Apple TV 24%

Chromecast TV 19%

Comcast X1 9%

Fire TV 19%

Roku 28%

Nintendo Switch 12%

CONSOLE
PS4 18%

PS5 22%

Xbox One 12%

Xbox Series X or S 12%

Native Android 29%

MOB ILE
Native Fire OS 19%

Native iOS 21%

Hisense 12%

SMART TV
LG 21%

Which of the
Panasonic 12%

Philips 19%

following platforms Native Android and Roku are the top 2 Samsung 24%

and devices will you responses for additional platforms that Sky Q or Sky Glass 15%

will be added in the next year, but not by Sony 16%

support to stream huge margins. Vizio 13%

video or audio WebView (Android) 24%

OT HE R
This chart captures the never-ending WebView (iOS) 16%

content in the next challenge of device fragmentation as

developers are planning to support
Set-Top Box RDK 9%

12 months? multiple devices in each category.

HbbTV 10%

44 45
Business
Insights

2023 was a challenging year with many streaming companies

facing consolidation and contraction while exploring new business
models and opportunities to stay afloat. From smaller startups to
major established brands, headlines reporting staff reductions were
common. With more focus on the bottom line, many sought additional
revenue from new and expanded ad-supported workflows.

This next section explores a variety of topics related to the business

aspects of the streaming industry, including the purchasing process,
development resources and monetization models.
BUSINESS INSIGHTS

BUSINESS INSIGHTS
Highest quality
31%
58%
CAPEX payment
Lowest cost
(upfront investment
54% and full payment)

Per-project requirements
46%
Brand reputation
35%
Determined refresh intervals
16%
Single vendors
15%
69%
OPEX payment
(subscription/service
based model with
payments for usage)

Highest quality and Lowest cost solutions

Which of the are often at odds with each other, but

following are they were cited as the 2 most important

factors in the buying decision process for

considered during encoding solutions. The fact that Single With another first time question in our
vendors was the least considered factor survey, we wanted to capture and begin
the buying process shows that buyers are willing to pick and tracking the general purchasing preferences

for encoding choose the best solutions from multiple

vendors and don’t place as much emphasis
Do you prefer of those in our industry. OPEX payments
were preferred over CAPEX payments by
solutions? on one-stop shopping. CAPEX or OPEX? more than a 21 margin.

48 49
DEVELOPMENT FRAMEWORKS

DEV TEAM RESOURCE AND SUPPORT

How many hours per month does your
60%
development team spend on maintaining your
video player solution?
40%

25%
21%

13% 13%
16% 20% 13%
1%

React React native Angular Vue.js Flutter Other Ember

֏ ‫ڂ‬Ԇ ‫ ڂ‬ľ ƣ ż ԇ‫ڂ‬Ք ‫ڂ‬Ԇ ԇ‫ ڂ‬ľ ƣ ż Ɖ Ԇ ԇ‫ڂ‬Ք ‫ڂ‬ԇԊ ‫ ڂ‬ľƣżƉ

This was a new question last year and this

18% 30%
year’s responses are very similar with React
increasing its lead in the top spot, and React

Which Native and Angular coming in second and

Ԇ ‫ڂ‬SǓ‫֕ڂ‬ Ԏ ‫ڂ‬SǓƉ ‫֕ڂ‬
third with their numbers holding steady.
development
frameworks do Vue.js and Flutter both saw moderate
declines in their numbers compared to
you use? last year.

50 51
CONTENT DISTRIBUTION

M O N E T I Z AT I O N
56%
52%

39%
35%
70% 61% 61% 30%

23%

Long-form Short-form Live events

6%
on-demand / file-based on-demand / file-based occasional use

Ads / AVOD Subscriptions FAST (free Transactional Hybrid Multichannel Video Other
/ SVOD ad-supported / PPV Programming
ˍʡ˱ɟǵ̿‫ڂ‬ƗǃԼ Distributor
/ MVPD

60% 18%

Live linear User-generated What monetization

model do you use?
ԇԊ֗Ԏ‫ڂ‬ɂʎǵ˱˱ɟˍ͝ ɂ́˱ͮɟ˱ͮ‫ڂ‬ԲƣŒHԼ

SVOD fell from the top spot, but still carried Will this trend continue or did we see the
What type of content do you distribute? a large share with 52% of respondents. peak of ad-based monetization this year?
The biggest gainers this year were Ads/
AVOD and FAST workflows with both seeing Join the conversation on social media using
double digit jumps in their percentages this hashtag #VideoDeveloperReport
compared to last year.

52 53
CONTENT PROTECTION AND DRM

CONTENT PROTECTION AND DRM

DASH Widevine
55%
HLS Fairplay
49%
DASH PlayReady 54%
41%
ĖƉ‫^ڂ‬ƉՔԆԇԏ
33%
Signed URLs / Tokens
30%
HLS Sample-AES
17% 18% 17%
Client-side watermarking 11%
13%
None
13%
Forensic watermarking Commercial In-house Not using DRM Not using DRM
DRM provider solution encryption only or encryption
10%
Other
9%

DRM is one of the more complex and

specialized parts of a streaming workflow,
This year saw very little change in the so it’s not surprising that over 50% use a
What type of ranking of content protection types, but How are you solution from a commercial provider. The

content protection one good signal was that the percentage of

people using no content protection dropped
implementing DRM number of people deploying an in-house
solution dropped by 25% compared to last
do you use? from 20% down to 13%. in your workflow? year’s responses.

54 55
A D S A N D U N D E R S TA N D I N G M A R K E T C O N C E R N S

A D S A R C H I T E C T U R E TO DAY
23%

19%
Ɖɟ̿Ξɟ̿Ո͝ʡɎɟ‫ڂ‬ǵɎ‫ڂ‬ʡ˱͝ɟ̿ͮʡ́˱‫ڂ‬ԲƉƉÄԼ
67%
12% Hˍʡɟ˱ͮ‫ڂ‬Մ‫ڂ‬Ŵˍǵΰɟ̿‫͝ڂ‬ʡɎɟ‫ڂ‬ǵɎ‫ڂ‬ʡ˱͝ɟ̿ͮʡ́˱‫ڂ‬ԲHƉÄԼ
51%
8%
7% 7% 7% 7% Dyamic ad replacement
38%
Other
7%
Brand Impact on Click Pricing Compliance Fill rate Viewability Ecosystem
safety user experience through complexity
(latency errors) rate

When running ads, what

aspects are you most What ad architecture
concerned about? are you using today?
Impact on user experience moved into boost and supplement their existing
Brand Safety is once again at the top of second on the list. With more platforms revenue models.
the list of concerns people have when rolling out AVOD subscription tiers and The order here remains the same as last
running ads. There has been a spotlight on FAST workflows, finding the right balance of year, with SSAI being the frontrunner and How have the changes to the Ad Ecosystem
this aspect of the online ad industry over frequency and limited impact to the end user still one step ahead of CSAI. Across the affected your business? Join the
the past year, especially with some social is key to maintaining a viable business model board the numbers increased with more conversation on social media by using this
networking sites. while minimizing churn. people and companies using ads to hashtag #VideoDeveloperReport

56 57
Analytics
V I D E O A N A LY T I C S P R OV I D E R S

C O L L E C T I N G V I D E O DATA F R O M VA R I O U S S O U R C E S
Google Analytics 46%

In-house solution 45% 41%

Bitmovin Analytics 26%

Conviva 21%

NPAW 15%

Mux 10% 20%

18%
Other 6%

Agama Analytics 5%
8% 8%
MediaMelon 5% 5%

Touchstream 4%

Datazoom 4% 1 2 3 4 ԋ֕ N/A

Compared to last year, we see far more

people reporting their use of Google How many sources
Analytics and in-house solutions. For Like last year, but by an even larger margin,
What video analytics commercial offerings, both Bitmovin do you collect video most survey participants are collecting

provider / solution Analytics and Conviva show double digit

growth, followed by NPAW and Mux with
streaming related streaming related data from 5 sources
in order to get a complete picture of their
do you use today? slightly higher numbers than last year. data from? workflow health and user experience.

60 61
MEASURING VIDEO PERFORMANCE

RESOURCE AND TIME SPENT

19% 10% 6% 22% 23% 16%
BU F F ER I N G / VIDEO HľġŴľƉÄƗ^
ż ^Ք @ƣ ˆ ˆ ^ż Ä ĩ Œ ‫ڂ‬ż Ɨ ^ Ɖ Ɖ Ɨ ż Ɨ ‫ ڂ‬Ɨ Ä ġ ^ ƉHľż^

14% 8% 1%
ǃ Ä S ^ ľ ‫ ڂ‬Ɖ Ɨ ż Ɨ VIDEO @ÄƗżƗ^
ˆÄĖƣż^Ɖ Ė Ɨ ^ ĩ H Ǔ S ľ dž ĩ Ɖ Ä ˆƗ Ɖ

֏‫ڂ‬Ԇ‫ڂ‬ʎ́ͽ̿ ԇ‫ڂ‬Ք‫ڂ‬Ԇԇ‫ڂ‬ʎ́ͽ̿͝ Ԇԇ‫ڂ‬Ք‫ڂ‬ԇԊ‫ڂ‬ʎ́ͽ̿͝

15% 8% 2%
20% 18%
^ ż ż ľ ż ‫ ڂ‬ż Ɨ ^ Ɖ B U FFE R I N G @ÄƗżƗ^
S ƣ ż Ɨ Ä ľ ĩ S ľ dž ĩ Ɖ Ä ˆƗ Ɖ

10% 6%
ǃÄS^ľ‫ڂ‬ŻƣĖÄƗǓ @ÄƗżƗ^Ɖ
Ի ǃ ġ  ˆհ ‫ ڂ‬Ŵ Ɖ ĩ ż Լ S^ĖÄǃ^ż^S
Ԇ֕‫ڂ‬Ɏǵΰ͝ Ԏ֕‫ڂ‬Ɏǵΰ͝

Compared to last year, we see increases

on opposite ends of the spectrum in
this year’s numbers. The percentage of
How many hours per respondents spending less than 1 hour per

month does your month maintaining their analytics solution

increased from 17% to 22% and most likely

What video Buffering/re-buffering rates remained at development team represents those using a single off-the-
the top of the list this year, followed by shelf commercial solution. On the other end,
performance Error rates and Video start failures. Video spend on maintaining those spending More than 1 day or More

metric is most Quality came in 4th and another quality-

related metric, Bitrate(s) delivered dropped
your video streaming than 7 days per month saw similar growth,
and likely represent those building in-house
important to you? significantly from 2nd to 8th. analytics solution? or hybrid solutions.

62 63
I N V E S T I G AT I N G S T R E A M I N G  R E L AT E D I S S U E S

YO U R A N A LY T I C S P L AT F O R M S
On average, how long does it take your team to Data analysis tool dashboards (e.g. via Grafana, Google Data Studio, Tableau, Segment, Amplitude, etc.)
63%
find the root cause of streaming-related issues? In-house analytics dashboards
43%
Video-centric tool dashboards (e.g. Bitmovin Analytics)
27%
Direct API or database queries
26%

26% 38% 14% Data exports

22%
Scheduled reports
16%

֏‫ڂ‬Ԇ‫ڂ‬ʎ́ͽ̿ ԇ‫ڂ‬Ք‫ڂ‬Ԇԇ‫ڂ‬ʎ́ͽ̿͝ Ԇԇ‫ڂ‬Ք‫ڂ‬ԇԊ‫ڂ‬ʎ́ͽ̿͝

20% 1%
How do you
access your video
Ԇ֕‫ڂ‬Ɏǵΰ͝ Ԏ֕‫ڂ‬Ɏǵΰ͝
analytics data? tool dashboards (up from 17% last year).
Direct API or database queries saw the
biggest drop, so perhaps there has been a
This year’s data shows that more people small shift away from developers accessing
are using Data analysis tool dashboards data directly to using more technician and
(up from 50% last year) and Video-centric operations staff friendly dashboards.

64 65
Built for technical professionals in the OTT Bitmovin’s cloud-native solutions ensure the most
video market, Bitmovin’s software solutions are flexible and scalable media encoding, playback, and
designed to optimize customer operations and analytics solutions are available. Optimize your
reduce time-to-market, resulting in the best content globally using future-proof codecs on the
viewer experience imaginable. This is achieved largest number of devices and screens in the
through Bitmovin’s unparalleled device reach, market today. Enable teams to customize media
flexible integration, and commitment to workflows to align with rapidly evolving changes in
supporting their customers. business so they can identify, reduce, and control
operational costs quickly. With Bitmovin, be on
every screen, every new device, in every market,
quicker than the competition can even blink.

www.bitmovin.com