Wowza CEO Krish Kumar Talks Product Strategy, Enhanced Analytics, and AI for Encoding and Metadata

In November 2024, Wowza appointed Krish Kumar CEO. Understanding where Kumar plans to take Wowza is critical to all those whose businesses touch streaming video. To learn more about Krish and Wowza's future direction, contributing editor Jan Ozer interviewed him about ten days before NAB 2025.

Via LA HEVC Patent Pool Licensors Sue Microsoft Over HEVC Use in Germany

Three licensors of the Via LA HEVC Patent Pool (M&K Holdings, Gensquare, and Tagivan II) have filed a patent infringement suit against Microsoft in the Landgericht Duesseldorf court in Germany, alleging unlicensed use of High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) technology in several Microsoft products.

Patent Attorney Gottfried Schüll Talks Via LA HEVC Patent Pool vs. Microsoft Infringement Suit

Three licensors of the Via LA HEVC Patent Pool (M&K Holdings, Gensquare, and Tagivan II) have filed a patent infringement suit against Microsoft in the Landgericht Duesseldorf court in Germany, alleging unlicensed use of High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) technology in several Microsoft products. In this interview with Streaming Learning Center's Jan Ozer, patent attorney Gottfried Schull, who is representing Via LA HEVC, discusses what's at issue in the lawsuit.

Maximizing Content Value with Subtitles and Dubbing

AI-driven dubbing has recently gained attention as major platforms like Amazon Prime Video and YouTube roll out new tools designed to expand their content's global reach. Amazon is testing AI-assisted dubbing on licensed content, while YouTube has introduced auto-dubbing for thousands of channels. Both efforts reflect a growing belief that dubbing can help platforms engage new audiences—but the results so far have been mixed.

Meta's David Ronca Talks Benchmarking and Deploying AV1 in the Android Ecosystem

The arc of AV1 codec adoption at large-scale content owners has been long and complex, as Meta Senior Media Software Engineer David Ronca (who also spent 12 years developing encoding solutions at Netflix) knows as well as anyone. In this interview with Jan Ozer of Streaming Media and Streaming Learning Center, Ronca discusses the integration of AV1 into the Android ecosystem, focusing on the challenges and solutions for mobile devices. 

Sneak Preview: How to Meet the Challenges of New Codec Adoption and Deployment

On Wednesday, February 26, digital video expert Jan Ozer will moderate the Streaming Media Connect panel "How to Meet the Challenges of New Codec Adoption and Deployment." Many of us want to see new codecs such as AV1 and VVC/H.266 succeed rapidly and bring the efficiencies and savings they were designed to deliver, but the reality is more complex. Codec adoption doesn't just depend on innovation; it's a marathon involving hardware readiness, market penetration, and achieving a 30% device compatibility threshold. This panel assembles transcoding experts from Evolution, Radiant Media Player, United Cloud, and AOM.

Sustainability Slips Down Industry’s Agenda Says Bitmovin Video Developer Report

The latest Video Developer Report compiled by Bitmovin shows sustainability slipping down the list of priorities, a casualty of the search for short term profit. The report made clear the industry's top priority is monetizing content more effectively with ad tech, which can be attributed to the huge spike in AVOD and FAST business models.

H.267: A Codec for (One Possible) Future

H.267 should be finalized between July and October 2028. If history holds, this means H.267 won't see meaningful deployment until 2034-2036, long after I hang up my keyboard. Here's a brief description of what the standard is designed to deliver and my free and totally unsolicited advice to the committees and technology developers that will create it.

What's Next for CTV Advertising: Comscore's State of Programmatic 2025 Survey

Comscore's State of Programmatic 2025 offers survey-based data that reveals where advertising budgets are going in 2025 (think CTV), how quickly marketers are turning to cookie-free (48% cookie-free by the end of 2025), and what CTV ads do well (branding) and not so well (performance). It's a free download and well worth your time to retrieve and digest.

Access Advance LLC CEO Pete Moller Talks Video Distribution Patent (VDP) Pool Launch

Today, Access Advance announced the launch of its Video Distribution Patent (VDP) Pool, a comprehensive licensing program for streaming content encoded with HEVC, VVC, AV1, and VP9 codecs. The pool aims to simplify licensing for content distributors while addressing industry challenges around codec adoption, royalty costs, and patent litigation. Jan Ozer interviewed CEO Pete Moller to discuss the motivation behind the pool, its structure, and the expected impact on the industry.

Navigating the Shifting Streaming Landscape: Insights from Kantar’s Dominic Sunnebo

In a recent interview I did with Dominic Sunnebo, Global Insight Director at Kantar, Sunnebo shared findings from Kantar's latest Entertainment on Demand (EoD) data, revealing distinct trends in the UK market and their broader implications. The conversation highlighted not only Kantar's insights but also Sunnebo's expertise in interpreting key trends shaping the global streaming market, from the dominance of top-tier services to the rise of ad-supported models and the challenges faced by niche platforms.

Could Multicast ABR Really Have Saved the Paul/Tyson Fight?

When Netflix streamed the Paul/Tyson fight to a record-breaking 65 million simultaneous viewers, it wasn't all smooth sailing. Many viewers were left frustrated by buffering, freezes, and audio-sync issues. Like many other vendors, Broadpeak, a major player in streaming technology, claimed its multicast ABR (mABR) technology would have "knocked out video freezes" during the broadcast. It's a tantalizing promise, but could mABR realistically have delivered it? To understand, let's look at what mABR is, what's required to make it work, and why its widespread adoption is more complicated than Broadpeak might have you believe.

Chick-fil-A’s Play App: A Family-Focused Strategy with a Strategic Edge

Why the heck would Chick-fil-A start a streaming channel? Is this a completely new strategy or a copycat move? I endeavored to find out, and this is what I learned.

Live Sports in the Streaming Era: What’s Changing and Why It Matters

Samba TV's recently released report, Live Sports on Streaming Platforms, provides five key sets of data points to help advertisers and sports leagues better target their audiences both during and after live sporting events. The report begins with insights into web-only sporting events, revealing audience numbers for the most-watched and least-watched games on platforms like Apple TV+ and Amazon Prime Video.

AI-Powered Insights for Film and Beyond: How Cinelytic and Callaia Are Streamlining Content Decisions

In a recent interview with Streaming Media's Jan Ozer, Cinelytic CEO Tobias Queisser discussed how the company's namesake platform offers media professionals a streamlined mechanism to assess a film's potential success before production even begins, and provides actionable insights into casting, budget optimization, and distribution strategies.

What Google Chrome's Cookie Apocalypse Means for Streaming Advertising

For some publishers, third-party cookies enable the targeting that differentiates web-based ads from broadcast ads. If you lose the ability to target, you lose the benefit that delivers greater efficiency to marketers and increased CPM on your ad inventory. In this article, I'll cover Google's proposed actions regarding third-party cookies, the status of those plans, who this impacts, and what advertisers and publishers can do to mitigate this impact.

Unpacking Amazon Prime’s UI Redesign With UIC Digital’s Matt Lasky

Amazon Prime recently redesigned its interface. To help us understand what Amazon did, why they did it, and what it could mean for other streaming publishers, I recently interviewed Matt Lasky, lead user experience designer at UIC Digital. His quotes in the article have been edited for flow and readability.

Telestream CTO Simon Clarke Talks AI, Cloud, and Wirecast and Vantage Trajectories

In a recent interview, Simon Clarke, Chief Technology Officer of Telestream, discussed two key products, Wirecast and Vantage. Celebrating Wirecast's 20th anniversary, Clarke reflected on its evolution from a nascent streaming tool to a robust application used by a diverse range of streaming producers, including educators, business professionals, and houses of worship.

Enhancing Ad Performance for Smaller Streamers with Moloco’s AI Solution

When it comes to delivering effective video advertising, smaller companies often face significant challenges. Unlike major platforms like Amazon, Google, and Meta, these companies lack the extensive viewer data that enables precise ad targeting. Moloco aims to bridge this gap with its AI-based platform and streaming media service, providing smaller streamers with tools to enhance their advertising performance. Dave Simon, General Manager of Growth Initiatives at Moloco, recently discussed the company's solutions and insights from a recent YouGov survey in this interview with Streaming Media's Jan Ozer.

Will Amazon and Dolby's Latest Acquisitions Accelerate VVC Deployment?

Recent moves by Amazon and Dolby may hint at a growing interest in VVC (Versatile Video Coding).