Why You Should Embrace Sustainability (But Not For The Reason You May Think)

To really make an impact, we have to put sustainability within a context we can understand. It's hard, whether as individuals or businesses, sometimes to grasp the very huge concept of climate change and then commit to "sustainability efforts" as a way to have an impact. But when there is context, sustainability efforts can be achieved without actually trying to focus on them in particular. Within the streaming industry, that context is power.

Is 2024 the Year of WebRTC?

With large sports-streaming operators, WebRTC provides a real opportunity for ultra-low-latency streaming. But those same operators, which spend billions on licensing rights, can't afford to just swap the ability to stream content in real time for basic OTT functionality like SSAI and DRM.

Personalization Is More Than What You Think It Can Be

With advances with generative AI, just-intime transcoding, SSAI stitching, and other streaming video tech stack components, companies like Infuse Video are demonstrating that the true vision of video personalization—changing the video content itself—is finally at hand.

Producing for FAST? Take it Slow

FAST programming needs space for the commercials. Unless you intentionally craft that space into your show, it just slices into your content randomly, ruining the mood of narrative content and frustrating viewers just as the show was getting to the "good part." Watching YouTube content on a Roku device is like this now. The random "pop" to commercials in the middle of a scene is very annoying.

I’ve Seen The Future of The Streaming Video Tech Stack

The evolution of the evolution of TV is coming soon, hinted at by services like Norsk. I for one can't wait.

Predicting a FAST-Approaching Future

In the last month of 2022, my inbox filled with predictions for 2023 from industry soothsayers of every variety, a phenomenon I found so fascinating that I gathered up the most interesting and posted them. Of course, the very nature of making predictions is sharing information you don't really have and guessing at a future you can't possibly see.

What the Growth of FAST Really Tells Us About Viewers

The popularity and growth of FAST show us that viewing behavior, despite the rise of streaming, hasn't really changed much at all. People want choice, but they want it in a way that meets their needs. FAST doesn't scrap the broadcast experience with which so many are familiar; it is evolving it in a way that broadcast could never do to improve upon the viewer experience.

What's the Point of Streaming?

You might think it's crazy of me, as the executive director of the world's largest streaming technical association, to ask the question in this column's title. But I think it's actually important that we do a gut check every once in a while.

Does Streaming's Future Success Depend On Discoverability?

The future of streaming is about unification built on top of a single open standard of content metadata. Right now, it's a matter of seeing the forest for the trees.

Long Live (A Different) DRM!

A blockchain-based, ledger-and-wallet approach promises a digital rights management that's just as effective as anything we have now, with the benefit of being more consumer-friendly.

What Is Streaming Video 'Delivery?'

'Delivery' is one of the most commonly used words in our business? But what does it actually mean? If we think it's just about protocols and bytes, we're never going to catch up to traditional TV.

The Evolution of the Movie Theater is at Hand

With OTT services like HBO Max streaming first-run movies on release day, movie theaters need to think beyond comfy chairs and draft beer to keep selling tickets.

As Streaming Grows, the CDN Must Evolve

Streaming is still only a fraction of total video watched, even post-COVID lockdown. What happens when it's the de facto method for delivering video content? Will the existing CDN approaches be enough to handle the next phase of streaming growth?

What Has the Pandemic Taught Us About Streaming?

The increased streaming we've seen during the COVID-19 pandemic didn't break the internet. But it did give us a vision of the future, and the opportunity to be proactive rather than reactive.

Build Streaming Solutions for Tomorrow, Today

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and stay-at-home orders, streaming has gone through the roof. The strategies you implement today will set the stage for the future.

Who Will Define 'TV'?

The age of the broadcaster is over. With OTT platforms built on microservices and previously unheard-of data collection capabilities, it's the age of the viewer now.

Not All Content (or Devices) Are Created Equal

The one-size-fits-all approach employed in broadcast and cable is no good when it comes to streaming and OTT.

TV 2.0: The Future Isn't About Delivery, It's About Experience

The industry sees video as linear or OTT, but that's not the real distinction. What matters isn't how people get their video, but how they experience it.

Taming the Many-Headed Problem of Video Content Discovery

Sure, today's OTT video platforms could share data and create comprehensive video recommendation systems, but they don't want to. Here's why they should care.

OTT Falls Into the Same Trap as Cable

Viewers turned away from cable because it offered them too many choices. OTT recreates the same problem, but on steroids. So what is the industry going to do about it?