Sustainability Slips Down Industry’s Agenda Says Bitmovin Video Developer Report
Reflecting a media industry challenged to monetize content and control costs any pretense there may have been about driving carbon waste out of the system has been largely disregarded.
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.
The second biggest challenge for respondents remains controlling costs (31%) which reflects the ongoing macroeconomic conditions; the third challenge is playback on all devices (29%) in a fragmented landscape to which are added new XR devices like Vision Pro. Next-gen codecs go under the microscope too with adoption found wanting in a trend also attributed to cost cutting.
“Looking specifically at the results between our 1st and 8th Video Developer Report, in 2017, one of the most striking differences between them is the topic of sustainability,” says Bitmovin CEO and co-founder Stefan Lederer. “Sustainability remains a big topic, but commitment to making the industry more sustainable has waned. The media and entertainment technology industry has had to battle challenging macroeconomic conditions, and it’s slid down the list of business priorities.”
Disconnect between sustainability efforts and cost implications
For the first time in its report, Bitmovin asked respondents how they would characterize their company’s current approach to green streaming initiatives and the feedback was not encouraging. The report’s findings present a clear tension between company’s understanding of the importance of sustainability and economic realities.
70% of respondents indicated that sustainability is not a business priority (the same as 2023) with 45% saying cost is the main driver of decision--5% higher than last year. There’s also a decline in those committed to green streaming at any expense, down from 6% last year to a mere 3% this year.
If there’s any plus side, it’s that almost a third of respondents (28%) said that sustainability remained a high priority even if it means paying a little more. “It’s disappointing, but it also reflects the economic landscape we’re operating in where companies are focusing on topics like monetization and ML and AI, which they believe will positively impact their bottom line,” says Lederer.
Next-Gen Codecs: Slow but Steady
Unsurprisingly, H.264/AVC remains the dominant codec (80%), followed by H.265/HEVC (49%), and VP9 (13%) and AV1 (13%). AV1 is the top codec for planned adoption in the coming 12 months (32%) but the findings reflect there’s a general lag between the industry’s plans and the implementation.
Faultline are among those disappointed by AV1 calling out the optimism being adoption is fatally undermined by the lack of actual implementations to match. Bitmovin is a self-confessed “huge supporter” of AV1 claiming that its compression performance can achieve the same visual quality using ~50% less data than H.264/AVC and ~30% less data than H.265/HEVC and VP9.
However, even Lederer is forced to admit barriers to more widespread adoption. “Even in 2017, there was interest in adopting AV1, but it hasn’t translated into widespread adoption. [Barriers are] chiefly due to the slower than-expected rollout of playback and decoding support. H.264/AVC remains the dominant codec, but it’s clear that there’s a trend toward next-gen codecs, which are just slower than anticipated.”
He adds, “It’s clear that multi-codec encoding is the only way to achieve the efficiencies of next-generation technologies while still ensuring playback on legacy devices.” MPEG-5 LCEVC, by the way, clocks in below VP8 taking 3% market share albeit a 5% rise on last year.
Streaming video consultant Jan Ozer remarks on the report’s findings, “If you equate planned adoption with sentiment, sentiment for AV1 remains strong but stagnant, as interest isn’t translating to adoption. VVC shows stable but cautious optimism, while LCEVC continues to fill niche needs with slow but steady interest.
Overall, the ecosystem appears to be moving more cautiously toward newer codecs than past projections suggested.” It’s noteworthy that for the first time since Bitmovin began its charts SRT leads the pack in live contribution feeds. The developer suggests that this signals that new technologies are finally replacing the RTMPs of the world.
Based on respondents plans to implement within the next 12 months, this growth will only continue. When it comes to production for distribution formats HLS still has its stronghold, but future plans to use it are at an all-time low. CMAF, according to this year’s respondents, is the way forward.
“Because CMAF acts as a container for both HLS and DASH streams, it can alleviate some of the costs associated with encoding and storing multiple copies of the same content,” Bitmovin explains. “RTMP passthrough continues its decline, which is to be expected given the availability of modern alternatives like WebRTC.”
The majority of respondents aren’t using content-aware encoding but adoption plans continue to grow. Bitmovin attribute this to economic pressures, “despite the fact that content-aware encoding would deliver cost efficiencies in the long run.”
Ad insertion the biggest opportunity
Ad insertion “skyrocketed” to the top of the list of challenges which video pros say they’re struggling to address last year. Not only does this issue remains top (38% of respondents listed ad insertion as one of the three biggest hurdles they face this year, up from 33% last year) it’s only getting harder.
This makes sense: While SVOD still leads the pack, there’s a major jump in survey participants using ads. AVOD moves from 56% last year to 70% this year. FAST continues its uptick with a 7% gain year-over-year. Yet these workflows remain complex and highly variable — spanning Client-side ad insertion (CSAI), server side ad insertion (SSAI), and now server-guided ad insertion (SGAI) which 21% of respondents are already using.
“Advertising as the biggest opportunity for innovation in the video streaming space,” Lederer says. “One such innovation is SGAI, an emerging technology which combines the best aspects of CSAI and SSAI. We anticipate significant growth in adoption over the coming years as more streaming vendors add support and its benefits become widely recognized.”
Technologies like AI contextual advertising could help drive both revenue and enhanced user satisfaction through more relevant ad placements.
A Mixed Response to ML/AI
Indeed, AI has become a dominant topic with a third (28%) stating that audio transcription and speech-to-text are where they will be using AI tools to improve customer experiences. Interest in using AI for audio transcription and speech-to-text trumps all other use cases by a 2X margin, which reflects the maturity of AI transcription capabilities This is followed by tagging and categorizing video (13%) and personalization (8%).
Lederer voiced concern at the risk of companies pumping out solutions and labelling them AI. “We don’t want a market flooded with gimmicks,” he said. “We want ground-breaking technology that meets customer needs.” These include audio transcription and speech-to-text which remain popular because of their “relative simplicity,” he said. “In contrast, video and image generation, requiring more sophisticated AI techniques, lags behind in adoption.
This disparity reflects the importance of content creation and artistic originality for media companies. Furthermore, the significant interest in video tagging and categorization suggests a focus on leveraging data for enhanced recommendations and targeted advertising.” However, the number of respondents saying they have no plans to use ML and AI is 9%, up from 6%.
Video analytics evolving
Bitmovin has a vested interest in video analytics, pleased that its own tools are in the top three commercial products along with NPAW and Mux (with Conviva dropping to 4th). Google Analytics heads the list here “attributed to the fact that most participants are using multiple analytics solutions in tandem and Google Analytics is free to all website owners.”
Latency jumped up from the seventh to third biggest priority this year, which Bitmovin assume is due to the growth in live sports and similar workflows where time is of the essence It notes a broad shift in valuing reliability over quality. Bitrates delivered and video quality (VMAF, PSNR) have moved to the bottom of this list, while metrics related to stable, error-free playback now demand the most attention.
“The role of streaming analytics is evolving as the industry prioritizes monetizing content with advertising. Developers are primarily using these tools to ensure stable, reliable playback—and yet 40% of those surveyed indicate that it takes 12 or more hours to pinpoint streaming issues. This is only a 1% improvement from our 2022/2023 report, which is not promising.”
The 8th edition of the annual Video Developer Report provides a comprehensive snapshot of the current state of video streaming, based on data collected from video developers and industry professionals across 34 countries. It offers valuable insights for broadcasters, OTT platforms, and media organizations seeking to stay ahead of industry trends.
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