1、2021B ITM OVI NVI D EOD E VE LO PE RR E P O RTWelcomeKey fi ndingsMethodologyC H A L L E N G E S A N D I N N O V A T I O NThe biggest challengesInnovationMachine learning&artifi cial intelligenceV I D E O W O R K F L O W SEncodingVideo codecsAudio codecsStreaming formatsLow latencyLive streamingCDN

2、solutionContent-aware encodingPlayer codebasePlatforms and devicesB U S I N E S S I N S I G H T SMonetizationDRM and content protectionAdvertisingAnalytics568425262728303C O N T E N T S5When I was writing my welcome note last year,the world was in a very diff erent place.By no

3、means are we back to normal.We are still dealing with a lot of uncertainties.But with the world slowly beginning to open up again,weve been more than curious to see how it has aff ected the video streaming industry.Due to the lockdowns last year,the industry has seen substantial growth rates in term

4、s of increased consumption and accelerated innovation topics,from personalization to video quality optimization.Providing higher quality and more engaging video experiences also surfaced new challenges,such as controlling costs.Looking at this years results,we see several indicators across the board

5、 that the industry is further maturing.Let me give you an example;Welcomefor years,weve been avid supporters and excited about the potential of the AV1 codec.As a company,we believe and acknowledge that its a multi-codec world,and this year we fi nally see results indicating that AV1 is ready to be

6、a part of that approach.We have also seen increased usage of more comprehensive content protection systems over the past few years,at least partially driven by increased piracy over the pandemic.Last but not least,video developers have indicated the rising importance of video analytics platforms in

7、a successful video workfl ow.Several use cases might have driven that progress.Analytical monitoring gives insights and a detailed understanding of your audience,resulting in the ability to control costs by ensuring resources are in the right place.With the 5th edition of the video developer report

8、in your hands(or on your screen),we again want to thank you,the video developer community,for providing us with your thoughts and insights and participating in the survey.Regardless of whether you are encoding 10 or 10,000 videos,deploying a player for the fi rst time,or increasing your device cover

9、age while analyzing and monitoring your viewers experiences,we hope you learn from us as much as we have learned from you.Wishing you great success in 2022 and beyond!Stefan LedererCEO&Co-Founder Bitmovin76Understanding your audienceThe key to a successful business,regardless of the business model a

10、nd content type,is understanding your audience.Turn to page 32 to see what devices and platforms the video developers are focusing on.To understand your audience,consistent monitoring and analytics are a must.While startup time is still an important performance metric,video developers now often look

11、 to other metrics that infl uence the viewer experience.Last but not least,when asked for innovation areas,viewer engagement and consumption received 28%of the votes.The value of commercial solutionsMedia companies have become more mature in their knowledge of the streaming stack and their level of

12、expertise.The value of commercial solutions shines when deploying highly confi gurable and modular best-of-breed components.54%of the respondents use a commercial encoder(+4%from last year).This could be due to several reasons including the need for higher levels of support,usability,and control.Or

13、to be more specifi c,the increased complexity of codecs such as HEVC,VP9,and AV1 and Dolby audio codecs.Similar reasons will play a role for the 45%of developers that selected the commercial player solution.A commercial solution adds value from deployment to maintenance and testing in the fragmented

14、 player landscape.The same holds true for analytics solutions where the easy-to-integrate Google Analytics is often supplemented by a commercial solution and over 50%of the developers are using 2-3 data logs to get a better understanding of their audience.K E Y F I N D I N G SChanging of the guard?W

15、hen it comes to device reach,there is no way around the AVC/H.264 video codec.However,newer and more effi cient codecs,HEVC,VP9,and AV1,all saw signifi cant increases in testing and production usage,with HEVC being deployed by over half of respondents.The ecosystem may be ready to make the jump to A

16、V1 considering AV1 adoption by consumer platforms like YouTube and increasing device support from the Fire TV Stick 4K Max.For audio codecs,AAC has enjoyed a similar reign at the top-but it did experience some decline this year while multiple Dolby audio formats gained ground.HLS has been the most p

17、opular streaming format,but its fi rst decline in usage has made way for CMAF,which saw an uptick in adoption,rising from 21%to 26%.The ongoing challenge with low latency applicationsLast year,the number-one challenge was cost.This year innovation topics like low latency are back on top.This is no s

18、urprise,as reducing live latency has been among the biggest challenges faced by video developers over the past several years.The majority of respondents expect low latency video in the 3 to 5-second range,while 25%of our respondents expect sub-second delays for the second straight year in a row.98M

19、E T H O D O L O G YThis is Bitmovins 5th annual survey designed to collect,aggregate,and analyze responses to the most burning questions and topics facing video developers.We conducted the survey from July 7th through August 22nd,2021.538 video developers and industry experts from 65 countries parti

20、cipated.Certain questions in the survey are multiple-choice,multiple-answer questions where the aggregate of the answers will not add up to 100%.For the fi rst time,we introduced a ranking option for some questions.We have adapted the question lineup to acknowledge new developments and technologies.

21、While the Bitmovin Developer Survey is open for everyone to participate and we are posting it industry-wide,we want to preface that the results might be slightly skewed towards the Bitmovin customer base.C O M P A N Y S I Z EThe majority of survey participants came from companies with up to 100 peop

22、le and made up over 53%of the respondents.33%are working in entities with 300+employees.I N D U S T R YWe saw a similar distribution across the industries compared to the previous years.MethodologyM E T H O D O L O G YJ O B T I T L EI N D U S T R YJ O B T I T L EMore than two-thirds of the participa

23、nts hold technical roles,such as developers,solution architects,and product/technical managers;26%have business roles and 1.3%have research responsibilities.Challenges and InnovationThe video streaming industry is both booming and in uncharted waters at the same time.While last years report was domi

24、nated by the impact of COVID-19 on video workfl ows,we were curious to see what has changed in the past year.Lets have a look and see what challenges keep the video developers up at night and where they see the biggest potential for innovation.1312especially when trying to address competing goals,su

25、ch as achieving playback on all devices while controlling the cost of storing multiple fi le types.Playback on all devices is a constant challenge with new devices and platforms entering the market on a consistent basis.With local diff erences and preferences,the question is not if,but when you are

26、able to support them to maximize your audience.This is our traditional warm-up question,getting the pulse of whats top of the mind for our survey participants.Live Low Latency is back on top and we dedicated a deeper dive to it on page 26.Controlling Cost is still very high up on the list and has no

27、t lost its importance.Overall,the percentages are more evenly distributed-meaning lots of challenges need to be solved simultaneously.This adds complexity,T H E B I G G E S T C H A L L E N G E ST H E B I G G E S T C H A L L E N G E SWhat are the biggest challenges you are experiencing with video tec

28、hnology today?1514I N N O V A T I O NI N N O V A T I O NHence,mastering live streaming at scale proves to be,again and again,the most diffi cult challenge.Several areas off er room for innovation including reducing latency for interactivity,adopting more data-effi cient codecs to deliver higher qual

29、ity,and multi-CDN and peer-to-peer optimizations to expand and strengthen your delivery footprint.In this increasingly competitive fi eld,it does not matter if you are streaming live or on-demand-engaging your viewers and getting them to consume more content are the key drivers for diff erentiation

30、and success.And lets not forget that video is the most engaging format in online marketing and enterprise communication.A successful platform and service must support interactive video elements.We see a new topic topping the chart this year:low latency streaming.However,it is probably fair to say th

31、at low latency streaming and live streaming at scale are interconnected.Low latency applications and solutions seem to be in high demand,especially for online video games,gambling,betting and bidding,second-screen experiences,and video chat.Where do you see the most opportunity for innovation in you

32、r service?1716M A C H I N E L E A R N I N G&A R T I F I C I A L I N T E L L I G E N C EM A C H I N E L E A R N I N G&A R T I F I C I A L I N T E L L I G E N C ERecommendations and personalization,which topped the list last year,were surpassed by Audio transcription and speech-to-text and Tagging and

33、 categorizing video content.For which of the following video use cases do you expect to use machine learning(ML)or artifi cial intelligence(AI)to improve the video experience for your viewers?There are two large benefi ts inherent to video transcripts.The fi rst is providing closed captions for your

34、 video content.Closed captions are a very important aspect of any video strategy.Facebook,for example,discovered that a staggering 85%of video content on their platform was watched muted.As a result,closed captions are crucial to providing context for this growing number of users watching content wi

35、th no sound.A less obvious benefi t for transcripts is the increasing discoverability of video assets.Making content easy to fi nd becomes increasingly important as video archives grow,leading us to the second use case,which is tagging and categorizing video content where the benefi ts lie in storag

36、e,search,and sharing videos.VideoWorkfl owsIn 2021,we are still living in a multi-codec world,with business goals and return on investment driving the adoption of newer codecs.The year-over-year trends of codecs currently in use versus those planning to be used in the next 12 months tell a story of

37、developers being optimistic about quickly rolling newer codecs into production combined with the reality that it takes time for the complete ecosystem around them to develop and mature,with a critical mass of adoption and support often coming years after release.Driven by competition with traditiona

38、l broadcast television,latency,along with increasing demand for interactive features and lowering end-to-end latency of live streams,has been an ongoing struggle for video developers,fi nishing fi rst or second on the list of biggest challenges for the past four years.Well take a closer look at how

39、latency expectations are evolving and their relationship to the underlying technologies in use.2120E N C O D I N GE N C O D I N GThis could be due to several reasons,including the need for higher levels of support,usability,and control.Commercial solutions can off er relief from steep learning curve

40、s and maintenance costs for open-source applications,as well as manage the complexity of multiple formats and conversions while providing the highest possible quality.Do you use a commercial encoder or an open-source-based encoder(e.g.FFmpeg)?For the fi rst time,we split this question between Video-

41、on-Demand(VoD)and Live Encoding to see what impact content type had on encoding location.Where do you encode video?We expected to see larger variances between the two use cases broken down by the encoder location,which led us to check that data confi rming the results you see here.In essence,the use

42、 of cloud encoding services is on the rise overall,from 29%in 2019 to 32%in 2020.Now in 2021,33%of respondents are using a cloud service for Live Encoding and 37%for VoD.We asked this question for the fi rst time in our 2020 survey.Compared to last year,commercial encoders gained 4 percentage points

43、.Live EncodingVoD Encoding2322V I D E O C O D E C SV I D E O C O D E C SLooking forward,the top 3 codecs projected to be added in the next 12 months are HEVC(25%),AV1(22%),and VVC(20%),showing that the competition is increasing from the latest generation of codecs.Will AV1 fi nally have its breakout

44、 year?Will VVC really be a viable production option in 2022?Only time will tell.In 2020,HEVC was being used by 42%of respondents,with an additional 47%saying they planned to add it within the next year.This year,we see HEVC adoption has grown to 49%of participants,a signifi cant increase though some

45、what short of last years ambitious goals.Will 2022 be the year for HEVC or will newer codecs slow its momentum?Which video codecs are you using in production?Since we began the Bitmovin Video Developer Survey in 2017,AVC/H.264 has been the dominant video codec,utilized by over 90%of participants eve

46、ry year.While still on top,AVC usage declined in 2021,falling by 8%compared to last year.Which video codecs are you planing to use in the next 12 months?2524A U D I O C O D E C SS T R E A M I N G F O R M A T SWhich streaming formats are you using?As in previous years,the shifts in new streaming form

47、at adoption were mostly incremental.The one exception is CMAF(HLS/DASH)which rose 5 percentage points from last year and is now being used by 26%of respondents.Multiple audio codecs from Dolby gained ground in 2021,led by Dolby Digital/Dolby Digital+which jumped 7 percentage points and is being used

48、 by almost half of survey participants.Stalwart MP3 maintained its third-place position followed by Dolby AC-4.Dolby Atmos fi nished fi fth and it will be interesting to see if there are any major shake-ups in the 2022 rankings.Which audio codecs are you using in production?While AAC maintained its

49、leadership position,dominating the market with usage by 75%of this years respondents,its market share did decline from last year by 12 percentage points.RTMP continues to retain a solid user base utilizing it for live encoding contribution feeds and direct streams to social platforms.It has even out

50、lasted the Flash players it was originally developed for,which is surprising due to the fact that large CDNs have stated they will not support the format going forward.Planning to implement in next 12 months2726L O W L A T E N C YWhich technology do you use for low latency streaming?It will be inter

51、esting to follow this trend over the next year with more devices and platforms supporting Apples still relatively new LL-HLS standard.In the next question,well look at low latency expectations and how theyve shifted over the past few years.In our 2020 report,nearly 60%of participants indicated they

52、were using HTTP-based protocols for low latency streaming.As a result,this year we broke that category down further into LL-HLS and LL-DASH.Not surprisingly,these protocols topped the chart with LL-HLS being used by 33%of respondents.What is your low latency expectation for Live streams?years,so to

53、dig a little deeper,this year we added another option of“3 seconds”which interestingly was the favorite,chosen by 39%of respondents.Latency expectations and requirements are largely infl uenced by the application,with a natural divide between real-time communication and one-to-many broadcasts.These

54、results indicate that for one-to-many applications,both the underlying technologies and developer expectations are evolving to meet in the more achievable 2-5 second range.L I V E S T R E A M I N GIn our 2020 report,60%of respondents said their low latency expectation was 5 seconds,which we noted wa

55、s a more realistic goal for scalable events and environments compared to the 25%who were expecting less than 1 second.A low latency expectation of 5 seconds had been the runaway winner the past 2 2928C D N S O L U T I O NC D N S O L U T I O NWhich CDN solution are you using?your own can be prohibiti

56、ve.Lately,many companies have started to implement their own private hybrid content delivery networks to match the need for fl exibility.It is clear that this choice has strong appeal with 30%of respondents already using a hybrid model.The boom in video content being delivered across devices to a gl

57、obal footprint has created new challenges for CDN solutions and use cases.Even though building your own CDN is faster and easier than ever,and enables unprecedented customization possibilities,third-party CDN services still have a comfortable lead as the cost of owning 3130C O N T E N T-A W A R E E

58、N C O D I N GP L A Y E R C O D E B A S EAre you using content-aware encoding technology?known,with nearly double the utilization of last years survey.We predict this trend will continue,as per-title and per-shot encoding optimizations become necessary to lower the total cost of ownership while maint

59、aining the highest possible quality.The quality improvement and bandwidth-saving advantages of content-aware encoding are becoming more widely Which player codebase are you using?We think everyone agrees that a well-functioning player is more complicated than meets the eye.It is clear that the incre

60、asingly fragmented multi-device world is here to stay.Year-over-year there is little movement when it comes to picking a core player framework.One trend is slowly emerging.This is the declining usage of in-house solutions and native players,which may stem from diff erent challenges.The decline of in

61、-house players might be rooted in the fact that it is easier for developer teams to build on top of an open-source or commercial player codebase.Additionally,in the multi-device world using a native player for each device means developers need to learn a diff erent API each time.Respondents may be f

62、avoring using the open-source and commercial players they already know but across more devices.3332P L A T F O R M S A N D D E V I C E SWhich of the following platforms and devices do you use to stream video or audio content?As predicted,our list of supported devices grew from last year.And that is

63、the main change and challenge.The number of devices and high viewer expectations also begs the question of how to test streams across the board without incurring major costs.P L A T F O R M S A N D D E V I C E SThe accessibility of OTT content is one of the many reasons it is so popular.All of the m

64、ajor video streaming subscription services allow watching on multiple devices and consumers expect a smooth and seamless experience.3534L A T A MA P A CN O R A ME M E ARegional diff erences are always insightful.Apple TV,Android TV,and Chromecast are in the top positions across the board with Fire T

65、V and Samsung landing in the third spot in North America and Latin America,respectively.The diff erences are defi nitely apparent among the Smart TVs-e.g.,Philips ranks high in EMEA and Vizio in North America.Consoles are most popular in the North American market for video streaming where they recei

66、ved double digits,while in all other regions,the numbers are signifi cantly lower.The highest-ranked console everywhere is the PS4.Which of the following platforms and devices do you use to stream video or audio content?B Y R E G I O NP L A T F O R M S A N D D E V I C E SP L A T F O R M S A N D D E

67、V I C E SBusinessinsightsFor the business side of the developer work,we think it comes down to how well you understand your audience.Its all about the data-which helps streaming providers and their developers optimize their decision-making in balancing decisions about monetization models,content pro

68、tection,ad architecture and more.Hence our analytics section is bigger and more insightful than ever-just like analytics services and use cases at the developers disposal.3938M O N E T I Z A T I O ND R M A N D C O N T E N T P R O T E C T I O NThe media industry is audience and content-driven.When ch

69、oosing the right revenue model,a fl exible technology solution that supports diff erent monetization models can be pivotal.Over the last three years,What monetization model do you follow?our survey has shown only small changes with both the pay-per-view model and multichannel video programming distr

70、ibutor(MVPD)gaining traction year over year.It comes a bit as a surprise that the hybrid model has seen a decline of 10 percentage points this year,considering that several of the bigger services such as HBO,Peacock,and Paramount follow this model.Commercial DRM providers and in-house solutions are

71、being used more widely while fewer respondents have indicated not applicable.This is a positive trend refl ecting How are you implementing DRM in your workfl ow?industry and developer awareness of the importance of content protection.The vast majority of web browsers,devices,and set-top boxes now ha

72、ve native support for at least one of the big three DRM systems.Lets see how Googles Widevine,Apples FairPlay,and Microsofts PlayReady fare in the next question.4140D R M A N D C O N T E N T P R O T E C T I O ND R M A N D C O N T E N T P R O T E C T I O NAccording to an investigative report develope

73、d by Digital Citizens Alliance,in collaboration with NAGRA,the video piracy ecosystem generates over one billion dollars of revenue annually in the U.S.alone,so content protection solutions around Multi-DRM and forensic watermarking are crucial for preventing lost revenue and jobs.What kind of conte

74、nt protection systems do you use?Notable again is the fact that the percentage of developers not implementing DRM keeps going down year after year-from 40%in 2019 to 26%in 2020 and this year to 20%.4342A D V E R T I S I N GA D V E R T I S I N GAdvertisers are eagerly tracking consumer preferences an

75、d pumping a higher percentage of their ad budget into OTT.We asked participants to rank the areas that developers are most concerned about when running ads.When running ads,what areas are you most concerned about?Similar to challenges elsewhere in the streaming ecosystem,advertising is challenged by

76、 a fragmented ecosystems.Pricing aside,when it comes to low fi ll rates,the culprit is often technical in nature with issues such as server timeouts or ad placement issues due to device type or geo-targeting.We are not surprised the Impact on Viewer Experience made it into the top 3.Buff ering,error

77、s,and video start delays can all cause viewer dissatisfaction and in a worst-case scenario-churn.Both server-side ad insertion(SSAI)and client-side ad insertion(CSAI)have their pros and cons and their place in ad-serving technology for OTT.One trend weve been seeing since we started the survey is th

78、at SSAI seems to always be one step ahead of CSAI.Which ad architecture are you using today?For media companies that are uncertain which ad architecture will be best suited for them,the recommendation is to look at raw,fundamental data that gives insights into the performance of ads in regards to bu

79、ff ering,latency,fi ll rates,device support,completion rates,and where most of the errors are coming from.This is a nice transition into our last set of questions about video analytics.4544A N A L Y T I C SA N A L Y T I C SLets start with the good news for video analytics(providers).Year over year,f

80、ewer respondents are answering this question with none.In an increasingly competitive market,video analytics plays a pivotal role in monitoring viewer experiences and engagement and gaining audience insights.The most popular platform for video analytics over the past two years has been Google,which

81、lost 15 points and was overtaken for the#1 spot taken by in-house solutions.It seems that simple traffi c and completion rates might not be enough anymore.What video analytics provider do you use today?Based on the comments we received,the main reasons for developing and maintaining an in-house solu

82、tion are security(Data is at the core of all of our products and we need to own it and make sure we dont gather anything that can identify the viewer.)as well as customization(We build it ourselves and it gives us all the details we need in a single place.)Specialized video analytics providers-such

83、as Conviva,Bitmovin,Nice People at Work,Mux and others-provide value with their dedicated focus on the quality of experience(QoE),the actual individual viewer experience,video performance,and advertising insights via dashboards and alerts.Participants indicated that they often use a combination of l

84、ogs because it gives them the most data about how viewers are experiencing video.4746A N A L Y T I C SA N A L Y T I C SHow many sources do you collect video-streaming-related data from?We understand that there is more than one performance metric that is important.But in the past years,video start-up

85、 time led this chart.What video performance metric is most important to you?What does this new ranking tell us?It indicates that while the initial startup of a video is still an important part of the viewer experience,as soon as a provider has mastered it,they can focus on other metrics that infl ue

86、nce the viewer experience and,even more so,customer retention.4948A N A L Y T I C SA N A L Y T I C SRegardless of whether you use an in-house solution or an analytics provider,the time commitment for the development team is signifi cant.It is important to look for a solution that is easy to integrat

87、e and maintain,while also allowing root cause analysis for identifi ed errors.How many hours per month does your development team spend on maintaining your video streaming analytics solution?and Tableau are critical for any video analytics platform and solution,especially when the dashboards are mon

88、itored by humans basing important decisions on the data.Direct API queries are gaining in popularity,but for a diff erent use case.The focus here is to build actionable insights and automated decisions based on the data.How do you access video analytics data?The answers to this question paint a simi

89、lar picture to the year before.The majority of respondents want to see the data populated in custom dashboards.Integrations with vendors such as Grafana,Google Data Studio,5150A N A L Y T I C Serrors occur and their viewing pleasure is interrupted.That means each error has a monetary impact regardle

90、ss of the business model.Reducing the time to fi nd the root cause can minimize customer churn and revenue loss.Granular data sets drilling down without having to replicate error messages can be the holy grail to reduce the time to identify and fi x errors.On average,how long does it take your team

91、to fi nd the root cause of a streaming-related issue?The video streaming industry is fast-paced.Errors are inevitable and occur across all devices and platforms.Worse,viewers have very little patience when streaming Bitmovin is an Emmy Award-winning leading global provider of video software and clou

92、d infrastructure for online media companies and enterprises.Built for technical professionals in the OTT video market,Bitmovins software solutions are designed to optimize customer operations and reduce time-to-market,resulting in the best viewer experience imaginable.Bitmovins cloud-native solution

93、s ensure the most fl exible and scalable media encoding,playback,and analytics solutions available.Optimize your content globally using future-proof codecs on the largest number of devices and screens on the market today.Enable teams to customize media workfl ows to align with rapidly evolving changes in 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.Learn more New to Bitmovin?Why not check it out for yourself with a 30-day trial at