VIENNA—Bitmovin, a provider of video streaming solutions, is collaborating with Simplestream, a provider of OTT and broadcast solutions, and technology provider Xperi, to extend playback to TiVo OS smart TVs and devices.

Under the new partnership, Bitmovin and Simplestream have created a fully integrated streaming platform combining Simplestream’s content management and application framework with Bitmovin’s advanced playback technology.

The consolidated platform enables video providers to deliver a consistent, high-quality user experience to viewers with TiVo OS devices, the companies said. Bitmovin’s automated testing system uses AI analysis to process and analyze over a million tests each week to pinpoint root causes of playback issues faster and with greater accuracy to ensure the highest quality viewing experiences. Bitmovin first extended support to include TiVo OS in October 2025.

The companies claimed that the joint solution will help media companies and operators simplify their technology stack to reduce operational complexity and integration risk, while ensuring consistent and reliable playback across devices. It also enables flexible monetization capabilities including support for a range of ad formats such as pre-roll ads and pause ads, as well as standardized accessibility features that support inclusive viewing experiences.

“This collaboration represents an important step forward in simplifying and modernizing OTT delivery for our customers,” said Ashley Reynolds-Horne, Technical Director for Simplestream. “By combining Simplestream’s end-to-end platform capabilities with Bitmovin’s proven playback technology, we’re enabling media companies and operators to deliver reliable, scalable streaming experiences while unlocking new opportunities for monetization and service growth.”

James Varndell, Senior Director of Product Management, Bitmovin, commented: “Video providers want their service to be accessible by as many viewers as possible including those running TiVo OS, which is rapidly gaining traction. By extending support to include TiVo OS and collaborating with Simplestream to simplify launching on TiVo OS, we’re supporting customers to reach more viewers across a wider range of devices.”

Stephane David, Senior Director, Content Partnerships and Business Development EMEA, Xperi, added: “TiVo OS is designed to put great content front and centre. Collaborating with Bitmovin and Simplestream will help more streaming services to launch on TiVo OS with a high‑quality, consistent playback experience, so audiences can find, watch and enjoy more of what they love.”

Developed by Xperi and launched in 2022, TiVo OS is a content‑first operating system designed to make it easier for viewers to find, watch and enjoy great television. The platform powers smart TVs from leading brands, as well as a range of smart TV devices including set‑top boxes.

LANCASTER, Pa.—Pocono Television Network (PTN) is operated by the Pocono Mountains Visitors Bureau (PMVB), a private, nonprofit organization that serves to promote, educate and attract visitors to Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains. Launched in 2017, the channel showcases the region through original segments such as “Pocono Perspectives” and “Pocono Mountains Magazine,” weather updates, live webcams and features on local businesses and events.

The PMVB created its own television network in order to drive content development with a focus on storytelling about the destination and the organization’s 600 members. As president and CEO of the PMVB, I also serve as the executive in charge of production for PTN, which, over the past eight years, has grown substantially in its broadcast, cable and streaming coverage to now reach more than 50 million households.

By 2022, we had exceeded the technical limitations of our third-party distributor and decided to expand our existing partnership with Take One Productions. Under the new arrangement, Take One’s team and PMVB’s in-house staff produce content for the network, while Take One oversees content aggregation, scheduling and playout across cable, OTT and digital platforms.

Broadcast-Grade Upgrade
Supporting continuous multi­platform distribution of PTN would require more than a basic file-based system that simply creates playlists from uploaded content. We needed a broadcast-grade solution that we wouldn’t outgrow, supporting the complete workflow—ingest, media asset management, playout, graphics and master control—while delivering the scalability and long-term reliability needed for a 24/7 network.

Just as important, the platform had to be cloud-based. With Take One’s studio in Lancaster and the PMVB located two hours north in Stroudsburg, relying on physical infrastructure wasn’t practical. The Versio integrated playout system from Imagine Communications, combined with the company’s cloud-native Aviator Automation, turned out to be the perfect solution.

Versio gives us the core playout engine and pulls the workflow together, but the bonus is in how seamlessly it works with Imagine’s Aviator Automation to create a unified, cloud-based operation.

Aviator Automation simplifies the programming process, offering remote login capabilities that enable programming from anywhere. In addition, the platform provides as-run logs to reference what has played, while its built-in Content Portal makes managing content simple. For additional visibility into PTN’s inventory, special fields were added to the metadata so content can be quickly identified by season and region.

Versio and Aviator Automation are incredibly easy to operate and have been exceptionally reliable—in more than two years of 24/7 broadcasting, there hasn’t been a single minute of downtime due to system failure. And when there have been any issues, the Imagine team is available within minutes, and the issue gets resolved on the spot.

Easy to Scale
The Versio platform’s cloud capabilities have enabled us to expand PTN’s cable footprint to nearly a dozen providers across Pennsylvania. At the same time, we’ve built a strong OTT presence through Vimeo’s enterprise platform—allowing the network’s live stream from Versio to be delivered to a wide array of consumer devices. Viewers can download the app to watch live programming or explore on-demand content from anywhere.

Last year, we added over-the-air broadcasting to the distribution mix. The channel is now live in six markets—with a seventh on the way—reaching audiences in Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, Lancaster and Philadelphia, as well as Wilmington, Del., and even areas near the New York State border.

With cable, OTT and OTA distribution, PTN has the potential to reach millions of households, not including international audiences streaming online. For a regional tourism network, that kind of reach is a big step forward. We’ve even discussed launching a second channel, and with Versio, that’s now a realistic option. What once took nine months can now be done in just a few weeks.

More information is available at https://imaginecommunications.com.

SAN DIEGO—Visaic has deep roots in video and sports media. Our team of industry veterans has worked with some of the biggest brands in sports. We founded the company in 2020 to build a fast-growing sports business anchored by the Visaic Interactive Platform (VIP), an AI-powered engine that helps sports properties own their audience and elevate their brand.

Today, VIP is a fully managed, turnkey solution built on three core pillars: Fan Experience, Data IQ and Monetization. We deliver premium fan experiences across any device, apply advanced data science to deepen engagement, and provide flexible hybrid monetization models. VIP is purpose-built for sports, and we believe it is one of the most advanced platforms on the market.

To support VIP at true sports scale, we needed a reliable and flexible live-video workflow foundation—in 2025 alone, we surpassed 55,000 live games. During peak periods, we manage close to 2,000 games a week, so operating at this volume requires a partner that can support large-scale, flexible ingest and full automation.

API Forward
We evaluated several workflow technologies early in our development, but Zixi offered the combination of reliability, automation and partnership that we required. Zixi gives us the reliability and insight we need to scale efficiently. With a unified view of our live workflows, we have been able to grow distribution while keeping operational complexity firmly in check.

Three factors made Zixi the right choice for us. The first was the API-forward design. Even before ZEN Master’s API set reached its current level of maturity, it was clear we could automate the full life cycle of each event. We needed to create, configure, monitor, and tear down live events entirely through automation. Zixi gave us the means to build that system.

The second factor was the flexibility on ingest and delivery. We work with hundreds of venues and a wide range of production tools, which means we see all types of ingest formats. Zixi’s support for RTMP, SRT and the Zixi protocol allowed us to create a consistent and reliable workflow regardless of how a venue originates its feed.

The third factor was the partnership itself. Live sports requires rapid response, so our NOC works closely with Zixi support through established Slack workflows. The speed of that collaboration has been essential, whether an issue is minor or significant. The pace of live events does not allow slow turnaround times, and Zixi has consistently met the urgency of our environment.

Our workflow starts at the venue—across college campuses, arenas and automated camera systems, we ingest signals using RTMP, SRT or the Zixi protocol. Zixi Broadcaster instances, i.e. a virtual server running in the provider’s data center that is deployed in our cloud environment, handle transcoding, packaging and feed into our multi-CDN workflow. ZEN Master provides orchestration, but we rely on the ZEN Master APIs to automate the process. We also have AI agents that monitor the games for QoS and automatically trigger responses based on the incoming signals.

Automated Fall Sports
A typical Saturday during the fall sports season demonstrates how this works. Our platform may be processing hundreds of simultaneous games. For each event, our automation activates Zixi Broadcasters, assigns them to specific games, applies the correct transcoding settings, configures redundancy and monitors stream health. If a Broadcaster instance shows issues such as packet loss or increased latency, our system uses telemetry from Zixi to automatically reassign the event to another instance. The process is automated and does not require repeated operator input.

This level of automation allows our team to manage tens of thousands of games per month. Whether we’re powering large, aggregated sports platforms spanning many leagues and thousands of games or a branded university athletic conference with dense schedules and high live-viewer concurrency, Zixi enables consistent quality across widely varied venues and customer segments.

By integrating Zixi solutions with VIP, we have helped our customers achieve strong results and bring broadcast-level experiences to audiences of all sizes.

More information is available at https://zixi.com/.

HINTERSCHMIDING and MUNICH, Germany—At MMO Managed Media Operations, our teams manage cloud-native live production and playout infrastructure across Europe. We specialize in stream ingest, signal monitoring and multiviewing for broadcast customers, handling everything from linear channels to event-based live coverage. Our workflows are built entirely in Amazon Web Services (AWS), using TAG’s platform across multiple use cases from signal acquisition to visual QC.

Our Business Needs
Our biggest challenge is maintaining signal quality and availability at scale without introducing operational complexity. We ingest dozens of contribution feeds from multiple customers (delivered via SRT) and monitor signal health throughout each signal’s life cycle, from preprocessing and metadata injection through packaging and final distribution.

In a cloud-native environment, we needed a solution that supports dynamic scaling, provides granular probing and alerting and enables real-time response. Our major pain point: the time-to-resolution when something goes wrong. We can’t afford to spend minutes determining if a problem is upstream, inside our infrastructure or downstream at the handoff point.

For deployment, we use TAG’s Realtime Monitoring Platform to monitor incoming and outgoing SRT contribution streams, plus intermediate handoffs, metadata overlays and packaging status. Everything is deployed 100% in the cloud, containerized and fully orchestrated in AWS.

TAG provides a unified view of signal health at every critical point. We can ingest contribution feeds, decode and display multiviewers for operational staff and create mosaic views for stakeholders across different functions. TAG’s open APIs integrate with our tools, and our infrastructure-as-code approach means TAG can be spun up or down quickly as needed.

In terms of use cases, we primarily support 24/7 playout and live-event ingest for multiple European broadcast customers. Our signal-acquisition team monitors all incoming SRT streams using TAG, with alerting tied to key thresholds (loss, jitter, decode errors). We can also visualize packaging and encoding stages downstream, ensuring signals are clean and synchronized before handoff.

More specifically, we get the signals via SRT from several customers, then send them to a partner that does distribution or playout. For one broadcaster, we created a special layout, the customer could connect from their side to TAG, and they could view it on their own.

TAG’s SRT support and ability to decode and visualize mosaic views in the same environment are key strengths. We leverage TAG’s layout editor to quickly create custom displays for different departments and events, from election night coverage to regional sports.

Operational Impact
Since deploying TAG, we’ve reduced time-to-visualize issues from several minutes to under 30 seconds. Operators rely on TAG’s mosaic displays to identify stream issues in real time and take immediate action. Our engineers appreciate the detailed metrics, which pinpoint whether issues stem from ingest, transcoding or handoff. Because everybody on the team is remote, it was important that it’s cloud-native. TAG helps us go deeper into the error and zoom into the signal.

TAG enables us to offer higher confidence and SLAs or standard-level agreements to broadcast customers. When a customer asks whether their feed is live and stable, we don’t jump between dashboards. We open TAG and see everything at a glance.

As for next steps, we plan to expand TAG’s footprint into more event-based workflows and integrate its data into our monitoring and ticketing systems. We’re also exploring deeper integration with scheduling metadata to automatically trigger layout changes based on time of day or event priority.

In short, TAG has become critical to our live operations and engineering workflows. It delivers confidence, speed and flexibility across highly dynamic cloud-native production environments. Most importantly, it allows us to focus on managing signals, not managing tools.

For more information, visit tagvs.com.

BALTIMORE—Mid-Atlantic Sports Network (MASN), the regional sports network owned by Major League Baseball’s Baltimore Orioles and Washington Nationals, broadcasts both teams’ games to fans across a seven-state region. On top of 24/7 access to all its core live baseball coverage, MASN covers a breadth of exclusive pre- and postgame shows, documentaries, and annual collegiate events spanning from basketball to poker and fight sports.

Lower Costs, More Control
Faced with high satellite costs and other issues, we turned to LTN to explore a full migration to IP delivery. Leveraging its experience supporting IP transitions for TelevisaUnivision, MSG Networks and Tennis Channel, we successfully migrated all our channels from satellite to IP ahead of the 2025 MLB season. The result was a nearly 60% reduction in distribution costs, with greater control, flexibility, and visibility over our transmission feeds.

We decided to move from satellite to IP because regional sports networks like ours face mounting pressures to control operating costs, maintain consistent signal quality and navigate the shrinking C-band spectrum capacity for video distribution. These factors are prompting many of us to look at alternatives to satellite to ensure reliability and low-latency delivery that meets today’s ever-increasing viewer expectations. MASN faced these same challenges.

We needed to modernize our network distribution model without disrupting existing partners or viewers. We set out to reduce delivery and maintenance costs, preserve satellite-grade reliability for consistent streaming experiences and gain deeper insight into how our networks perform. At the same time, we wanted to ensure continuous, high-quality coverage of our traditional multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs) and newer virtual MVPD partners to keep our live sports delivery uninterrupted throughout the transition.

We needed a trusted partner that understood our key priorities and could deliver uninterrupted high-quality video throughout the transition. Our long-standing collaboration with LTN built the trust that allowed us to make the move, and we were delighted when LTN completed the transition from satellite to IP in just 60 days, including a dual-illumination phase where satellite and IP ran in parallel to ensure an effortless switchover.

The LTN team worked with our engineering teams to plan, test and implement the new delivery workflow. This process included hands-on project management as well as on-site configuration, logistics and testing. One of LTN’s key differentiators was its relationships and direct coordination with MVPD headends to ensure all end points were ready to receive IP feeds before the switch.

We now distribute four variants of our two full-time channels, including MASN1 and MASN2, via LTN’s purpose-built IP video network. This setup enables MASN to insert localized advertising and tailor content for our two core markets in Baltimore and Washington, D.C.

Event-Driven Transport
As many networks assess their next steps with the C-Band spectrum auction approaching, we moved quickly to secure a future-ready model.

With the added flexibility and control that comes with IP, we can monitor signal integrity in real time and collaborate far more efficiently with our partners. More broadly, our transition demonstrates how rapidly sports networks can embrace IP once they commit to the shift. Today, fully-managed, SLA-backed IP distribution stands out as the most dependable way to deliver multiple channels across a range of platforms while maximizing ad revenue. In addition, LTN’s 24/7 customer service makes this fully-managed service stand out.

Beyond delivering our core channels, we also rely on LTN for event-driven IP transport, including the MLB spring training series. LTN’s low-latency IP transmission lets us centralize production at our control facility while pulling live camera feeds from venues nationwide.

We’re now stronger and more focused than ever following our move to IP, and excited to bring fans an even better viewing experience.

More information is available at https://ltnglobal.com.

ARLINGTON, Va.—WETA, the flagship public media station in the national capital area, has launched WETA+, a new streaming service tailored for the local Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia community. In addition to offering free on-demand PBS programming and live channels, WETA+ showcases films and series acquired specifically for local audiences and highlights programming that celebrates the neighborhoods and culture of the region.

WETA+ was developed as part of the Local Public initiative, a collaboration with public media stations across the country. Local Public, spearheaded by Cascade PBS, is a new initiative aimed at developing affordable and locally focused streaming apps for PBS licensees.

“Throughout our history, WETA has been a pioneer in public broadcasting, with a strong commitment to educating and inspiring our community,” said Miguel Monteverde, senior vice president and general manager, WETA Greater Washington. “WETA+ is an ambitious new step in the contemporary age of broadcasting and television, expanding access to high-quality public media programs in a user-friendly streaming experience that is built with our local audience in mind.”

How to Get WETA+
On televisions, WETA+ is available on Roku devices and TVs, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Android TV, Google TV, Samsung and LG TVs.

On mobile devices, WETA+ is available through the Apple/iOS store and the Google Play/Android store.

WETA+ users can access an extensive library of noteworthy WETA and PBS programming entirely on-demand. This includes popular selections such as “All Creatures Great and Small,” “Nature,” “NOVA” and “Antiques Roadshow”; history documentaries by Ken Burns and series from Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr; and premier news and public affairs offerings including “PBS NewsHour” and “Washington Week With The Atlantic.”

The service features access to films and series produced and acquired specifically for the D.C.-area market, including popular, locally produced favorites “Signature Dish,” “If You Lived Here,” “WETA Arts” and “Get Out of Town,” along with films such as the Emmy-winning documentary “Feast Your Ears: The Story of WHFS 102.3 FM,” short films curated by the renowned DC/DOX film festival, and special programming from NASA and The Atlantic.

WETA+ also offers more than 50 locally curated “collections,” through which viewers can browse hand-picked programs by genre, highlighting everything from drama and mystery to D.C. goings-on and must-watch documentaries. Collections are created by WETA programming staff and reflect the viewing preferences of D.C.-area viewers. Examples include “Classic Movies,” “Trending in the DMV,” and “12 Series That Will Make You Smarter.”

Free Live TV
Using the “Live” option in WETA+, residents of the D.C. metro area can watch — free, anytime, anywhere — live TV versions of WETA channels:

• WETA PBS, the flagship channel that features the best of PBS programs, along with Local Mondays, Thriller Thursdays, and American History Nights on Saturdays.
• WETA UK., devoted to 24/7 British programming including BBC News and Masterpiece, with weekly Foreign Favorites.
• WETA Metro, offering PBS programs with a focus on documentaries and current and local affairs for D.C.-area residents.
• WETA World, showcasing an extensive lineup of nonfiction programs celebrating an array of voices and cultures.
• WETA PBS Kids, offering 24/7 access to acclaimed educational television programs for young people, including “Sesame Street,” “Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood,” “Molly of Denali” and new series “Carl the Collector.”

Two Levels of Access
WETA+ is free to download and install on most televisions, streaming, and mobile devices. In addition to the five channels available to live stream, for free, in the D.C. area, hundreds of free programs are available on-demand. WETA+ with PBS Passport expands viewers’ options. With a contribution of $5 per month or $60 per year, WETA+ donors/members have access to an expanded list of benefits:

• Early and binge access to popular series like “Masterpiece.”
• Live streaming of WETA channels anywhere in the United States.
• A huge library of additional programs.

Increasingly, traditional linear broadcasters are augmenting their distribution strategy by including streaming content delivery to reach the growing number of audience members who are just as likely to watch content on their smartphones and tablets as they are on their living room TVs.

Free Ad-Supported Television (FAST) channels and Broadcast-Enabled Streaming TV (BEST)—aka BroadcastIP—are but two of the avenues broadcasters are pursuing to reach additional viewers, drive higher revenues and compete more effectively with digital rivals.

Broadcasters looking to cash in on these opportunities must first develop effective strategies touching nearly every aspect of their operation—from sales and marketing to content prep, traffic and playou tand master control.

Join TV Tech Contributing Editor Phil Kurz and sponsor TelVue for this informative webinar Dec. 12 at noon ET to explore the latest developments in streaming services, advertising opportunities and FAST and BEST channel deployments.

SAN FRANCISCO—A new study from Samba TV analyzing 45 billion hours of linear and streaming viewing in the first half of 2024 has found that OTT viewing continues to set new records while linear TV viewing has fallen to levels not seen since the pre-pandemic. 

Samba TV’s State of Viewership Report for the first half of 2024 found that OTT viewing grew by 40% while linear TV viewing declined by 1%, dropping to levels not seen since pre-pandemic. The study also found that less than half of U.S. households now watch linear TV each day, according to Samba TV.

Among its standout findings, the report also highlighted the critical role of advanced AI measurement tools like logo recognition, the value of tailored release schedules and bundles for streaming platforms in increasing viewer engagement, and the importance of optimizing cross-screen advertising campaigns through new AVOD and FAST opportunities. 

As the 2024 election season intensifies, political advertisers in particular need to employ comprehensive data strategies to effectively reach diverse voter segments and drive meaningful engagement across screens. Non-political advertisers should anticipate a significant increase in CPM-rates for highly coveted ad inventory and platforms that reach potential voters in swing states.

"The AI hype cycle has passed, but AI transformation has just begun. In this evolving landscape, and on the brink of a transformative election season, now it is more important than ever to employ a cross-channel strategy for audience outreach and measurement," said Ashwin Navin, co-founder and CEO of Samba TV. "Streaming video providers are innovating to retain viewers fighting tooth and nail for engagement, and collectively eroding the base of linear. The advertising market focused on linear and CTV formats is seeing stability, particularly in the pharmaceutical and health sectors, but we are seeing declines from the entertainment vertical, as some ads shift to social and digital."

"The rise of ad-supported streaming and the decline of linear TV illustrate a pivotal shift in how audiences consume content," Navin continued. "Smart marketers are capitalizing on these changes, leveraging advanced targeting capabilities to reach consumers across screens with incrementality. This is an exciting time for advertisers to explore the full potential of omniscreen engagement and story-telling, driving both impact and innovation."

Other key findings include: 

• In the first half of 2024, U.S. households watched a record level of over-the-top (OTT) content, marking a 40% increase from 2023. This surge coincides with a 1% decline in linear TV consumption as audiences age and live events shift to streaming platforms, continuing the trend toward cord-cutting.
• FAST and ad-supported tiers of SVOD are becoming key avenues for advertisers to reach audiences who are increasingly moving away from traditional cable and broadcast. This shift towards ad-supported streaming offers advertisers ample opportunities to engage with younger audiences and adapt to the evolving media consumption landscape.
• Streaming TV has become ubiquitous, with 99M U.S. households watching OTT content during H1 2024. However, streamers have their work cut out for themselves in preventing churn, as many viewers cycle through subscriptions after watching only one piece of content on a platform. 
• Sports and politics captivate linear viewers while streaming originals based on existing IP shine:
• The 2024 Super Bowl achieved the highest viewership since pre-pandemic times and was the most watched linear event of H1 2024, reaffirming the enduring appeal of live sports. However, with many sporting events moving to streaming platforms, linear will struggle to maintain viewers. 
• The first presidential debate of 2024 between Trump and Biden was the most watched non-sports program of the half, highlighting the importance of news and political events in sustaining linear TV's audience in addition to sports. 
• From a streaming perspective, drama was the leading genre of the half, comprising 68% of the top 50 streaming shows. However, the prominence of crime and mystery within the top 50 shows increased significantly year-over-year, and those were two of the genres with the highest binge rates.  
• All of the top 10 streaming programs of the half were based on franchises like books, video games, etc., led by Netflix’s Fool Me Once S1 and Max’s House of the Dragon S2. The dominance of original content in the streaming landscape showcases the power of leveraging existing IP to engage audiences and drive streaming success.
• Entertainment dominates ads while the Pet industry amplifies presence: Entertainment is the leading vertical in ad impressions, accounting for 18% of total impressions across linear and OTT platforms.
• The Pharmaceutical & Medical and Health & Beauty sectors have gained traction, each increasing their share of ad impressions by two percentage points year-over-year.
• The Pet industry increased ad impressions by 17% in the first half of 2024, driven by 66% of U.S. households owning a pet, highlighting the sector's expanding influence. These trends underscore the dynamic nature of the advertising landscape, with emerging sectors gaining prominence alongside traditional leaders.

The full report can be found here. 

PARIS—Ateme has announced that Canal+ has deployed Ateme's NEA solution to power TV+, its new streaming offering. The offering allows users to access more than 80 live and catch-up TV channels, a selection of  Canal+  SVOD content, and 8 digital channels all in one app. 

For the new service, Canal+ leveraged Ateme’s NEA solution for manifest manipulation and dynamic ad Insertion in live streaming and VOD-to-Live workflow. With the solution, Canal+ can aggregate linear and VOD content from the various channels of the group, and repurpose them in the new streaming offering. 

“With the launch of this new service, Canal+ is positioning itself more than ever as the reference in terms of content aggregation, in particular by using its own large content portfolio to launch new channels,” said Philippe Rivas, platform engineering manager at Canal+. “We are thrilled to collaborate with the Ateme team on this project. The NEA solution we co-created ensures smooth and efficient workflow operations and totally reinvents the way to build and distribute OTT channels while maintaining a high-quality end-user experience.”

This new collaboration builds on a long-standing partnership between Canal+ and Ateme. Over the years, Ateme has been integral to Canal+’s transformation across the delivery chain, contributing to advancements such as high-quality video compression, low-latency OTT streaming, multi-device packaging, and, most recently, dynamic ad insertion, the companies reported. 

“We are very proud to continue supporting Canal+ in its innovation journey,” said Remi Beaudouin, chief strategy officer at Ateme. “The TV industry is undergoing significant changes, and Canal+, through its brand and technological leadership, consistently demonstrates its ability to adapt to these changes and provide new ways of consuming video content.”

 Syncbak has announced the launch of an all-new streaming platform called “Zeam.” The new Zeam OTT offering features content from nearly 300 stations and 30 groups including Gray, the NAB, CBS, News Press & Gazette, Hearst and Morgan Murphy. At launch, Zeam will have station representation that covers nearly 80% of DMAs. 

Syncbak is backed by Gray, CBS, News Press & Gazette, Hearst and Morgan Murphy. 

To market the new platform Zeam also reported it is investing in a massive eight figure marketing campaign. The centerpiece will be a Super Bowl ad starring John Stamos.  The spot will air during the broadcast in around 100 markets and be customized with local callouts.

“As viewers and the industry continue to migrate to streaming, local television stations need to find a way to build a sustainable business that helps them not just survive but thrive in the streaming age,” said Jack Perry, the CEO and founder of Syncbak. “That’s why we are launching Zeam, which not only serves as a master connector between stations, advertisers and viewers, but will also redefine what a successful model for local OTT looks like by breaking down the biggest obstacles local stations face in streaming – cost and complexity.”

Zeam is designed to help local stations be able to drive meaningful streaming revenue by seamlessly distributing their content to a national audience, facilitate national and local ad sales through Syncbak’s proprietary advertising technology, and provide training to stations to best enable them to create Zeam exclusive content that can generate even more revenue opportunities. For advertisers, Zeam provides a seamless onramp for them to connect with viewers who matter to them. With more than 5 billion advertising unit avails, Zeam will boast one of the largest ad inventories and first-party data pools in streaming.

“Under Jack Perry’s leadership, Syncbak has a long-established reputation for being the champion of local content that the industry needs and deserves,” said Pat LaPlatney, co-CEO & president of Gray TV. “With the launch of Zeam, we are taking this to a whole new level, providing a platform that will benefit not just local station groups and advertisers, but also viewers themselves.” 

Accompanying the debut of Zeam is the launch of Zeam360, a mobile production studio in the form of a Zeam-branded van, which is also the first-ever, 24/7 livestream mobile channel. 

As part of the launch, Zeam360 is embarking on a barnstorming tour, stopping at nearly 30 local broadcast stations en route to the Super Bowl to help local broadcast stations learn about the possibilities of OTT while also creating compelling hyperlocal content for viewers. Zeam360 will continue on the road, visiting local broadcasters post-Super Bowl, as well. In addition, Zeam has established a new studio in Times Square to host local, independent creators and provide a platform for them to reach a broad base of viewers. The studio will also serve as a billboard to promote the power of local to thousands who pass through Times Square daily, Syncbak reported

TORONTO—Cogeco Media, which is one of Quebec's largest radio broadcasters, has selected Quickplay's cloud-native, open-architecture OTT platform to power the development of a new generation of audio services that will offer access to content on multiple devices and provide better personalization and discovery for 5 million listeners.

"Cogeco Media needed technology and expertise that could help them seize new opportunities and future-proof their business," said Quickplay's chief business officer and co-founder, Paul Pastor. "Our collaborative approach is using the proven flexibility, extensibility, and scale of our platform to help the Cogeco Media team reshape audience experiences, create new content opportunities, and pivot to new business models."

"Personalized experiences that deliver high-quality content where, when, and how audiences want it is the future of audio." Jean-Sébastine Lemire, vice-president, entertainment radio strategies and digital platform at Cogeco Media. "Quickplay's innovative platform and their vast digital transformation experience will help us meet the rapid evolution of digital media and audience expectations head-on, and integrate new AI-powered features in the future."

The partnership with Quickplay will evolve Cogeco Media's platform into a one to one experience that will differentiate Cogeco Media's radio services with a number of new capabilities, including:

• Streamlined content delivery and management across 21 stations, multiple listening devices, languages, formats, and more, including availability on Apple CarPlay and Android Audio.
• An intuitive, visually appealing user interface and high-quality audio and on-demand experiences to improve user experiences.
• Fast, flexible development of new apps to address new audience needs.
• Upgraded metadata systems and processes to capitalize on opportunities based on audience insights.
• AI-driven content personalization to enhance user engagement.
• The Quickplay platform ultimately will leverage Cogeco Media's Google Cloud partnership to unlock generative AI capabilities including speech-to-text, annotations, transcript creation, and targeted content personalization for listeners.

TORONTO—Quickplay has announced that it was involved in “another banner year” of OTT transformation at scale that saw the company involved in the launch of multiple new services for MSG+, YES Network, Pilipinas Live, Allen Media Group's Local Now and The Weather Channel and others.

"What we accomplished in the past year was hands-down an industry record," said André Christensen, CEO and Co-founder of Quickplay. "Our team and our superior architecture were exceptional in driving massive change that accelerated the streaming ambitions of some of the industry's biggest brands, as well as in roadmapping and executing on the next wave of streaming innovation. We have become the No. 1 trusted go-to-partner for Tier 1 sports and entertainment for future-proofing and solving their transformation needs."

The company reported that its cloud-native, open architecture platform supported the simultaneous migration and launch of multiple new Tier 1 services across the globe, while at the same time accommodating significant growth from existing customers. 

The Quickplay platform handled the most complex and diverse use cases in the industry and expedited the ability of customers to future-proof their businesses, reshaping sports and entertainment experiences for tens of millions of consumers around the world, while laying the groundwork for an AI-driven future.

"Architecture matters in OTT: ours is enabling customers to control their own roadmaps and monetization strategies, leading to better business outcomes and time-to-market advantages in delivering innovation to their consumers," Christensen continued. "These architectural advantages have also allowed our customers to set the pace in applying AI marketplace capabilities that enhance customer engagement and drive monetization."

Quickplay also reported that Tier 1 providers such as MSG Networks' MSG+, Rogers Sports & Media's Sportsnet SN NOW, PLDT Smart, Cignal TV, Pilipinas Live, aha, and others are leveraging the platform’s architecture to control their product roadmaps.

Quickplay's architecture helped power the company to multiple awards, most notably a second straight Google Cloud Industry Solution Technology Partner of the Year Award for Media & Entertainment and that Quickplay's latest collaboration with Google Cloud, which debuted at IBC 2023, also provides generative AI-powered consumer engagement, satisfaction, and monetization tools

"In the near future, AI and super aggregation both will be essential to OTT providers' success," said Paul Pastor, CBO and Co-Founder of Quickplay. "Our platform's seamless integration with cloud providers' AI marketplaces and the ability to aggregate video and digital services will enable service innovation and differentiation – defining market winners in the years to come."'

Quickplay will be hosting meetings in its suite at the Aria Resort and Casino at CES 2024 in Las Vegas Jan. 9-12. 

POZNAN, Poland—Insys Video Technologies has joined the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Independent Software Vendor (ISV) Accelerate Program, a joint sales program for AWS Partners selling software that runs on or is integrated with AWS, the OTT solution provider said today.

The program, which connects participating ISVs with the AWS sales organization, will provide In-Sys with co-sell support and benefits to meet customer needs by working with AWS sellers around the world, Insys VT said.

Insys Video Technologies is offering its OTT solutions, professional services and video processing tools via the AWS Marketplace, a managed software catalog, with other solutions, including Cloud DRM, an AWS Qualified Software. 

The AWS ISV Accelerate Program members are held to the IT industry's highest standards and must undergo a comprehensive evaluation, including a Foundational Technical Review (FTR), to gain acceptance into the program, the company said.

"Insys Video Technologies is a long-standing AWS Partner, and we are thrilled to strengthen our relationship through acceptance into the ISV Accelerate Program," said Insys VT CEO Krzysztof Bartkowski. 

Insys VT is also an AWS Public Sector Partner and a member of the AWS Solution Provider Program, it said. 

"Co-selling allows Insys VT to streamline the delivery of our OTT solutions, video processing and content security tools to various businesses through the trusted marketplace,” said Bartkowski. “We are excited to go to market with AWS and look forward to building relationships with new customers as a result of this program.”

More information is available on the company’s website.

AACHEN, Germany & SAN DIEGO, Calif.—MainConcept, a major provider of video and audio codecs, has announced the latest version of its real-time encoding application for OTT and TV broadcasting workflows, Live Encoder 3.4. 

Live Encoder 3.4 comes with two powerful additions, support for VVC/H.266 and MPEG-5 LCEVC and aims to transform the way in which broadcasters and OTT content providers distribute live video, streamline workflows, and elevate the overall viewing experience, the company said. 

“MainConcept Live Encoder 3.4, featuring LCEVC and VVC is the next generation tool for live broadcasting standards and formats,” said Thorsten Schumann, senior vice president of engineering, MainConcept. “The addition of LCEVC is the culmination of the innovative work done by the teams at both MainConcept and V-Nova, who worked side-by-side to make it happen. With the addition of VVC to Live Encoder, this application is fully future ready, making it capable of handling more workflow requirements than ever before.”

Guido Meardi, CEO of V-Nova Ltd added that “We are proud of our collaboration with MainConcept. MainConcept is a critical ecosystem component and partner in accelerating the rollout of MPEG-5 LCEVC with service providers across so many aspects of media. The innovative and flexible software approach they have developed with their Live Encoder takes full advantage of LCEVC’s benefits to reduce both delivery and encoding costs, whilst delivering a superior viewing experience. More importantly, MainConcept Live Encoder is a deployment-ready LCEVC enabled product that will help broadcasters and video service providers meet and exceed the expectations of their customers.”

Live Encoder itself is an all-in-one, real-time encoding engine designed to simplify broadcast and OTT workflows. Version 3.4 comes with MainConcept’s HEVC and AVC codecs natively built in and adds VVC (Versatile Video Coding) and LCEVC (Low Complexity Enhancement Video Coding), making it one of the most forward-looking video production applications on the market. 

Version 3.4 also supports live encoding into MP4 and MPEG-2 TS for MPEG-DASH, SRT, Zixi, UDP and archiving files and leverages MainConcept’s state-of-the-art AutoLive encoding technology to reliably deliver real-time, multi-layer live video content in 8K, 4K, 1080p and 720p.

MPEG-5 LCEVC was integrated into Live Encoder 3.4 in partnership with V-Nova. LCEVC adds an enhancement layer that simultaneously increases resolution, while reducing bitrates for the same quality by up to 40%. 

In addition to these reductions in delivery costs, LCEVC also reduces transcoding complexity which can increase density. The LCEVC enhancement codec can be used as an enhancement to the MainConcept AVC/H.264, HEVC/H.265 and VVC/H.266 base encoders.

In addition to media, broadcasting and entertainment, Live Encoder is widely used for distance learning and to deliver live sporting events.

In Brazil, where Globo has conducted successful trials of TV 2.5 and TV 3.0 during the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, MainConcept was heavily involved in providing technology for TV 2.5 broadcasting tests and the compatibility of Live Encoder 3.4 with TV 3.0 ensures that Brazilian TV viewers receive higher quality video and audio.

PHOENIX—The Phoenix Suns NBA franchise has launched “Suns Live,” a new streaming service that supplements its broadcasts by simulcasting the games online.

Powered by Kiswe—which has built similar streaming platforms for the NBA’s Utah Jazz and NHL’s Las Vegas Golden Knights—Suns Live will offer all locally broadcast games, including 70 regular season games and all five preseason contests, along with replays and original content including pregame, halftime and postgame shows. 

The Suns, which were previously on the Diamond Sports RSN—which went bankrupt earlier this year—announced their intention to launch the OTT service when it signed a multiyear deal with Gray TV in April to  bring every locally broadcast game to viewers for free in a statewide distribution model utilizing Gray’s Phoenix television stations KTVK (Arizona’s Family 3TV) and the newly launched KPHE (Arizona’s Family Sports & Entertainment Network)

Two packaging options are availeble: $109.99 per year or $14.99 per month. Fans can access original content today, with live game streams beginning with the first preseason game on Oct. 8 versus the Detroit Pistons.

For additional information on how to watch Phoenix Suns games this season, visit suns.com/how-to-watch.

SAN JOSE, Calif.—Roku today announced an array of new features soon to be available on its streaming platform that will further personalize consumers’ viewing experiences, particularly on sports and music.

For sports fans, Roku has introduced a new favoriting feature in its “Sports” zone that allows viewers to track live and upcoming sporting events for their go-to teams in one curated row, and promises a new “Highlights” feature in the near future that offers clips from recent sporting events they may have missed or want to relive. 

Additionally, Roku will add motorsports in its Sports experience early next year as well as new sports content from Warner Bros. Discovery’s Max in the coming weeks. 

Roku said it will also add new updates to its Live TV streaming experience that will personalize the order of channels in its EPG and remove channel numbers. 

For music lovers, Roku says it will offer a more “immersive experience,” with new controls to shuffle, skip ahead, add video playlists to their Save List for listening, receive recommendations for similar playlists, and more. It’s also creating 75 new playlists from Warner Music Group’s  Atlantic Records’ library in honor of the label’s 75th anniversary.

New personalization features include updates to Roku’s “What to Watch” to get content to viewers faster, allowing them to browse by categories including TV Shows, Movies, New & Popular, Free, as well as new experiences related to a specific genre or topic such as food or home. Also new is Roku “Mobile App Search” which will provide a more visual and immersive way to discover new content on its mobile app. 

Roku Photo Streams has added support for Google Photos and several other new features for Roku Smart Home Video Doorbell have also been added. 

Roku has also added the ability for viewers to customize picture settings when streaming on Roku on 4K TVs, by adjusting color temperature, color space, gamma correction, and noise reduction directly from the TV. Expert picture settings are already available via the Roku Mobile app.

“As the leaders in streaming TV, we’ve made it our priority to offer a platform that anticipates our user’s needs and adapts in real time,” said Preston Smalley, Vice President of Viewer Product at Roku. “With endless content to choose from and ways to watch, we will continue to innovate and release feature updates to our millions of users that better the viewing experience, making Roku the go-to destination for TV streaming.”

Roku OS 12.5 is rolling out to support Roku TV models and streaming players in the coming weeks.

The market for technology for improving streaming video is expected to peak over the next five years but growth will flatten after that, according to a new report from researcher Rethink TV.

The Service Obtainable Market (SOM) for Embedded QoE Agents is set to hit over $9 billion by 2028, but strong growth over the next five years will flatten off towards 2028, in the face of a sharp drop in pricing for vendors and an OTT video market entering maturity.  

Considering that the term “broadcast quality” is the gold standard for television, Rethink TV says streaming services have yet to achieve that goal. 

“Amid the unstoppable rise of OTT, it is too often forgotten that IP-delivered video still has a long way to go when it comes to catching up with the reliability of linear, Pay TV networks,” the researcher said. “OTT services have usurped Pay TV when it comes to offering consumers an endless buffet of choice, but they still regularly suffer from infuriating buffering windows and highly variable picture quality.  

“In many ways, this poor user experience is the final obstacle to OTT wiping out Pay TV altogether, and yet these issues have persisted for over 20 years,” it adds. “While Quality of Experience (QoE) is no longer a bleeding-edge technology, it is no less essential than it was at the dawn of streaming. “

However, QoE is now amid various layers of consolidation, the researcher said with QoE tools are being folded into wider analytics suites with tools like Quality of Service (QoS) and customer management. Meanwhile, analytics technologies have become one of many modules available via the ‘end-to-end’ video technology suites that are generally referred to as online video platforms (OVPs).  

This consolidation will continue to lower the price of the standalone technologies, with QoE being no exception. Add to that a maturing OTT market, where brand new, rapidly expanding vide services are increasingly rare, and Rethink TV sees a QoE market that is soon to plateau.  

Rethink TV’s report examines the market for “embedded agents”—QoE systems that report performance data directly from within the video player. Once integrated with the player, Embedded Agents can report metrics such as re-buffering ratio (which is the buffering time versus playback time), video start time, video start failures and average bitrate. 

However there are other vendors in the QoE ecosystem—”external agents” such as Witbe, Suitest and (arguably) SIMMWave, also assess QoE, but this using external software and hardware tools to imitate an end user. 

Although the end goal is similar, these two camps offer entirely different business models. Embedded agents are employed to monitor all activity on a video service whereas external agents are deployed far more sparingly due to much higher integration and upkeep costs.  

Despite the irrefutable tide that will propel OTT video to become the dominant form of video consumption, IP-delivered video still has a long way to go when it comes to catching up with the reliability of linear Pay TV networks, the researcher said. OTT services have usurped Pay TV when it comes to offering consumers an endless buffet of choice, but they still regularly suffer from infuriating buffering windows and highly variable picture quality. In many ways, this poor user experience is the final obstacle to OTT wiping out Pay TV altogether, and yet these issues have persisted for over 20 years.  

While perfecting network infrastructure is essential, any such repairs are being done blind without first knowing how and when the user experience suffers. Quality of Experience (QoE) tools therefore arrived soon after IP-delivered video, around 20 years ago, and while they are no longer a bleeding-edge technology, they are no less essential than they were back then, Rethink TV concluded.  

AMSTERDAM—Ateme has unveiled its plans for IBC, where it will be returning to the RAI between September 15 and 18 to showcase end-to-end solutions from contribution all the way to the CDN for OTT streaming services and other outlets. 

The new solutions include what Ateme is billing as the world’s first solution for operating a cloud DVR in the public cloud. 

The provider of video compression, delivery, and streaming solutions will also demonstrate new ways of offering state-of-the-art quality of experience on any screen, monetizing audiences, and engaging sports fans in-venue and beyond while respecting green streaming strategies 

“This is an exciting time for our industry,” said Rémi Beaudouin, chief strategy officer at Ateme. “Audience expectations are being shaped by new entertainment experiences such as gaming and social media. Meanwhile, new technologies are enabling innovative ways of consuming and monetizing video content. We are thrilled to go to IBC this year and present the pioneering work we’ve done to help broadcasters and service providers leverage these changes.”

Demos will be on display at Ateme’s booth at the RAI in Hall 1, booth D33. 

These include demos in the following areas: 

• Fan Engagement. Ateme will showcase a complete workflow including automatic detection of the most important moments of sports content and enriched push notifications to smartphones. This will enable sports content rights holders with D2C services to enhance fan engagement, attract more viewers to their OTT apps, and increase monetization by connecting next-generation video experiences with other verticals such as e-commerce.
• Enhanced Stadium Experiences. Ateme will demonstrate how sports teams and leagues can attract more fans to stadiums, increase digital engagement, and enable new platforms for monetization. With a premium enhanced-reality solution using 5G multi-access edge computing, fans can enjoy an immersive look into the game from their smartphones and/or headsets with real-time access to stats and multi-angle live and replays.
• OTT: Enhanced QoE. Ateme will highlight a variety of features that optimize the Quality of Experience for OTT subscribers. In addition to showcasing Ateme’s industry-leading video compression solutions that enhance viewing of linear and VoD content, Ateme will also showcase features that enhance the OTT experience, including fast zapping, video scrubbing, and low latency.
• Ateme+: SaaS. Ateme will present the latest features and use cases of Ateme+, its cloud-agnostic SaaS offer. This will include a new packager feature for OTT, supporting all use cases already live today: MCR in the cloud for sports, news, and live production; business continuity with effective disaster recovery; 24/7 contribution and distribution; and on-demand file transcoding.
• Green Streaming. Ateme will showcase the continuation of its optimization efforts that have resulted in a 66% reduction in energy consumption over three years, all while simultaneously improving the user experience. The latest strategies include audience-aware streaming, elastic CDN, per-title encoding, and CMAF chunk sharing for OTT content.
• Converged Hybrid Headend. Ateme will showcase its complete, feature-rich hybrid headend to address both traditional and cutting-edge workflows. Based on Ateme’s TITAN compression and processing solutions, the converged headend can address all applications, from traditional broadcast and OTT to manifest-based playout and linearization workflows. Running on any infrastructure — from appliance deployment to private and public clouds — it provides a proven, efficient, and flexible solution for the workflows of today, while enabling a smooth transition to cloud-native IP workflows.
• Beyond Contribution. Ateme will showcase its future-proof software contribution solutions, adding ultra-low latency inter-connection capacity to its universal gateway, as well as raw content manipulation with features such as premium framerate conversion. This offers content owners richer cloud processing offload opportunities.
• Advertising. Ateme will showcase its versatile end-to-end content manipulation solutions for DAI as well as FAST and personal channels. These help providers boost monetization and enable increased revenue and inventory value through data collection and activation.
• Media Supply Chain. Including its innovative management and enrichment features, Ateme’s Media Supply Chain solution focuses on efficiency, resilience, agility, and metadata-aware orchestration for optimized operations. Providers will gain greater insight about how to reduce operational costs and enhance supply chain workflow and security. 
• Next-generation Cloud DVR. Ateme will highlight its Cloud DVR solution, allowing service providers to streamline operations, optimize their hardware pool, and achieve greater scalability by leveraging the public cloud, without being capped by on-premises investments. Because it enables resources to be shared across services, it is also expected to reduce the carbon impact of video delivery.
• The Ultimate Viewing Experience. Ateme will emphasize the highest quality of experience using HDR and a wide range of video codecs (HEVC, AV1, VVC), resulting in pristine video quality and immersive, personalized audio for any type of content including sports and other high-profile events. 
• Beyond the booth. Two demos showcasing Ateme's VVC solutions and partnerships with Qualcomm and InterDigital will also be presented.

BARCELONA—NPAW has introduced new anti-account sharing and playback-resuming solutions to its suite of analytics apps. 

The new Share Blocker solution gives subscription-based OTT services full control over their users’ account sharing to protect their source of revenue. PlayHead Tracker is an cross-device bookmarking solution for existing users that enhances the video playback experience and significantly increases customer satisfaction, NPAW said. 

“Tackling abusive account sharing and ensuring a smooth viewing experience are both high on the priority list for OTT providers,” assured Ruben Senor-Megias, chief sales officer of NPAW. ”We are committed to providing services with all the tools they need to face the industry’s evolving challenges, and these new two tools are yet one more example of that.”

Designed to eliminate unauthorized account sharing and service abuse in OTT subscription services, the NPAW Suite’s new Share Blocker app enables advanced account management strategies that promote security and fairness for all users, the company reported. 

With custom profile creation and advanced monitoring, services can effortlessly define and enforce the maximum number of in-house users, IPs, and concurrent sessions for each type of user account.

On the other hand, the new PlayHead Tracker app solves inconsistent and unreliable video playback resumption across devices, enhancing customer satisfaction and retention. NPAW’s 5-second beat provides users with an unparalleled average resume accuracy of 2.5 seconds, while the tool’s fully-developed, low-latency API ensures minimal impact on video playback startup times. A hassle-free integration requires minimal effort to incorporate the tool into existing services, NPAW said. 

The solutions will be on display at CABSAT 2023 at the booth of the company’s partner, MAAS World (#S1 - E21, Dubai World Trade Center). Book a meeting here. 

Compulse, a Sinclair-owned marketing and managed services for media companies and agencies, has launched Compulse Performance TV, which allows agencies to buy, manage, optimize, and measure over-the-top (OTT) campaigns across all device types. The new service is an expansion of its Compulse 360 digital advertising solution.

The Compulse Performance TV platform provides access to inventory from premium OTT publishers, allowing advertisers to track the performance of their low funnel campaign beyond just completion rate, tying it directly to results that they care about. With real-time performance dashboards, advertisers will be able to monitor their campaigns and performance insights to optimize their specific KPIs, Compulse said.

“While most CTV attribution solutions support basic metrics, such as impressions served and video completion rates, Compulse Performance TV provides much more granularity to allow agencies, media companies and advertisers to analyze and optimize their advertising spend, including checkouts, revenue, return on advertising spend, brand lift, and incrementality,” said Raman Ahuja, Chief Technology Officer, Compulse.

The Performance TV platform includes a four-step process: define goals, select inventory, place tracking pixel, and measure / optimize results. The Performance TV platform uses data to optimize campaign performance in real-time for the publishers, creatives, geo locations, audiences and dayparts that drive actions – not just views.

“We couldn’t be more excited to launch the hardest working software in television,” says Martin Kristiseter, Managing Director, Compulse. “With our advances in data targeting, cross-device measurement, and attribution, our partners can now see and prove the impact a CTV ad had on a conversion.”

Sinclair originally launched Compulse as an “integrated marketing” agency in 2016 and spun it off as a standalone operation in 2021. 

https://www.tvtechnology.com/news/sinclair-dubs-digital-compulse-integrated-marketing

BUFFALO, N.Y.—Regional sports network (RSN) Altitude Sports is using Synacor’s Cloud ID identify and access management platform to enable simplified, seamless authentication and identity management across all platforms.

Altitude Sports, the home of the NHL’s Colorado Avalanche, the NBA’s Denver Nuggets and the Colorado Mammoth, uses Cloud ID for existing MVPD deployments. The platform provides subscribers with simple experiences when accessing a rich lineup of sports and sports-related content across different devices, Synacor said.

Synacor’s SaaS-based managed services solution supports integrations across MVPD, telco and other partners, as well as direct-to-consumer opportunities in the future, allowing Altitude to focus entirely on providing a top-level consumer digital experience, it said.

“Streaming and sports media deals are pushing content to new places faster than ever,” said Dave Zur, senior vice president of operations and engineering at Altitude Sports. “Cloud ID is ensuring that our sign-in process has the speed, security and scalability we need to quickly deliver to virtually any platform where fans want to access our programming.”

More information is available on the company’s website.

Comcast has added more than 20 free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) channels from Xumo Play, NBC and Sky into its Xfinity Stream app. The channels are available free to any Xfinity customer, regardless of whether they subscribe to Xfinity Video.

Upon signing into Stream, customers will see free TV shows and movies seamlessly integrated within the channel guide and elsewhere throughout the experience. This approach makes it easy for Xfinity customers to surf between any subscribed channels and FAST channels to find something to watch without having to toggle between apps.

These new channels include NBC News NOW, Sky News, and 19 Xumo-branded channels, offering customers a wide variety of news, movies and TV shows spanning genres such as comedy, crime TV, black cinema, lifestyle, reality TV, game shows, kids and more.  Comcast plans to bring more FAST channels to the Stream app in the future.

“The launch marks the latest evolution of the Xfinity Stream app, which is increasing content choices for video and non-video customers alike, including weekly samplings of premium programming as part of ‘Free This Week,’ the ability to rent and buy shows and movies, and the ability to watch movies included in Xfinity Rewards,” said Vito Forlenza, Vice President, Entertainment Apps, Comcast Cable.

The new FAST channels are currently available in the Xfinity Stream app on iOS, Android and Fire TV devices, through web browsers on xfinity.com/stream, and via casting to supported AirPlay and Chromecast devices. Additional platforms, including Xfinity Flex and Xumo TV, are coming soon.

LONDON—Playbox Technology has joined the Grass Valley Alliance and announced that its OTT Stream CMS and AVOD solutions are now available on Grass Valley’s live production, management and distribution Agile Media Processing Platform (AMPP).

“By bringing PlayBox into the GV Alliance, we’re removing the expense and work of integrating systems from different vendors. Grass Valley and PlayBox are doing all the system validation so that our joint customers can be confident of getting a pre-vetted system that works from day one,” said Grass Valley director of strategic marketing Chris Merrill.

PlayBox’s OTT (over-the-top) systems offer broadcasters and content owners a wider reach, allowing them to distribute their content to a much larger audience, regardless of location or access to traditional broadcast infrastructure.

With the PlayBox OTT Stream CMS, broadcasters and content owners have greater flexibility and control over how their content is distributed and monetized. They can choose the platforms and devices on which their content is available, as well as set pricing, advertising, and other revenue models.

With the PlayBox AVOD solution, publishers can streamline their ad serving process and improve efficiency, while also maximizing revenue potential. The solution can track, target and optimize campaigns. It offers advertisers the ability to track campaign performance in real time, the companies said. 

"By including the PlayBox OTT Stream CMS as part of the GV Alliance, we can offer our clients the best in cloud-based solutions for their OTT and ad server workflows," said PlayBox Technology COO Phillip Neighbour. "OTT systems provide broadcasters and content owners with numerous benefits, including wider reach, greater flexibility and control, personalized experiences, valuable insights and cost savings.”

More information is available on the company’s website.

WATERLOO, Canada—The NFL isn’t the only one crowning a winner this weekend after the Super Bowl. SSIMWAVE will compare the video quality of over a half dozen broadcasters and streaming providers using its tech to reveal the winners and losers, SSIMWAVE, an IMAX company, said today.

SSIMWAVE will measure every second and every frame of the game presented by Fox in the United States and CTV and TSN in Canada as well as five streaming services. The company’s technology replicates the human visual system and checks for video impairments, latency and other issues that can affect the viewing experience, it said.

The company’s SSIMPLUS exceeds 90% in its correlation with how viewers would rate the quality of what they see on screen. It enables streaming providers to deliver optimal viewing experiences at the lowest possible cost, it said.

SSIMWAVE will generate a report card, ranging from 0 to 100, for each service. It will highlight:

• Fan viewing experience scores for the entire broadcast of the game.
• Maximum and minimum per-second viewer experience scores that show the variability of the video quality throughout the game.
• Measurement of latency or delay from live to the action on the screen.
• Video quality of the halftime show and ads.

The company also will take screen captures of key video issues, including technical impairments, such as interlacing, macroblocking and banding, and measure content at multiple geographic locations. SSIMWAVE will announce its results Monday, Feb. 13.

“While the same game production is used by most providers, what viewers see can vary widely because of the resources that each provider dedicates to video delivery,” said Abdul Rehman, CEO of SSIMWAVE. “Our experience in benchmarking streamed pro football games has been that video quality has averaged in the ‘good’ range of 60-79, although it can dip into the low 30s at specific moments during the games. Our hope is that every provider will ‘bring it’ on Sunday.”

Request the results from SSIMWAVE online. 

More information is available online.

Netflix announced today that in addition to the 4K HDR titles it makes available to its Premium subscribers, it is now adding spatial audio, which will be available on any TV or device that supports the format. Programs that feature spatial audio will sport a “badge” for identification. 

“Netflix spatial audio brings an immersive, cinematic sound experience on any device with no additional equipment required, and now it’s available on more than 700 of our top watched titles, including Stranger Things, The Watcher, Wednesday, and Knives Out: Glass Onion.”

To see the full list of titles with spatial audio, type “spatial audio” into the search bar on Netflix.

Netflix announced in 2019 that it had upgraded to “high quality audio” that it said reduces compression to “nearly lossless” levels.

LONDON—Playbox Technology has enhanced its OTT Stream Content Management System with a fully integrated, automated ad server.

Whether the stream is an alternate delivery platform for broadcasters or a new service from a content owner, the addition of the ad server can maximize potential ad revenue by enabling precise ad placement in streams, the company said.

OTT Stream is a cloud solution. It offers playout capabilities for multiple channels and services. Available as a perpetual license or as a software-as-a-service, it takes advantage of the scalability and flexibility of the cloud to allow users to grow functionality and offerings as subscriber demand blossoms, it said.

With the ad server capability, media companies can manage and monetize streaming content more effectively and efficiently. The ad server can insert and manage ad content in live and on-demand streams. It also offers media companies a way to analyze and optimize ad placement, it said.

Integration of comprehensive ad fulfilment capabilities allow the complete service to be managed as a single entity, while maintaining seamless ad insertion and delivery in an automated playout environment, the company said.

"The addition of the ad server to our OTT Stream Content Management System product is a major enhancement that will help media companies to more effectively monetize their streaming content," said PlayBox Technology chief operating officer Phillip Neighbour.

"The ad server's robust functionality provides an efficient way to insert and manage advertising content within live and on-demand streams. It also enables media companies to analyze and optimize ad placement to improve viewership and revenue."

The ad server enables:

• Ad insertion and management in live and on-demand streams.
• Analyzes and optimized ad placement.
• Serves targeted ads to individuals.
• Manages ad inventory and tracks impressions and click-throughs.

More information is available on the company’s website. 

DALLAS—Annual sports OTT subscription revenue in the United States was $13.1 billion in 2022 and will almost double to approximately $22.6 billion in 2027, a 73% increase over the next five years. 

That was the conclusion of Park’s Associates “OTT & Sports: Services and Strategies for Growth,” report, which examines key trends in sports content and provides an overview of the pay-TV sports media landscape, OTT sports services, direct-to-consumer trends, and the sports fan viewing experience.

The report notes traditional pay TV is losing its stronghold on sports media rights. Streaming providers, in search of original and exclusive content, are looking to live sports to attract and maintain their user bases. For example, Amazon now has the NFL's Thursday Night Football on Prime Video, and Apple recently announced a 10-year deal with Major League Soccer (MLS). 

According to Parks, the $13.1 billion does not include any sports-specific services offered for free or included in the service such as Amazon Prime or Apple TV. "The 2022 subscription revenue number only includes those services that are dedicated OTT sports services or are sports add-on tiers/packages,“ said Eric Sorensen, Sr. Contributing Analyst for Parks Associates.

Sport media rights holders want to get games in front of as many eyes as possible, according to Jennifer Kent, VP, Research, Parks Associates.

"The audience reach of online-only and streaming services is enormous. To compete with the digital titans, media conglomerates with conventional and online services are shifting finances and resources to launch, improve, and develop streaming services targeted at sports fans."

The report notes that as sports fans move online and away from traditional pay TV, this drives yet another sector of the pay-TV demographic to cut the cord. According to the research, there are more than 50 specific sports OTT services in the US, creating market fragmentation and competition to attract sports fans.

"There has always been intense competition for sports-related content, but the disaggregation of content delivery with the growth of streaming services is pouring fuel on the fire," Kent said.

This article has been updated. 

LONDON—As SVoD services in the US mature, pricing and bundling are key to retention, according to a recent report by Ampere Analysis. Newer platforms (including Disney+) tend to have higher levels of both sign-up and churn as they rely more heavily on individual title launches, while established SVoD platforms’ sign-up and churn rates are much more affected by pricing changes, Ampere said.

Ampere’s latest analysis shows that bundling is key to help mitigate price sensitivity, with Hulu and Disney+ having both benefitted in terms of sign-up and churn from the strength of the Disney Bundle.

With U.S. SVoD homes now having access to an average of 4.5 streaming services, newer SVoD players are continuing to see strong gross additions to their subscriber base. But the increasingly saturated SVoD market presents growing challenges for established services to maintain success, according to Ampere. As U.S. consumers edge closer to the stacking “ceiling,” attracting new subscribers and mitigating churn is more important than ever.

Because of this, retention is becoming a key battleground—for all SVoD platforms, leavers are primarily in younger, lower-income demographics, who are more sensitive to pricing and content offering. Discounted ad-supported tiers will mitigate churn here.

Another option to address price sensitivity is bundling. Hulu’s US sign-up and cancellation rates now mimic those of Disney+, as its users increasingly purchase their subscription through the bundle. Almost one third (32%) of Hulu subscribers have bundled with Disney+.

Pricing is key for established players, while new services rely on regular content releases, Ampere said. Disney+ uses franchise title releases and its first live broadcast to drive sign-ups. 

The first large peak in daily sign-ups seen on Sept. 8, 2022 corresponds with Disney+ Day, an annual event that marks the release of exclusive premieres and the announcement of upcoming content. This year’s Disney+ Day saw the release of big franchise titles including Thor: Love and Thunder, Pinocchio, and Obi-Wan Kenobi: A Jedi’s Return. The next large peaks fall on Sept. 19, 2022, with the premiere of season 31 of Dancing with the Stars, and on Sept. 30, 2022, with the release of Hocus Pocus 2.

“The increasingly competitive SVoD market makes it hard for established services to maintain growth, while newer players continue to see strong gross additions but struggle to retain those customers,” said Mayssa Jamil, analyst at Ampere Analysis. “Pricing and content offering being the main drivers for sign-up and churn, a great way to aid customer retention is through bundling: it combines both of the above by offering larger catalogues and more frequent content additions at cheaper prices. We see this at play when looking at the way Hulu and Disney+ sign up and churn rates increasingly mimic one another thanks to the strength of the Disney Bundle.”

DALLAS—New research from Parks Associates documents the effectiveness of ads in ad-supported streaming services with a survey that finds nearly one in four users (23%) of ad-supported OTT services said they often click on ads that they watch. The same percentage (23%) also reported that they “often” buy things they see advertised. 

The research report Ad-Based OTT: Growth in FAST and AVOD Services explores factors driving the growth of ad-based online video, profiles and compares market leaders, and assesses consumer preferences in watching ad-based content.

“Now, 37 million US internet households use at least one advertising-based OTT streaming service,” said Alan Bullock, senior contributing analyst, Parks Associates. “Hybrid models, especially when AVOD or FAST are included, enable quick customer acquisition and a ‘try before you buy’ experience with the content offering. Advertisers can reach many people, and consumers can get a lot of free content.”

Ad-based services are benefiting from the current uncertain economic climate. Inflation and fears of recession are causing consumers to evaluate discretionary spending, and switching from legacy pay-TV or subscription-based streaming services is a means of cutting costs, the researchers said. 

“As consumers continue to move away from traditional pay-TV services, they will first seek out ways to watch the content they want in ways they are accustomed to—a relaxed, lean-back experience,” Bullock said. “Even so, ad-supported streaming services should strive to be more than simply traditional TV on the internet. This is a time for thoughtful data-justified innovation, building a better experience than the living room TV of the past could ever offer.”

PARIS—Motion Spell has announced that Netflix has completed an 18 month transition to integrate GPAC Open Source Software in Netflix’s worldwide content operations. The GPAC Project on Advanced Content (GPAC), is an open source software that provides a modular multimedia framework for packaging, streaming, inspecting and playing content. It provides a wide range of tools for processing media content and has a strong focus on standards.

Motion Spell SARL, based in Paris, who exclusively handles commercial licensing for GPAC, also provided consulting expertise to Netflix’s R&D division as part of the deal.

Due to the large amounts of packaged media Netflix produces daily, robust packaging tools are crucial; in addition Netflix also updates its packaging recipes. For example, they recently started publishing AOM’s AV1 packages so their packaging tools need to be flexible, and adaptable to new technologies. Netflix reaches a wide variety of devices: from TVs, to set-top boxes, to mobile devices. To that end, they rely on the use of standards, such as the ISO Base Media File Format (ISOBMFF) and thus need standard-compliant tools.

Romain Bouqueau, CEO of Motion Spell, said, “Netflix is a company with an exceptional team, clear goals and an innovative R&D programme. Combining our expertise made the transition process to GPAC very efficient. We’re delighted that Netflix has gained in flexibility, while GPAC has gained a customer who respects the value of open source software.”

Anne Aaron, Director of Encoding Technologies at Netflix, said, “As part of our strategy to build a flexible and efficient packaging platform, we needed a strong partner with deep expertise of the best encoding and packaging tools. Working with Motion Spell helped make the entire process of integration incredibly easy.“

NEW YORK—Broadband subscriptions worldwide are expected to hit 1.13 billion by 2023, exceeding the 1.09 billion traditional pay TV subscribers for the first time, according to a report from S&P Global Market Intelligence report.

The newly published "2023 Technology, Media and Telecommunications (TMT) Industry Outlook," part of S&P Global Market Intelligence’s Big Picture 2023 Outlook Report Series, focuses on the market future of the metaverse in gaming and the enterprise, datacenter sustainability amid a worsening energy crisis, and the rise of fintech as a service. The report also explores video streaming competition and broadband transformation as forces of disruption in 2023.

The fact that broadband subscriptions will exceed pay-TV subscriptions has wide implications for the future of media, S&P says, which notes that gaming technology will be the driving force behind the metaverse’s evolution in the near term as augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) hardware enables users to engage in virtual worlds in and outside of work. 

AR and VR device adoption will grow steadily over the next five years as big tech companies underline the hardware's potential as a conduit to the metaverse, S&P said. As of the end of 2021, the researcher estimates there were 28.5 million AR/VR headsets installed worldwide across consumer and commercial settings, and forecasts that base to grow to 73.6 million by 2026.

"The foundational shift of the global economy to a digital footing—a shift that has been underway for over a decade and accelerated during the pandemic—continues. This is creating enormous opportunities for new value creation and disruption,” said Eric Hanselman, Chief Research Analyst for TMT at S&P Global Market Intelligence.

For traditional TV, rising inflation and cost of living crises may force some consumers to pare back streaming subscriptions, which in turn could prompt the pack chasing Netflix and Disney to focus on profitability instead of scale, S&P said. By 2030, the researcher predicted that global pay TV penetration will fall to 51.2% of residential households, from 57.7% in 2021.

It’s been a general consensus that live sports is among the last genre of TV programming that will keep viewers from canceling their pay-TV subscriptions. But if more sports move to streaming services, will viewers follow? According to research from Aluma, maybe not.

According to a survey the research firm recently conducted, while 18% of pay-TV subscribers are moderately likely to cancel service if their favorite sport moved its live games exclusively to subscription streaming services like Netflix or Prime Video, only 8% would “definitely” cancel.

Among U.S. heads of household that selected professional football (NFL) as their favorite TV sport, 11% would definitely cancel service if it moved exclusively to a streaming service, compared with 7% of those who favor watching professional basketball (NBA) and 8% of those who favor watching professional baseball (MLB).

While responses for the NBA and MLB were in line with analyst expectations, data on those selecting the NFL as their favorite TV sport was well below, especially considering that 80% of live TV sports viewers also subscribe to at least one of the top-5 SVOD services, Aluma said.

“We presented this scenario to survey respondents to get a sense of how bad it could possibly get for pay TV assuming the total shift of high-value sports from broadcast and cable to streaming services could be for pay TV,” said Michael Greeson, founder and director of research at Aluma. “The findings are contrary to the dominant narrative that, without live TV sports, pay TV couldn’t survive. Perhaps live sports are less valuable to pay TV’s stickiness than we’ve long believed.”

Greeson warns that this in no way suggests MVPDs should drop live professional sports from their programming roster. That would miss the point altogether—rather the data suggests that there is something other than live TV sports that keeps most subscribers in place.

What might that be? The same study found complacency plays a significant role in preventing churn. One-third of those less than fully satisfied with their pay TV service continue paying for the service because they’re “just accustomed to having it,” twice the rate that said because “it’s my go to source for live TV sports.”

This data is drawn from a 2022 survey of 2,398 U.S. heads of household that subscribe to a home internet service.

BARCELONA, Spain & RIOL, Germany—The IPTV and OTT platform Green Streams and the video streaming intelligence tech provider NPAW have announced that Green Streams is integrating NPAW’s advanced video analytics capabilities into Green Streams’ platform-as-a-service (PaaS) for network operators and OTT services.

Co-founded in 2021 by industry veteran Gernot Jaeger, Green Streams’ flexible IPTV and OTT backend platform provides network operators with an end-to-end TV and entertainment product — from frontend applications, metadata, content recommendation, and the video backend, to the quality of service (QoS) and quality of experience (QoE) analytics. 

As part of the new partnership, Green Streams will add the NPAW Suite’s video analytics solutions to its IPTV/OTT PaaS product to optimize its End-To-End platform and provide customers with 360-degree visibility of their customer experience, the companies said. 

Equipped with NPAW’s real-time, end-user tracking of video playback performance, viewer behavior, and content consumption, network operators and OTT providers will be able to ensure a superior streaming and user experience at all times and make more informed content curation and investment decisions, the companies said. 

“NPAW’s multi-tenant video analytics solution allows us to easily provide our IPTV and OTT customers with access to the latest in video business intelligence so that they can monitor and optimize their streaming services’ quality,” said Green Streams’ CEO Gernot Jaeger. “At the same time, the NPAW Suite will help us boost our own platform’s capabilities, putting us in an even better position to help network operators build a quick-to-market and robust TV and Entertainment product.”

“We are excited to be joining Green Streams’ platform alongside other industry-leading providers of IPTV and OTT technologies,” said Till Sudworth, chief marketing officer of NPAW. “In today’s highly saturated and competitive streaming space, content providers need to guarantee the best possible streaming experience in order to avoid user churn and stay ahead of the competition, and our tool will help Green Streams’ customers do exactly that.”

Netlfix this week announced the addition of a “Profile Transfer” feature that lets viewers sharing a Netflix account transfer their profile, which includes personalized recommendations, viewing history, My List, saved games, and other settings—when they start their own membership, a harbinger of things to come as the streaming giant takes steps to prevent subscribers from sharing passwords with friends and family, which Netflix says has caused the company to lose revenues for years. 

“People move. Families grow. Relationships end. But throughout these life changes, your Netflix experience should stay the same,” said Timi Kosztin, product manager. 

The new, "much requested" feature (according to Netflix) is now available worldwide. Subscribers will be notified by email as soon as Profile Transfer becomes available on their account. The feature can be turned off in the subscribers account settings at anytime, Netflix said.  

Neflix hopes that subscribers will get used to the new feature over time as the company prepares to crack down on password sharing. The company is currently testing methods in Latin America. The feature rollout is part 2 of its multi-pronged effort to boost revenues after the announcement of its launch of a $6.99/month, ad-based service last week. 

“No matter what’s going on, let your Netflix profile be a constant in a life full of changes so you can sit back, relax and continue watching right from where you left off,” the company said.

You can’t be everything to everyone. This is perhaps best understood by the video streaming behemoths that strive to curate content across massive audiences in a way that feels personalized. For the big streaming players, creating tailored, engaging experiences continues to be an uphill battle given the vast number of programming options and personal preferences. As audiences inevitably go on the hunt to satiate their specific content needs, an increasing number of smaller niche platforms are entering the market to fill in the gaps.  

On average, U.S. households subscribe to four streaming services, signifying consumer willingness to seek out and pay for the content that matters to them in an increasingly fragmented market. That’s not to say there isn’t a level of fatigue associated with essentially assembling an a la carte cable bundle—it just means that platforms need to produce content that is engaging, differentiated, and worthwhile to viewers. Enter the niches. 

In many ways, the OTT space is following in the footprints of its predecessor: cable. In cable’s embryonic stages, we saw major broadcast networks and large national channels monopolize the market. But as the cable bundle evolved and saw more widespread household penetration, more niche channels (e.g. sports, kids, foreign language, lifestyle) proliferated, economically justified by the volume of viewers interested in those niches.  

Fast forward to 2022, and as the likes of Netflix, Disney+, and Amazon Prime continue to jostle for a spot at the top, we’re seeing the flourishing of smaller SVOD platforms. In fact, recent growth data found that niche platforms are, in some cases, growing nearly twice as fast as their larger counterparts. 

People want access to both broad-based content and their more specific personal interests, and niche platforms are finding success in a saturated market with resourcefulness and innovation. By providing targeted content and doing more with less, they will continue to disrupt the streaming space. 

Leveraging FAST and Universal Search for Discoverability
Discoverability remains a key challenge for smaller streaming platforms. In the days of cable, niche content offerings were discoverable by their inclusion in the cable bundle, enabling users to stumble upon them while mindlessly scrolling through their TV channels. Today, however, it can be harder to build brand recognition and target audiences at scale. Luckily, there are a spectrum of innovations that niche SVOD platforms can leverage to strengthen discoverability. 

The first is free ad-supported television (FAST). For niche platforms, FAST serves as a complementary strategy to what they’re already doing in the SVOD space. It provides brands with not only an additional avenue to monetize content via advertising revenue, but also a means to reach much larger audiences at scale, give them a taste of their offerings, and create brand awareness. With increased distribution, high-quality content, and strategic channel placement, brands can use FAST as a way to gain exposure and ultimately drive users back to their owned and operated subscription products at a premium price point. 

Second, universal search features at the streaming stick or smart TV level have been monumental in accelerating the discoverability of niche platforms. Now, users can search by specific show, movie, or keyword and be directed to the application that houses it. 

FAST and universal searchability help enable niche platforms to tap into organic discovery experiences and lessen their reliance on paid marketing. 

Monetizing Library Content to Super Serve Users
The interesting thing about the streaming world is that a platform’s ability to invest in content is almost wholly dependent on its number of subscribers, and its ability to attract and retain those subscribers is dependent on engaging content. Resourceful niche streaming players are finding ways to optimize this cycle and prioritize growth while holding their content costs in check.

The big streaming players invest eye-popping budgets into producing content they believe will draw in an engaged audience (Amazon Prime’s upcoming eight-episode Lord of The Rings season is costing it a whopping $465 million, for example). But smaller platforms are uniquely positioned to drive engagement with niche content—and at a fraction of the cost. 

In addition to producing original content, smaller platforms often scoop up licensing rights to library content that has already been created. They’re then able to take that existing content, find the natural market for it, aggregate its users, and generate new subscriptions and revenue streams. This way, they can monetize deep library content while still super serving their audiences in a way that doesn’t require major budgets.

Driving Personal Experiences with Data Science
Users expect the same level of polish from niche platforms as they do from the giants. That means not just an intuitive and frictionless UI, but a personalized experience with tailored content recommendations. With a 37% churn rate among paid SVOD services, the stakes are high. 

The streaming behemoths run a data operation—they often have more data scientists than smaller platforms have people in total. This operation is constantly working to provide customized recommendation algorithms, identify strategic content investments, optimize costs and viewing time, and more. 

The democratization of streaming technology—which makes it possible for smaller brands and influencers to launch OTT platforms in the first place—is enabling them to compete with data giants. By teaming up with strategic technology partners, brands can gain access to new troves of data expertise to optimize and personalize their OTT experiences, thus augmenting their lack of headcount. This allows them to keep up with some of the machine learning capabilities that are merely table stakes but highly costly to maintain in-house. 

The Bottom Line
In a crowded streaming market, hyper-focused platforms are seeing sustained success by providing users with the personalized experiences and targeted content they care about. By capitalizing on opportunities in the FAST space, monetizing library content, and leveraging user data, niche platforms are reaching larger audiences, unlocking new revenue streams, and driving engagement within their OTT experiences. 

As Netflix prepares for its ad-supported platform launch, the company announced a partnership with DoubleVerify to enable media verification and maximize advertiser performance across its platform. 

The collaboration helps advertisers ensure that their Netflix ads are safe from fraud and that advertisements on the platform are being viewed by real people. The technology from DoubleVerify will work in two ways: one, a quality verification technology will provide fraud protection and work to keep individuals safe from fraud/invalid traffic or IVT.  The second piece is a viewability verification feature that offers clarity into whether an ad had the opportunity to be seen and what impact that advertisement may have had on the viewer.

The companies announced that the two will be working on the technical integration over the coming months and anticipate that the viewability and IVT verification solutions will be available in the first quarter of 2023, with brand safety and suitability features to follow.  

“As we continue to expand our coverage across premium video and CTV environments, DV is thrilled to extend our third-party verification solutions across their platform, ensuring campaigns meet key quality criteria while maximizing performance and outcomes for advertisers,” said Mark Zagorski, CEO of DoubleVerify.

Netflix today announced the details of its long-awaited ad supported subscription plan which will launch on Nov. 3 in the U.S.

“Basic with Ads” will cost $6.99 per month and will also be available in Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Spain, the U.K. The service will also become available in the U.K. on Nov, 3; Canada will get first dibs when it launches there on Nov. 1.

The company announced its intention to launch an ad-supported version of its plan last summer after disappointing quarterly results that showed its first net decline in subscriptions. "Allowing consumers who would like to have a lower price and are advertising-tolerant get what they want makes a lot of sense," said Reed Hastings at the time.

The move is part of a multi-pronged effort to improve Netflix's bottom line position, which also includes a campaign to reduce or eliminate password sharing as well, with tests ongoing in Latin America currently. 

For subscribers of “Basic with Ads," most current programming as well as the ability to personalize viewing preferences will remain the same and subscribers will still retain the ability to cancel at any time. However, the new subscription tier will include an average of 4-5 minutes of ads per hour and subscribers will not be able to download titles. Ads will average 15-20 seconds in length and play before and during programs. 

Netflix also said “a limited number” of movies and TV shows will be unavailable due to licensing restrictions. Also, like its current Basic plan, video quality will be limited to 720p/HD.

“In short, Basic with Ads is everything people love about Netflix, at a lower price, with a few ads in-between,” the company said in announcing the plan. 

Netflix says the new “Basic with Ads” will also provide more flexible advertising options, that feature a “seamless, high-resolution ads experience.” It will allow advertisers to micro-target audiences down to country and genre (action, sci-fi, etc.) as well as allow them to prevent their ads from appearing on content inconsistent with their brand (such as nudity, profanity or graphic violence). 

The company has partnerships with DoubleVerify and Integral Ad Science to verify the viewabiity and traffic validity of their ads. To help advertisers understand how Netflix can reach their target audience, Nielsen will use its Digital Ad Ratings (DAR) in the U.S. This will become available sometime in 2023 and eventually be reported through Nielsen ONE Ads.

“Basic with Ads will launch just six months after we first announced the option of a lower priced ads plan,” the company said. “None of this would have been possible without our team’s hard work or Microsoft’s extraordinary partnership. The switch from linear is happening at an ever increasing speed, with streaming now surpassing broadcast and cable in the U.S. We’re confident that with Netflix starting at $6.99 a month, we now have a price and plan for every fan.” 

"While it’s still very early days, we’re pleased with the interest from both consumers and the advertising community — and couldn’t be more excited about what’s ahead. As we learn from and improve the experience, we expect to launch in more countries over time." 

Spending on connected TV (CTV) in the United States continues to grow just as streaming's share of overall US TV consumption surpasses that of cable. Lower summer TV viewership and an annual lull in major sports broadcasts impacted the timing of this milestone, but the long-term trajectory is clear. 

CTV gains will continue as viewers of all ages grow accustomed to Over-the-Top (OTT) distribution. Three emerging trends will play increasingly prominent roles in this broad transition to streaming-based viewership. Each will deepen consumer ties to CTV and further solidify the pandemic-era boom in CTV ad spend. 

A New Era in Sports Rights
Sports, particularly the NFL, and a dwindling number of live events retain the ability to draw large linear TV audiences. This fuels linear TV’s share of ad budgets, many of which are committed during Upfront negotiations. Sports rights also help broadcasters stave off or delay further audience attrition. The long shelf lives of major sports rights will preserve this dynamic for some time. However, the trend among new deals favors exclusive streaming packages. 

The practice of including streaming rights in cross-channel packages is not new. Amazon’s Thursday Night Football deal, the league’s first all-streaming rights agreement, pushed the envelope further. Amazon is now the exclusive home of Thursday Night Football through to 2033, broadcasting 15 TNF games this season. The marketplace took a cautious approach to Amazon’s initial audience estimates, but the first few weeks of the young NFL season showed TNF’s streaming audience could largely replicate previous years’ broadcast viewership. 

Major League Baseball also offered up some of its rights to streaming packages this year. The vast majority of MLB games still air on linear TV, but Peacock and Apple TV’s packages are a sign of things to come. What we’ve already seen with the NFL, MLB, and other rising leagues like the MLS will set a precedent for other major sports rights to include exclusive streaming components. These packages will pull audiences with them and expand CTV’s growing reach and scale. 

Consolidation of Streaming Platforms
Today’s OTT LUMAscape, consisting of more than 200 global streaming services, is undeniably fragmented. Acquisitions and consumer desire for budget-friendly bundles and ad-supported tiers will eventually alter this bloated status quo. We are already starting to see signs of consolidation, with Warner Bros. Discovery announcing plans to merge HBO Max and Discovery+ in 2023. 

We expect to see streaming platforms replicate a walled garden approach—pulling owned content within their walls and in some cases launching their own self-service platforms—as other services consolidate. This will result in ad-tech complications, but the more streamlined consumer-facing ecosystem will make it easier for premium services to amass subscribers and encourage consistent usage. 

Subscription vs. Ad-Funded Models
Ad-supported streaming is closing the gap in time spent and gaining share of overall streaming versus subscription-only models. The inflationary economic environment is already accelerating the adoption of lower-cost ad-supported tiers. Netflix and Disney+, which are both scheduled to launch ad-supported tiers in coming weeks, are the latest and most notable examples. 

Even modest adoption of these ad-supported tiers will expand available ad-supported CTV inventory given their robust subscriber bases. Certain audiences will always be willing to pay for top-tier ad-free experiences, but we will likely see a growing preference for a hybrid market. This will place greater emphasis on pre- and mid-roll video than once thought likely.  

Looking to the future
Linear TV remains an effective medium and will attract the majority of U.S. TV ad spend for several years. This is not without good reason. However, the expected shift in future sports rights, likely platform consolidation, and the role of ad-supported tiers in hybrid models will steer the biggest factor of them all: video consumption. 

This momentum, in tandem with the continued maturation of CTV ad tech and attribution, makes current predictions of a doubling in US CTV spend through 2026 not just plausible, but likely. CTV will account for almost all of the U.S. TV market’s growth during this time and will further accelerate the transition to a streaming-based video marketplace.

ATLANTA—Allen Media Group has announced a new partnership with Hearst Television today, adding 27 premium news channels from Hearst’s Very Local digital news service to AMG’s Local Now free streaming service for local news and entertainment. 

The 27 free ad-supported streaming (FAST) channels are a part of Hearst Television's locally-focused digital brand, Very Local, serving 26 U.S. media markets spanning 39 states. The channels feature award-winning journalism from around the country and curated local content connecting consumers to their communities and beyond. The content includes original series that span across genres including food, travel, dating, adventure, and true crime.

"Local Now has the most local channels of any free streaming platform," said Byron Allen, Founder/Chairman/CEO of Local Now parent company, Allen Media Group. "We are thrilled to bring best-in-class local programming from Hearst Television to the Local Now platform. Our users value premium local news channels that they know and trust."

"We're excited to expand Hearst Television's streaming footprint by making our Very Local channels available to the diverse and growing audiences on the Local Now streaming app," said Andrew Fitzgerald, Hearst Television Senior Vice President of Streaming Services. "As consumers seek to connect with local news and information on streaming platforms, Hearst Television will meet them where they are with award-winning news and originals via Very Local."

Local Now provides localized news, weather, sports, traffic, and entertainment, produced by various leading news organizations, in more than 225 markets across the U.S. It offers more than 450 free streaming channels, including a Local Now channel in every DMA in the country, as well as more than 16,000 movies, TV shows, and documentaries. The Local Now app is available on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Android TV, Xfinity, Vizio, Samsung, Android and IOS devices. (X)

Hearst Television's Very Local programming will also be available on TheGrio Streaming App, Allen Media Group's free-streaming platform where Black America watches 24/7 premium content including award-winning movies, television shows, comedies, documentaries and a diverse array of channels. TheGrio Streaming App is now available on Roku, Amazon Fire TV, AppleTV, Android/Google TV, and Android and Apple handheld devices.

First, some good news for advertising-based video on demand (AVOD) providers: as consumers tighten their purse strings amid soaring inflation and recession fears, more people will be cutting down on subscription spending and turning to free, advertising-based options. 

Unfortunately, next up is some bad news: economic headwinds will bring challenges to AVOD providers, too. How they address those challenges – including controlling costs associated with content acquisition and creation, improved content optimization, and weathering the potential disruption of reduced budgets, courtesy of the recession – will determine who will and won’t make it through a downturn.

The upshot is that AVODs must do better with the content that they already have, including finding new ways to optimize how they use and monetize it. There’s plenty of cause for optimism for providers here, however.

Recent reports say that global AVOD revenue growth is already surpassing that of subscription-video-on-demand (SVOD). AVOD revenues for TV are expected to hit $70 billion in 2027, up from $33 billion in 2021. That 112 percent growth is nearly double the rate of SVOD, though SVOD will still maintain a larger market share. The proportion of users who report using an AVOD service has also increased from 34 percent in February 2020 to 58 percent in February 2021.

Big Competition
Market trends clearly indicate that AVOD is on a path for sustained audience growth, with major SVOD providers even launching ad-supported tiers. Netflix recently announced such an idea. “We’re adding an ad tier for folks who say, ‘Hey, I want a lower price and I’ll watch ads,’” co-CEO, Ted Sarandos, said at an advertising conference recently.

Along with YouTube’s move into the ad-supported space this year, joining market leaders like Roku, Pluto TV and Tubi, Netflix’s plans show that AVOD and free ad-supported television (FAST) channels are not a passing fad, but instead are an expanding sector in the digital media ecosystem. 

Of course, it’s possible that inflation and a recession could slow down AVOD’s growth, especially if providers aren’t ready to find new ways to expand the reach of their content – and thus the ROI of that content. What’s more likely, however, is that some providers will thrive, while many others will be forced to close their doors in the face of reduced budgets and increased competition. 

But what will be the most important factor in who wins and who loses as AVOD providers scramble to gain more value from their content and weather cost pressures? Data. 

Big budgets or expansive content libraries will not guarantee success in the coming AVOD wars. They certainly are not requirements of success. What’s crucial is understanding what your potential audience wants, helping them find your content amid the seemingly infinite expanse of online options, and sharing new content at pivotal moments to keep them engaged with the platform. 

Data is key on all fronts, and in many ways is the most important asset an AVOD provider possesses. Platform owners have access to user data — and insights into user behavior — that content creators and licensors can only dream of. Here’s a few ways savvy AVOD providers can use data-driven knowledge to optimize their investments in new content and maximize the profitability of their existing content library. 

1) Find your lane
What is your new or unique contribution to the AVOD ecosystem, whether it’s a series, channel or other product? Perhaps you are providing a 24-hour home for hardcore curling fans. Or relaunching an overlooked series that will appeal to folks who just finished streaming Netflix’s “Stranger Things”. Or defining your platform as the free source for police procedurals from around the world. 

Let the data show you the way. But note, access to normalized, structured data is only step one to achieving these insights. Growth will require the application of artificial intelligence, guided by human experts, to the data to uncover insights and opportunities that you may not even know to look for.  Artificial intelligence and machine learning tools can help spot patterns to seize on unmet market demand and see trends before they become common knowledge. Users will tell you what they want — if you have the tools to listen. 

2) Meet your audience – and negotiate better deals
The success of Amazon Prime among young users is an example of a streaming platform meeting its audience where it is — in this case on Snapchat, TikTok, and Twitch. 

Maybe you want to top Google search results for “police TV” or “What shows are like ‘Stranger Things’,” or take a more traditional approach like advertising during the World Curling Championships. 

Whatever approach you take, you need to know that it’s going to work, especially during tight financial times. Smart use of data – to determine audience interests, demographics, content preferences, and more – can show you where your audience is most likely to be and what messages are most likely to resonate. 

And those insights can do more than point you towards your audience – they can also help you land stronger content deals. Understanding who you’re reaching, what appeals to those viewers, and the reasons why they’re coming to you for that specific kind of content will give you bargaining power. If you know that your viewers prefer 30-minute dramedies that feature a specific actor, and you can point to data that supports that, you’ll know exactly what your next content buy needs to be in order to draw in more viewers – and more revenue.

3) Learn and repeat
Every new viewer added (or lost) accounts for thousands of data points, all of which can help enhance your understanding of your audience and AVOD viewers more generally. 

Providers should be tracking which offerings create loyalty, which programs are trending in what demographic group and during which time of the day, what preferences overlap, and where is your audience watching from — among a million other possible permutations. 

Optimizing offerings based on the factors that the data uncovers will do more than keep your customers happy. It’ll also ensure you know what content types work, uncover potentially hidden revenue streams, and find new opportunities for engagement with your audience – which, ideally, has the added benefit of reducing churn.

Sometimes it can feel like we are drowning in data. However, providers that invest in smart data tools will start to see which metrics are most important to the bottom line and how to use historical data to make accurate projections for future decisions. That’s why data will be the differentiator as we enter uncertain economic times. 

PARIS—Viaccess-Orca a provider of OTT and TV platforms, content protection, and advanced data solutions, and Ateme, a developer of video compression, delivery, and streaming solutions have teamed up to launch “Personal Live Channels,” a new service that simplifies the creation of VOD-to-live and personalized live channels with targeted ads. It analyzes usage data, viewing preferences, and subscriber consumption patterns, services to help content owners, broadcasters, and service providers boost viewer engagement, reduce churn, and increase monetization, the companies said.

"We're thrilled to team up with Viaccess-Orca and redefine the linear TV experience," said Ahmed Swidan, Director of Personalized TV at Ateme. "One of the greatest challenges for viewers today is finding what to watch. With this new service, we're enabling viewers to discover the most relevant content in a live watch mode, keeping them watching longer and increasing monetization opportunities for our customers. Viewers can sit back, relax, and enjoy several 'For You' live channels with their favorite shows back to back. No doubt these personal channels will increase loyalty to the service."

The Personal Live Channels service is powered by Ateme's NEA solutions for streaming, including server-side ad insertion (SSAI) technology integrated with VO's AI-based content discovery and Targeted TV Advertising solution. The Ateme NEA range includes a cloud-native, containerized solution that allows service and content providers to originate live channels from VOD and catch-up archives. All VOD-to-live channels, personal and non-personal, are monetization-ready by combining VO's Targeted Advertising solution with Ateme's SSAI technology, enabling accurate and seamless delivery of targeted ads within the VOD-to-live channels.

VO's content discovery solution enables service providers to gain deeper insights into viewers' behavior and preferences, enabling them to go beyond routine content recommendations, according to the company. VO's solution is driven by AI analytics, allowing service providers to accurately segment audiences and fully monetize first-party usage data. Using the VOD-to-live service, service providers can deliver custom-made channels based on viewers' moods or true personal channels based on viewers' usage data, simulating the effortless lean-back approach of linear TV.

"The Personal Live Channel service is an innovative step forward for video delivery," said Dror Mangel, Director of Data-Driven Product Management, Viaccess-Orca. "Collaborating with Ateme, we have solved viewers' paradox of having too many content choices. And we have offered service providers and content owners many more opportunities to display ads, giving them higher revenue potential."

Viaccess-Orca will demonstrate the Personal Live Channels service at IBC2022, Sept. 9-12 at stand 1.A51 and Ateme will showcase the service in stand 1.D71.

You’re watching a major soccer final, live streamed to your main screen, when your neighbors cheer for a goal 40 seconds before you see it. This is the classic, borderline cliched conundrum, routinely trotted out to illustrate how the user experience is spoiled when viewing live content Over the Top (OTT).

The real question is, why has this problem not yet been tackled?

Despite the growing popularity of streaming services, reducing OTT latency remains a challenge for content providers, broadcasters and service providers, and a major source of frustration for audiences. Is there a way to efficiently deliver lower latency at a large scale while preserving visual quality? Is low latency realistically achievable today in production?

The answer is an emphatic yes! Low-latency OTT is no longer theoretical: it is real.

The trouble with latency
Latency is introduced by the different stages required to process and deliver video content within the streaming pipeline. Some components are already operating very close to their physical limit, i.e., the speed of light, with sub-millisecond processing delays at the sending and the receiving end. Other components, such as the video encoder, come in different versions, many of which include low-latency options to reduce the delay between the last input pixel and the first encoded byte. 

Typical broadcast linear stream delay ranges anywhere from five to ten seconds. In contrast, OTT multi-screen video delivery has historically been anywhere from 30 seconds to over 60 seconds, depending on the viewing device and video workflow used. 

Latency is a critical issue, both for the viewer in terms of Quality of Experience (QoE), and for the streaming provider in terms of monetizing the investment. The challenge for the industry is to reduce this latency to a range closer to linear broadcast latency, however achieving very low latency at the expense of poor picture quality won’t work either.

The aim must be to achieve low-latency streaming on par with broadcast while advancing the audio and picture quality to exceed standard broadcast.

Low latency for both DASH and HLS using existing workflows
Achieving low latency traditionally required investing in different dedicated workflows: one for traditional OTT and another for low latency, both requiring outputs for HLS (iOS products principally) and MPEG-DASH. This meant a considerable upfront investment and additional complexity.

It has taken several years and several iterations for the chief players in each camp (DASH-IF and Apple) to devise a low-latency solution that would be interoperable among devices of both parties.

In 2020, Apple’s release of a new version of LL-HLS finally simplified the integration of the technology over a wide range of video players. It meant that the entire market could, for the first time, take advantage of Just-in-Time (JIT) packaging for both LL-DASH and LL-HLS, making it possible for operators to achieve low latency using existing workflows. 

Where operators were previously reluctant to invest in technologies that would only serve one-half of the market, now with a JIT Packager, low-latency streaming is ready to take off. Since content is only packaged at the request of the subscriber, processing and storage requirements are reduced. This equates to fewer servers and lower energy consumption, leading to lower operational costs and an improved environmental footprint.

To make the JIT Packager even more efficient in this workflow, the Common Media Applications Format, otherwise known as CMAF can be used by the packager, both for input from the encoder as well as the output to the CDN. The advantages of using CMAF are that it maintains the highest quality while also optimizing the streaming workflow, since both DASH and HLS can take the same format of video and audio chunks from the packager.

Moreover, streaming service providers can leverage the same workflow for more typical OTT services—including time-shifted TV, start-over capabilities, and VOD—on any device. Viewers can therefore enjoy a range of high-quality experiences.

Every step matters
Packaging is critical to achieving low latency, but it is not the only component in the video delivery chain that can introduce latency. Each step needs to be considered for further optimization, from encoders to CDN, and finally the player at the consumer device. Driving down OTT latency requires an end-to-end strategy, with every stage playing its role.

The aim must be to minimize latency while maximizing video quality, even with 4K HDR content. For example, the encoder needs to ingest source streams and produce the right size of chunks and segments that can then be uploaded to the origin server for delivery.

Scalability
It is also necessary that the CDN can easily and quickly scale. It is not just a matter of bandwidth capacity but of having the functionality to manage a high volume of simultaneous streaming sessions.

Operators need to increase streaming capacity quickly during prominent events that generate traffic peaks. This is where efficient CDNs often use lightweight caching applications that can spin up to scale quickly and turned off to repurpose the resources when not needed.

There are solutions that support all these functionalities at a level of performance that enables low-latency deployment at scale, relying on fully virtualized software technology that provides the elasticity needed to scale rapidly.

Improving monetization and user experience
Improving the latency to the viewers opens several avenues to increase the revenue component for the streaming service. 

Managing Dynamic Ad Insertion (DAI) with low latency streams is one important challenge that many customers are interested in solving.  

It’s easy to see why. Events where low latency is highly relevant such as live sports attract large audiences and consequently high-value ad inventory. Being able to insert advertising on a geographic, demographic, postcode or personalized basis on the fly would generate even greater monetization opportunities for the broadcaster.

The key here is Manifest Conditioning—the ability in the Origin packager to indicate where an ad break starts and finishes. Enabling Manifest Conditioning for low latency channels is another active R&D focus of industry leaders today.

Advertising also offers the ability to insert placement ads directly into streams, this can be from the advertising angle to promote and gain ad revenue, but can also be from a shopping angle to insert placement of new revenue opportunities. 

Another path for monetization comes in the form of sports betting, which is seen as a major growth segment. Here latency is critical, and being able to achieve close to 5 seconds should allow streaming providers to leverage this market.   

Conclusion
Delivering low-latency live streams is essential for high-value content such as live sports. The technology is primed and ready for OTT providers to offer audiences the quality of experience and services they expect from broadcast TV—at scale.

HATFIELD, U.K.—New research from PlayBox Technology UK suggests that many media companies and creators are lagging in the creation of OTT platforms for their content but that there is rapidly growing interest in establishing one to better monetize their content. 

The PlayBox survey of content owners and creators from broadcasters to YouTubers and vloggers found that 83% of respondents said that they did not currently operate an OTT platform for their content. 

But 63% expressed significant interest in establishing one. Primary drivers for this interest were to retain control of their own content, to capture audience data, and most important to open up new monetization avenues, Playbox reported. 

“What is clear from this small but significant study is that there is a real desire to provide a channel for content direct to the audience,” said Philip Neighbour, COO at PlayBox Technology. “Naturally, these people want to receive a fair reward for their work, with roughly the same number of respondents seeing subscriptions (33%) and advertising (30%) as the primary source of income.”

“This very much underlines the way that PlayBox has been developing in recent times,” Neighbour continued. “We have taken our traditional broadcast channel management and playout technology and extended it to provide all the functionality you need to build and operate an online presence, through cloud-hosted services like OTT Stream. Users can use the functionality they need, add third-party facilities like Google AdSense if that is the right path for them, and pay for just what they need on a software-as-a-service basis.”

The full report is available here. 

The 4K revolution appears to have stalled out. 

According to high-profile streaming technology analyst Dan Rayburn, an executive at an ISP he spoke to said that less than 10% of digital bits transmitted over the company's network are related to 4K/Ultra High Definition video -- roughly flat with 2021. 

Meanwhile, an also-unnamed official for an OTT service provider said that less than 2% of the company's streaming time to customers was for 4K/UHD video. 

Certainly, 4K isn't cheap. A majority of smart TV displays in the U.S. market, for example, support the video resolution standard. But a Netflix customer will pay an additional $4.50 a month over the $15.49-a-month standard plan -- $19.99 -- in order to get the "Premium" tier that offers movies and series in 4K/UHD. 

Reporting on his Streaming Media Blog, Rayburn framed the discussion into the larger context of a sudden deceleration of digital traffic being experienced by both internet service providers and content delivery networks.

“Since the beginning of the year our combined peak ingress internet traffic (IP transit, public and private peering, CDN and caching) has been down more than has been in other years," the ISP source told Rayburn. "It is not unusual to be down or flat till this time of the year, but even with subscriber growth we are down this year. I am thinking our year end traffic growth will be lower this year as we are still negative for the year.”

For his part, Rayburn also attributes the phenomenon to more efficient video encoding on behalf of streaming video service providers. 

"Since the start of the year, many streaming services have focused on doing a better job of optimizing their bitrates and in some cases, reducing their bitrate ladders in an effort to save money," Rayburn wrote. 

It's a major factor, he noted, in why top CDN provider Akamai saw an 11% year-over-year slide in Q2 revenue. 

This article originally appeared on TV Tech sister brand NextTV.

WATERLOO, Ontario—SSIMWAVE, a developer of viewer experience QC and automation technology, has been awarded a patent for image and video banding detection. 

U.S. Patent No. No.63/008, 257, "Image and Video Banding Assessment," is intended to help live and VOD streaming services detect and eradicate one of the most difficult-to-solve video quality impairments in OTT streams. The solution is already deployed in production by some of the top streaming platforms to optimize for Banding across billions of hours of viewed content.

The patent describes the method by which the SSIMPLUS products and metric address banding effects in an image or video, including:

• Assessing content for banding impairments;
• Determining the significance and location of the impairment;
• Detecting the banding pixels;
• Creating a banding map; and
• Determining the intensity level of each of the banding pixels.

"Banding's effect on content impacts viewing experiences, of course, but it is particularly frustrating for content creators," said Dr. Abdul Rehman, CEO and Co-Founder of SSIMWAVE. "Establishing a patented method for detecting banding will help preserve the content community's creative intent, driving all of the high engagement and deep emotion that was intended when the content was produced."

Banding is a common compression impairment that usually appears in smooth regions within encoded videos. All popular codecs, such as H.264/AVC, VP9, H.265/HEVC, and AV1 can introduce banding. Content-aware encoding approaches typically introduce more banding as content regions that are prone to banding are generally deemed low complexity by such encoders and are compressed even more than traditional approaches, resulting in even more banding. The impairment is noticeable in both SDR and HDR content, especially on high-resolution displays.

SSIMWAVE measures banding on the SSIMPLUS Banding Score, a 0-100 scale in which 0 means no visible banding is detected and 100 indicates situations in which banding makes the video hard to watch or even unwatchable. SSIMPLUS can detect banding at any point in the delivery chain from ingest to playout.

SSIMWAVE will show banding detection in action at Stand 1.B10 at IBC 2022 or via this video. SSIMWAVE also will showcase its newest live sports streaming benchmarking capabilities at IBC.

"Banding impairment is prevalent across all content, including tentpole titles, streaming services and display devices. We are excited to be partnering with content creators in preserving creative intent by monitoring and optimizing content delivery workflows to eliminate or reduce banding," said Dr. Abdul Rehman, CEO and Co-Founder of SSIMWAVE. "The patented ability of SSIMPLUS to detect banding will help the industry provide a superior video product that will raise the bar on consumer satisfaction."

Netflix is adding millions more subscribers to its initial test of password-sharing options. The streaming giant is rolling out the new fees to battle the scourge of households worldwide that are using accounts covered by other subscribers. In March, when it announced its plans, the company claimed that more than 30 million households are sharing passwords, blaming the practice for slow subscriber and revenue growth now and for the near future. 

In May, it rolled out its “add extra member” plan to subscribers in Chile, Costa Rica and Peru but the test resulted in confused subscribers who, among other problems, had difficulty deciphering the definition of “household” or understanding what options they were eligible for. 

In the latest expansion, Netflix is adding Argentina, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. Subscribers in these countries will be offered an “add a home” feature.  

New subscribers will be allowed one Netflix account—whatever subscription—to watch the service on any device, For an additional $2.99 per month (219 pesos in Argentina), subscribers can watch in additional homes with Basic members being allowed to add one extra home, Standard up to two extra and Premium up to three extra. 

Subscribers will be able to watch Netflix out of home but just on laptops, tablets or smartphone. An additional feature that allows subscribers to control where their account is being used—and remove homes at any time from their account settings page—will added soon.

In a blog post, Chengyi Long, director of product innovation for Netflix said “We value our members, and recognize that they have many entertainment choices. So we’re working hard to make great TV shows and films, and to be as thoughtful as possible about how we charge for use across multiple homes. We will not make changes in other countries until we better understand what’s easiest for our members.”

DALLAS—New research reveals 40 million U.S. internet households trialed and subscribed to at least one over-the-top (OTT) service in the first half of 2021.

The research, “OTT: Perception, Use and Business Models,” from Parks Associates sought answers on how consumers use and perceive OTT services across different business models, what they thought about the content libraries of various services as well as their views on the features offered.

“Trials are an effective onboarding tool with 40 million households trialing and then subscribing to at least on service…,” said Eric Sorensen, senior contributing analyst at Parks Associates. “The more services consumers try, the more they are likely to subscribe to at least one. Consumers who frequently trial different services are highly engaged video consumers in general, so services need to cater to these users.”

About one out of two U.S. internet households have trialed at least on services, and 78% of those signed up for at least one. Although large OTT services like Disney+ and Netflix  have discontinued trial offers, smaller services continue theirs and have found them to be an effective tool for winning customers in the highly competitive OTT market, Parks Associates said.

“Low cost barriers drive consumers to sign up for free trials, but the content will keep them,” said Sorensen. “All content creation efforts are focused on acquiring new customers and retaining those who are already subscribed by providing compelling content.” 

More information is available on the research firm’s website.

NEW YORK—More than half of advertisers using connected TV/OTT say they will increase spending, with an average increase of 22%, according to a new 2022 CTV/OTT Advertiser Survey released by Advertiser Perceptions and Premion. 

The survey reveals that the ability of CTV advertising to precision target and achieve full-funnel brand goals are fueling the CTV spending. 

About two thirds of advertisers (66%) are shifting budgets from digital, social and linear TV to fund CTV/OTT spend increases, while 30% say that funding will come from an overall increase in ad budgets, the survey found. 

Additionally, more than four in five advertisers believe that the value of connected TV/OTT is greater than, or equal to, that of primetime TV, with two in five saying the channel is more valuable. 

“Advertisers have embraced CTV and they’re shifting bigger budgets to the medium as an essential buy for driving brand awareness and performance marketing,” said Tom Cox, president of Premion. “Our study validates that CTV has become an invaluable channel for brand marketers and agencies to follow their audiences, plan with data-driven targeting, and measure with outcomes-based performance. New data capabilities make CTV even more compelling for advertisers to gain a complete understanding of audience behaviors and to connect viewership to direct business results.”

In terms of performance, 43% of marketers surveyed said that CTV/OTT spend increases are driven by the ability to achieve brand awareness and performance marketing goals. Precision audience targeting and  extended reach for linear TV campaigns top the list of CTV advertising audience benefits. While reach and frequency, as well as driving brand lift and sales lift, are the top ad campaign metrics, many advertisers are still measuring CTV via website visits and impressions by network.

Other key findings in the survey include: 

• 56% of advertisers say the ability to precision target audiences is the top reason for increasing CTV/OTT spending in 2022.
• Nearly 70% of advertisers agree that CTV/OTT allows them to target audiences locally in ways that are not possible with traditional TV.
• Four in five advertisers consider the availability of custom audience segments very or somewhat important.
• One in two advertisers use impressions and increase in brand awareness to evaluate campaign ROAS (return on ad spend).
• Nine in 10 advertisers consider brand safety a priority in their CTV/OTT advertising planning and strategy.
• Four in five advertisers consider ad fraud prevention a priority in their CTV/OTT advertising planning and strategy.
• Nine in 10 advertisers consider it a priority to include premium video content in their CTV/OTT advertising. 
• 97% of CTV/OTT advertisers agree that advertising on premium video content can improve ROI performance goals.

 The complete “2022 CTV/OTT Advertiser Study” can be downloaded here. 

Cord-cutting continues to get worse, with the linear video industry suffering its biggest quarterly losses since COVID knocked out live sports and scripted programming, according to new figures from MoffettNathanson.

Traditional pay-TV distributors lost 9% of their subscribers year over year in the first quarter of 2022. The 9% rate of decline compared to 8.9% in the fourth quarter of 2021 and ties the worst level ever, set in Q1 2021.

Virtual MVPDs aren’t picking up lapsed pay-TV subscribers the way they used to either, contributing to a worsening picture for the traditional pay-TV bundle. In the first quarter, the conversion rate fell to 32.8% from 35.6% in the fourth quarter. 

When looking at traditional and virtual pay-TV distributors combined, subscribers were down 5.1% year over year, close to the all-time worst of 5.5% set in the second quarter of 2020, when COVID knocked out new scripted shows and most live sports.

In all, the linear video industry lost 2.1 million subscribers in the first quarter, the worst since Q1 2020.

Looking at company reports, MoffetNathanson said the biggest losers of subscribers in the first quarter were Comcast, down 511,00 and DirecTV down 496,000. DirecTV, spun off from AT&T last year, reported its latest subscriber numbers to bondholders and debt analysts.

Including estimates for some outfits that don’t publicly report numbers, MoffettNathanson said the Q1 performance left the linear TV business with 81.048 million subscribers.

Cable had 41.661 million subscribers, down 6.9%, satellite had 18.5 million subscribers, down 12%  and the telcos had 5.829 million subscribers, down 13.5%. 

Total traditional subscribers were 66.118 million, down 9% and the virtual MVPDs had 14.930 million subscribers, up 16.7%.

Separately YouTube TV reported on Tuesday that it now has more than 5 million subscribers.

“The rate of decline of the linear business is not something that ‘just happens.’ Many of the media companies have made conscious decisions to strip-mine their cable networks, shifting their best content to their streaming platforms,” note the research firm’s principals, Craig Moffett and Michael Nathanson.

“At the same time, they have raised prices relentlessly to offset declining viewership. Both strategies have alienated distributors, who are now more ambivalent than ever about trying to retain video subscribers who are themselves increasingly ambivalent about lower and lower quality video services for which they are asked to pay higher and higher prices,” Moffett and Nathanson said..

Several sports leagues have started to put games on streaming platforms, a trend that may accelerate, further hurting the linear TV business, which was expected to be supported by live programming including news as well as sports.

“Including vMVPDs, the rate of decline for linear video is hovering near its all-time worst levels. And the rate of decline for traditional distributors is the worst it has ever been. That’s not what one would expect if we were gliding towards a stable sports-and-news floor.”  

This article originally appeared on B+C.

ADDISON, Texas—U.S. over-the-top video fans apparently can’t get enough of streaming television with half of the 10,000 internet households queried by Parks Associates recently reporting they stacked at least four OTT services in Q1 ’22.

According to the Parks’ quarterly tracking service, OTT Video Marker Tracker, this level of service-stacking represents an all-time high in the United States. 

“Service-stacking in the U.S. continues, but there will be a saturation point where households will no longer be willing to add another service and may look to trim back on their number of subscriptions,” said Eric Sorensen, senior contributing analyst at the research firm.

“Service providers are anticipating this and looking to expand worldwide with content and coverage to boost their global offerings," he continued. "This global push led to a bidding war for the exclusive streaming rights to the Indian Premier League cricket event, where Mumbai-based Viacom 18 beat out Disney. All providers are looking for new avenues to expand their global appeal.” 

Video service bundles are among the topics Parks Associates will address during its Future of Video: OTT, Pay TV and Digital Media conference, Dec. 12-14, at the Marina del Rey Marriott in Marina del Rey, Calif.

More information about the conference and the conference agenda is available online.