There has been a lot of talk over the years about making the streaming video experience more “personalized.” But what does that really mean? For the most part, personalization has been about content recommendations. When the viewer can come to the streaming platform and see content that might be more relevant to their
I’ve said this before but it bears repeating: streaming is an evolutionary step in the television experience. Some of that has to do with how viewers can watch TV content now: from anywhere at any time, across different devices and screen sizes. The same content that was once shackled to
Free ad-supported television (FAST) services have grown considerably since the pandemic. Of course, pioneers of the model, like Pluto TV, existed before the crisis, but it wasn’t until everyone was sequestered at home and wanting to stream everything that FAST really became important. Why? Perhaps one reason was because people
You might think it’s crazy of me, as the executive director of the world’s largest streaming technical association, to ask the question in this column’s title. But I think it’s actually important that we do a gut check every once in a while. Streaming is, fundamentally, just a delivery mechanism.
As streaming has grown in demand and popularity over the last several years, a problem has begun to take shape. But don’t get me wrong, it’s a good problem: too much content. It’s not just the content on a single provider. Netflix, Disney+, WarnerDiscovery, and Peacock all have deep and
At the SportsPro OTT USA event in March, held at Citi Field in Queens, New York, someone said, “DRM is dead” and dropped the microphone. And although my gut reaction was to immediately dismiss that statement, I’ve taken some time to reflect, and I think it deserves some more consideration.
If you spend any time in the streaming video industry, you’ll soon hear the word “delivery.” In fact, it’s used quite often to describe the technologies, processes, mechanisms, and vendors that are involved in transmitting bits and bytes of data in response to users’ requests for video segments. But the
In late 2020, WarnerMedia made a rather startling, and some would say controversial, decision: It would stream its blockbuster titles, such as Wonder Woman 1984, at the same time they were released theatrically. And to top it off, there would be no extra charge to current subscribers of HBO Max. Evan Shapiro,
CDNs have always been a necessity in the world of streaming video. Although some streaming providers, such as Netflix, Apple, and Amazon, have continued to build their own delivery infrastructures, the majority of streaming providers utilize a combination of CDNs to ensure that their content is delivered in the best
When the first government requirement to stay at home was issued, everyone in the streaming industry probably held their collective breath. First, because they knew that after one stay-at-home order, there would be more. Second, because it meant that people were going to do a lot more streaming. Although there was probably