What happened to those 2024 OTT & Video Predictions?
Just shy of a year ago I asked some folks in the industry for their outlook on 2024. Now that we’re almost at the close, which of those predictions came true? Are there any outliers, things we missed? Let’s have a look!
Missed the 2024 predictions blog? Have a look here!
Money money money
Well, can’t really go wrong here. In the end most companies are all about profitability and monetisation, and OTT is no different. Let’s look at the first quote, in this case from Pieter-Jan Speelmans:
“My expectation is that most of the trends as we have seen in 2023, will continue onwards in 2024, especially in the area of playback. I expect a focus on profitability across the board. This is likely going to translate into a permanent interest in anything that’s cost-saving (e.g. lowering the data usage), and anything generating revenue (e.g. advertisement). As part of this, I do also expect an increased interest in what I call ‘Fan engagement’. Especially an interest in topics like multiview will definitely come forward.”
- Pieter-Jan Speelmans, CTO, THEO Technologies.
Hit the nail on the head, didn’t he? With all the innovations in advertisement, especially in the area of Server-Guided Ad-Insertion, finding new ways to increase profitability have been at an all-time high. Many companies are jumping on their subscriber fatigue, leveraging AVOD as a way to still maintain revenue (or even increase it). It is no wonder that companies are diversifying in their monetisation models, and seeing what works best.
In that same regard, Sanders quote about FAST and AVOD is equally relevant:
Many companies have already recognised the opportunities with FAST and AVOD. What I am especially interested in, is seeing if we can help broadcasters and telcos embrace the changing market. They have many opportunities leveraging FAST; not just as an additional source of income, but also to (partially) replace their existing linear technology stack.
- Sander de Vries, Head of Media Services, Triple.
While I didn’t see many telcos jump in on FAST-tech yet, it is definitely a new revenue stream that many other content owners are jumping into. It can even be a way to hook users into watching your regular AVOD content, a sort of discovery mechanism. FAST is definitely here to stay, and 2024 has shown that.
As PJ also hinted at in his quote is that monetisation is one thing — but you can really only do it when you’re continuously adding value for your end-users. That’s where topics like multiview come into play, among others. I wouldn’t say interest in multiview has been at an all-time high, especially compared to advertising opportunities, but it might in the next year. With Roku also announcing support for multiview in their latest developer summit, I do expect interest to rise in 2025. If anything, 2024 was for the early multiview adaptors.
Taking a look at another quote, David Eisenbacher also had some interesting words on monetisation and profitability:
“From our perspective, there are often advantages in stream delivery that can be used to maximize existing revenue streams. Clearly, one initiative is to reduce revenue loss caused by stream theft and ad-stripping using a robust DRM protection scheme for all content. But, going further, more sophisticated applications of DRM protection can be used to create differential pricing strategies for steams of standard and premium resolution, for example, or for streams with premium audio tracks. These techniques are not applied widely at present, but can be used to create competitive advantage in the marketplace,”
- David Eisenbacher, CEO of EZDRM.
In the end, it’s all about the content you’re serving to your users. And if you cannot protect that content and find your users going to other (potentially shady) services to get their f(l)ix, you’re ultimately going to lose out on some revenue. DRM being an obvious answer to that, I did see an increased interest in watermarking together with DRM as well, providing that extra level of protection and insight. While DRM isn’t new, it for sure is an important topic time and time again, also in 2024 and the years to come.
Innovations and opportunities
Starting off with a quote from Sander Kouwenhoven:
We are looking at different initiatives together with our partners, with a big aim to reduce the ecological footprint of our streaming platform. OTT offers a much better viewing experience for end-users, but still has steps to take when it comes to being environmentally friendly. We see it as our responsibility to continue to make steps to improve this.
- Sander Kouwenhoven, CTO, NLZIET.
Looking specifically at innovations and opportunities, I think a lot has been going on in 2024 related to Sanders quote. It might not have been at the forefront of it all, but a lot of companies are actually committing to sustainability in streaming, which is awesome to see. If I had to pick one way to demonstrate that, it would be the 2024 IBC Accellator Project called ‘ECOFLOW: Energy-Conserving Optimization for Future-ready Low-impact Online Workflows’, in which a lot of streaming companies participated. We’re all looking for more sustainable ways to handle streaming. From (AI) optimised encoding and newer codecs, all the way to the player, sustainability is definitely an on going topic that I hope to see more fruits of in the year ahead.
The above also aligns with the words from Louis, who put a high emphasis on AI-enabled workflows, which not only contribute to sustainability but also open up new monetisation options:
In 2024, the streaming landscape as I perceive it, would continue to witness significant shifts, with three key trends demanding our attention: African Content Focus, the rise of FAST Channels in Africa, and the revolutionary impact of Rapid OTT Innovations like Channel AI.
- Louis Manu, Co-founder and CEO, Wi-flix.
Speaking specifically about the opportunities with African content and African countries, Wi-Flix of course continues to do well and continues to grow. With Showmax, the poster child for African content, releasing more African Originals series world-wide, 2024 definitely was a good year for the sadly often still forgotten continent.
Low-latency
Guess whose back, back again? Low latency is back, tell a friend. Yes, I started this section of the 2024 predictions blog in the exact same way. Not taking back my joke on Eminem’s lyrics. And neither will I take back the predictions about low latency, because it definitely has been a year of low latency, too.
There’s no denying that commercial advantage comes from driving towards lower glass to glass times. Technologies such as LL-HLS, LL-DASH initially paved the way, but newer initiatives such as HESP and the expanded applications of WebRTC have the potential to offer sub-second latencies that open up new business directions. EZDRM is a big part of these initiatives because premium content services means content protection is a must-have. EZDRM has been an active member of not only the DASH-IF, but also the HESP Alliance, from the beginning to ensure security was a fully integrated element of the technology profile from day one. EZDRM has also developed a secure WebRTC-DRM solution to help drive this protocol towards offering a full commercial profile for content providers.
- David Eisenbacher, CEO, EZDRM.In the area of low latency, I’m expecting this to continue to grow in the context of sports betting. Not only that though, as we’ve seen other premium sports brands more more towards lower latencies. Especially the announcement of Youtube TV about the Sunday ticket and their low latency beta, has definitely opened the eyes of other sports brands out there. They might operate slow though, so time will only tell if 2024 is the year they finally make the move.
- Pieter-Jan Speelmans, CTO, THEO Technologies.
As both David and PJ explained in their quotes, the different techniques to handle low latency are continuing to see interest and development. It is no surprise that Dolby, known for their WebRTC streaming product ‘Millicast’ merged with THEO Technologies to (among others) leverage their HESP-powered low-latency streaming offering. The combined approach means Dolby can target all portions of the ultra low-latency market, which especially in sports betting continues to be a very important source of revenue.
Looking specifically at sports streaming, not necessarily betting, I do see a growing interest in lower latency. Maybe not ultra low latency, which especially on certain older devices I haven’t found to be stable enough (due to limited hardware capabilities), but regular low latency with LL-Dash and LL-HLS are definitely on the rise. You don’t want your neighbours to celebrate a goal earlier than you, and sports streamers are definitely starting to realise the impact of this.
Interested in learning more about low latency? I wrote a blog explaining all the (high level) differences:
My own two cents
As I did with the predictions blog, finish off with my own two cents. And I can’t not focus on the for me big topic this year: Smart TV operating systems. I started the year writing a blog about the State of Smart TV, detailing all the different operating systems out there on the market. And wouldn’t you be surprised that this blog is already starting to be out of date? With The Trade Desk announcing their new Smart TV OS, and rumours of Amazon’s new operating system, it definitely wasn’t a boring year for Smart TV either. Curious to see where 2025 will end up, all I know is that 2024 wasn’t a boring year and I can already predict that 2025 won’t be either.
For now though, thank you for your continued support and interest in these blogs! It’s a joy to write them, and I hope they are insightful and help you grasp a bit of the madness of the OTT, Smart TV and Video industry.
