Video streaming formats are a critical choice for Multi Screen Video advertising. These choices are guided by the end devices, such as smartphones, web browsers, tablets etc. This blog is the first part in a series that will cover the major video streaming formats. There are many video streaming formats so I am going to first look at what devices and operating systems use which format in order to decide which formats to focus on. Thereafter I will cover the basics of video streaming to set the stage for the next set of blogs that will compare each one of the video streaming formats.
Source: Nielsen Mobile Insight (more-us-consumers-choosing-smartphones-as-apple-closes-the-gap-on-android
Market penetration on the devices for a video streaming format is clearly one of the most important selection criteria. As you can see from the Nielsen Mobile Insights report, in the mobile market of smartphones the vast majority of devices are on Google's Android and Apple's iOS. Please note this is NOT all the mobile phones. Smartphones are about 31% of the market but continues to increase Year on Year at an accelerated pace..Gartner mobile report Q4 2011
On the PC side of the market Windows enabled PC's constitute about 85% of the market and the remainder are Apple iOS. For the Apple Mac the HLS format is supported. However on the web two more video formats, Microsoft's Smooth Streaming that is enabled on all Windows devices and Adobe's Flash which works on Windows devices too, share the majority of the market.
In summary:
1. Smartphone Mobile: Use Apples HLS and Adobe. However on Android Adobe support has been discontinued and HLS support has recently been added.
2. Tablets. Use Apples HLS and Adobe. However on Android Adobe support has been discontinued and HLS support has recently been added.
3. Web: Use Apple HLS, Microsoft Smooth Streaming and Adobe Flash.
The Selected video formats( 3+1)
Based on the market penetration that was outlined above there are principally 3 major streaming formats plus one upcoming that are used by a large majority of smartphone, tablet and web devices.
These are :
- Apples HLS
- Microsoft Smooth Streaming
- Adobe Flash *
- HTML5**
This is NOT a comprehensive list of all possible formats. There are many more video formats with advantages and disadvantages. However these three formats cover a significant majority of all the devices that delivery of video to non TV MSV devices covers. HTML 5 is widely viewed as the format for all MSV devices in the future.
* Note1. Adobes Flash video formats are relevant for Web and Android delivery. However recently Adobe announced that they are stopping development on the Android platform. In addition Adobe has announced that they are moving towards an HTML 5 ecosystem and deprecating the Flash environment.
** Note 2 HTML5 is an up and coming standard that most browsers and devices are moving towards. Technically HLS already uses HTML5, but its more complicated...read the part 5 blog. However adoption is not high throughout the video delivery ecosystem .....YET
Source CNET news android-ice-cream-sandwich-gains-but-gingerbread-dominates/
Android 4.0 aka ice cream sandwich has Apple HLS support but is not significant in penetration yet but is increasing rapidly (released in Nov 2012 it's already at 3%)
MSV video delivery basics
There are a couple of different ways for video to be delivered to an end device:
1. File based - in this method the video file that you want to see is first downloaded to the computer. Thereafter the video player loads the entire file and you can watch the video. This is really simple but unfortunately has a number of issues:
3. Adaptive bit rate Streaming - In this case the streaming is underway and say the Internet runs slow for a bit the player automatically works with the thing streaming the video at the back end to say "hey can you send me a lower quality and lower bandwidth version of the video". If the Internet lag goes away the player then signals that it can use the higher quality version again.
Next blog I will start going through the Apple's HLS.
1. File based - in this method the video file that you want to see is first downloaded to the computer. Thereafter the video player loads the entire file and you can watch the video. This is really simple but unfortunately has a number of issues:
- Downloads all of the file (say 1 hour) even if you only watch 5 seconds
- Does not work for a live feed (there is no "file" with an end point...it's live TV it runs forever)
- You have to wait for a long time till you can watch video- nobody likes that.
3. Adaptive bit rate Streaming - In this case the streaming is underway and say the Internet runs slow for a bit the player automatically works with the thing streaming the video at the back end to say "hey can you send me a lower quality and lower bandwidth version of the video". If the Internet lag goes away the player then signals that it can use the higher quality version again.
Next blog I will start going through the Apple's HLS.
In the US many content
providers/content distributors have solved the issue of streaming video
to MSV devices. The opportunity is now for putting different video
advertisements in. For more on where the opportunities are for premium
video advertising have a look at these two older blogs that I have
posted:
Multi screen advertising evolution - talks about the phases of Multiscreen video advertising
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