Broadcast delay, or latency, and device playback are the top two concerns for consumers streaming online video, according to a new survey from Bitmovin.
The company’s study, based on 456 survey submissions from more than 67 countries, shows that 55% of all respondents (and 74% of respondents in Latin America) said latency is the biggest issue with video streaming.
Ahead of IBC this week, plenty of video technology vendors are touting solutions geared toward addressing latency, particularly during large-scale livestreaming events like this year’s World Cup.
After that, 50% of respondents said that achieving playback on all devices is one of the biggest problems in video technology.
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Aside from consumer concerns, Bitmovin’s survey also revealed details about codecs, content protection and device usage.
This year, H.264/AVC is dominating globally, used by 92% of developers. But H.265/HEVC is growing fast after accounting for only 28% of survey results in 2017. AV1 is also due for some big growth, with 29% of respondents (or double that of 2017) indicating they plan to use the emerging codec.
Meanwhile, Apple HLS and MPEG-DASH are still the most common streaming formats this year, with more than half of developers using MPEG-DASH and three-fourths using HLS.
The survey also found that digital rights management usage is growing, and that only 36% of developers this year said they weren’t using any form of DRM, down from 65% in 2017. However, 40% of respondents in the EMEA region admitted to not using a DRM solution.
The survey also found that Chromecast is the most popular global TV-connected streaming device, with 42% of survey respondents saying they use it. That’s compared to 36% for Apple TV, 34% for Android TV and 23% for Roku.