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Apple TV Wins Developer Mindshare In North America while Google Chromecast Dominates in Europe, Asia and Latin America, According to New Data from Bitmovin

Second only to Apple TV, Roku’s robust developer base in North America signals a potential to outpace Google and Apple in over-the-top (OTT) adoption


WEBWIRE

SAN FRANCISCO - (September 21, 2017) - Bitmovin, the provider of streaming video infrastructure technologies, today released findings from a survey of 380 video developers in more than fifty countries, that analyzes what kinds of platforms and video infrastructure technologies developers are using to provide the best content experiences to consumers. The global over-the-top market is growing exponentially, and this new data from Bitmovin suggests significant regional differences among the most popular OTT devices including Google Chromecast, Amazon Fire, Apple TV, and Roku.

The disruptive video streaming market is expected to reach $83.41 billion by 2022, and major platforms are competing for the rising tide of cord cutters. Consumers are driven towards platforms that generate the best content, therefore Bitmovin’s survey data is significant as it suggests which platforms are poised to enhance their content experiences and in turn, attract more consumers. Though it may be perceived to be an afterthought in the market, Roku is the second most targeted OTT device after Apple TV in North America. That, plus the recent news of its IPO, might suggest that Roku is actually poised to be a strong contender against Google and Apple in the streaming wars.

OTT Platforms Targeted by Developers

North America

  • Apple TV is the dominant OTT device amongst developers with an impressive 38 percent adoption

  • Roku follows closely behind with 35 percent adoption

  • Google Chromecast falls in third place with 31 percent adoption

  • Amazon Fire has the least traction in this region with 24 percent adoption by video developers



EMEA

  • Google Chromecast is the dominant OTT device with 37 percent adoption

  • Apple TV comes in second with 27 percent adoption

  • Amazon Fire retains a relatively high level of traction with 15 percent adoption

  • Roku has a low level of traction with only 8 percent adoption



APAC

  • Google Chromecast is targeted by the majority of video developers in this region with 41 percent adoption

  • Apple TV follows closely behind with 34 percent adoption

  • Both Amazon Fire and Roku have low levels of adoption, each with 19 percent adoption



Latin America

  • Google Chromecast remains the dominant OTT device targeted by developers in Latin America with 47 percent adoption

  • The next most popular device is Roku with 32 percent adoption

  • Apple TV follows with 21 percent adoption

  • Amazon Fire has a significantly low level of traction with only 5 percent adoption



Apple Drives the Trend Towards the Next Generation of HEVC Video Codec

  • Nearly all of the video developers surveyed use H.264/AVC codec at 95 percent adoption; however, the survey results also suggest an increase in the adoption of the new and more efficient H.265/HEVC video codec over the next year.

  • 28 percent of video developers have already adopted HEVC and an impressive 40 percent of developers plan to use HEVC in the next six months.



More video developers look to adopt HEVC in response to Apple’s support for HEVC on the new iOS 11 and MacOS High Sierra, and we can expect a future of faster video loading times and higher video quality in mobile applications. With an estimated 2 billion users of mobile video by the end of 2022, video developers will benefit most from the video technologies that are adaptable for mobile delivery.

More Video Developers Look to Use MPEG DASH In the Next Twelve Months

  • Apple’s HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) is currently the most popular streaming format; however, 31 percent of video developers look to use MPEG dash in the next twelve months.

  • This trend is likely due to the fact that MPEG-DASH is required for Digital Rights Management (DRM) protection across a different browsers and platforms, reported as the biggest challenge for 27 percent of the video developers surveyed. Interestingly, 45 percent of respondents already have some form of DRM or encryption system in place.



AAC Dominates, But MP3 Remains The Audio Codec Choice for Some Video Developers

  • The survey results show Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) as the dominating format with 90 percent adoption.

  • An impressive 43 percent of video developers still use the older MP3 codec which may be the result of MP3 being used for HLS streams, older Smooth Streaming or RTMP streams or audio-only progressive streams.



The Biggest Challenges for Video Developers

According to the survey data from Bitmovin, nearly half of video developers claim that the biggest problem they currently face is getting playback to run on all devices, followed by issues on main platforms and devices. These challenges are not surprising given that 89 percent of video developers currently use the HTML5 format, which is necessary as Flash get’s blocked by more and more browsers but at the same time HTML5  has not yet matured to deliver a smooth user experience across the increasing number of browsers and platforms.

For more information about Bitmovin, please visit www.bitmovin.com. To view the Video Developer Report in its entirety, please do so here.

Methodology

Bitmovin surveyed the video developer community in Summer 2017 to determine the status of video technology in 2017, as well as what technologies are most important for video developers in the next 12 months. Results were gathered from video developers in over 50 countries, producing a total of 380 responses. The survey has voices from a wide range of online video industry players. These voices include Broadcasters and Publishers, OTT Streaming Services and Online Video Platforms (OVPs). 75% of the participants come from technical roles, like developers & product managers, 23% are in business roles and 2% in research roles.

About Bitmovin

Bitmovin was founded in 2013 by the co-creators of the MPEG-DASH video streaming standard, used by industry leaders like Netflix and YouTube and currently accounts for 50% of US peak internet traffic. The company is laying the groundwork for a cross-platform future dominated by video content. Bitmovin, Inc. is based in Palo Alto, CA, and Klagenfurt, Austria and is privately owned. Investors include Atomico, YCombinator (YC S15), Dawn Capital, SpeedInvest, Constantia New Business and a number of angel investors, including the former VP Engineering of Netflix, the former CTO of Cisco and the founder of Unity. For more information, visit www.bitmovin.com.



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