We asked 380 video developers worldwide about the video technologies they use in their daily work, what they plan to use in the next 12 months, and what problems they experience the most. It’s interesting what we’ve learned!
First and foremost, we’d like to thank everyone for making the 2017 Video Developer Survey possible! Without the great support and participation of the video developer community, we would not be able to create this report and share the insights into what developers around the globe do with video.
We started the Video Developer Survey with the goal to help us, as well as people in the industry, get an overview of the status of video codecs, formats, platforms, and other video technologies developers use in their daily work. This confirmed some assumptions, e.g. that HLS is the most popular streaming format – 78% use it to stream, as you can see in the following diagram. The survey also revealed interesting surprises – about the platforms served, the regional differences in popularity of different OTT devices, as well as the most persistent problems faced by video developers today.
With 380 survey submissions from over 50 countries, this report aims to give an overview of the status of video technology in 2017, as well as a vision into what will be important to video developers in the next 12 months. 75% of survey responders are developers or technical decision makers, 23% are in business roles, and 2% – in research. About equal number of responders work with Live and VOD content. Over a third each come from North America and EMEA regions. 12% of responders are from the APAC and another 5% from the LATAM region.
So, what did we find out?
- Apple HLS is the dominant format in video streaming in 2017, but the format people are looking to in the next 12 months is MPEG-DASH.
- HEVC is the video codec most people are planning to use in the next 12 months, but VP9 and AV1 are also growing in popularity.
- Software encoders are the most popular encoders, used either on-premise or in the cloud.
- Cloud encoding is 45% more popular in North America than in Europe.
- More than a third monetize their online video with subscription models.
- Encryption or DRM protection is used by 45% of responders.
- 50% of the developers with ad requirements are using a Server-Side Ad Insertion solution.
- HTML5 is now by far the dominant platform for video playback.
- OTT devices like Roku, Chromecast, Apple TV and Amazon Fire TV have significant regional differences in adoption.
Streaming Formats Currently Used by Survey Participants
Video codecs planned for the next 12 months
We hope this report provides useful information about what your peers are working on.
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