Fans of any good spy drama know the scene well. Our hero is out in the streets, frantically chasing down some goons. Back at headquarters, an army of analysts sit at their consoles monitoring security camera feeds and offering real-time guidance to our hero as she navigates the cluttered crossways. In the dramatic telling, it’s […]
Archive | Streaming video
Roku Makes Big Advertising Leap
What do you think of when you hear the words, “hit TV series?” When it comes to linear TV, the meaning of that phrase is pretty concretely anchored in actual audience metrics. A “hit” series is one that the networks are reasonably sure many viewers are tuned into. Indeed, networks have a fairly strong handle […]
Will AI Power the Next Leap in Video Compression?
Artificial intelligence’s (AI) role in the digital content economy isn’t merely confined to better anticipating what TV series you’d like to binge watch next. It’s increasingly being brought to bear to solve a more challenging (and equally long-standing) technical problem: how to shave off bits from a video file without fatally compromising quality. While the […]
Capped America
Failed presidential candidate John Edwards once spoke of “two Americas.” While Edwards was making an economic pitch, his message, with a little temporal updating, could just as easily apply to the market for data. In one America—that of residential broadband—most users enjoyed unlimited data and zero restrictions. In another America, mobile broadband users faced tight […]
The One Arena Apple Still Rules
With iPhone sales seemingly hitting a plateau, many pundits have taken to bemoaning the Tim Cook era. But whatever one thinks about the future of Apple under Cook’s leadership, there is one area where Apple continues to hold an unquestionable lead: mobile video consumption. In a recent survey, the Streaming Video Alliance found that 47.42 […]
The Future of Mobile Video Is… DVD Quality?
When you think of the future of video, what words come to mind? If you’re like most observers, you’re likely rattling around words like “4K” or “high dynamic range” or possibly “8K” and potentially “virtual reality.” Unless you’re a mobile carrier, that is. In that case, the future of video conjures up the phrase….480p. The […]
Streaming Has Yet to Defang Piracy. It May Never.
The conventional wisdom surrounding digital piracy is that the vicious cycle of whack-a-mole, where authorities shut down pirate sites only to find new ones sprouting up instantaneously in their wake, would only be broken by making valuable digital content easier to access legally. While plenty of work remains, the content industry has made significant strides […]
What the Olympics Tells Us About the Future of Broadcast TV
The Rio Olympics have come and gone. Several swimmers aside, the U.S. unquestionably had a stellar Olympic games, capturing the lion’s share of medals. But while athletes and coaches will be picking apart their performances for weeks to come, TV analysts have turned their eye to another post-mortem: How were the ratings? The short answer: […]
It’s the Least Wonderful Time of Year for Pay TV Providers
U.S. pay TV providers have learned to view the second quarter of their financial year with dread. Last year, the industry suffered the worst-ever video subscriber loss in history. While not all of the numbers are in for the second quarter of 2016, the numbers from some of the industry’s biggest players are shaping up […]
UHD Blu-ray: A Nice of a Niche
As a handful of UHD Blu-ray players and pre-recorded titles make their market debuts, consumer electronics companies are devising plans for how to position this product in the face of a dramatically changed consumer video landscape. A dozen years ago when BD was the logical next-generation format to DVD, widespread PVR use wasn’t common, pay […]