Review: Meta's Video Codec Acid Test (VCAT)

Identifying which phones can handle AV1 decode is the goal of Meta's new VCAT testing tool, for Video Codec Acid Test, which is both the brainchild and the swan song of encoding legend David Ronca. In short, VCAT is an Android app for benchmarking battery drain and system health during HW/SW video decode operations on Android devices.

Review: YoloLiv YoloBox Extreme

YoloBox, an Android-based tablet with live production software and hardware-based connectivity, marries the capabilities of software, the I/O of hardware, and the portability of a tablet. The all-in-one tablet-based streaming solution market also has entries from Magewell (Director and Director One) and Cinetreak. YoloLiv is not only the pioneer in this segment; it also offers the most diverse solutions, from the single-input Mini to the new device I'll be looking at here, the eight-input Extreme.

The Pros and Cons of Software Decoding for Publishers and Viewers

This article examines recent data on efficiency and power usage for hardware and software decoding and explores how this data shapes the value proposition for publishers opting for software decoding and viewers that wittingly, or unwittingly, watch services that deploy it. It concludes with two short surveys for publishers and consumers that ask for your perspective on and experience with software decoding. Be sure to take the surveys!

Q&A: Google's Shalini Govil-Pai Talks the Future of Android TV

In this interview with Streaming Media's Nadine Krefetz, Google VP & General Manager Shalini Govil-Pai discusses ongoing developments at Google TV, the state and future of streaming, and the growing impact of AI on streaming recommendations, user experiences, and monetization.

The 2025 Streaming Media All-Stars

After a 12-year hiatus, Streaming Media is bringing back the Streaming Media All-Stars for 2025 to pay tribute to a select group of key technology innovators who are driving and disrupting the streaming industry.

The State of the Video Codec Market 2025

HEVC rode the 4K/HDR wave to success, but AV1, VVC, and LCEVC lack an equivalent killer app. With CDNs racing to the bottom on pricing and new royalty pools threatening to increase costs, codec adoption is no longer just about technical merit—it's about survival. These are the issues I'll explore in this article.

Streamticker: The Biggest Streaming Mergers and Acquisitions of 2024

The 2024 edition of Streamticker, recapping the streaming industry's most momentous mergers and acquisitions of 2023, kicked off with Disney's gobbling up the last extant portions of Hulu, as Comcast ceded its re­maining 33% stake. But if the late-2023 deal marked only the quiet conclusion of an already-silent part­nership, the much noisier news of Jan. 6, 2025, found Disney absorbing sports-centric streamer Fubo and merging it with Hulu Live + TV. Here we'll review this and other done (or more nearly done) M&A deals that reshuffled the stream­ing industry in 2024.

Buyers' Guide: Third-Party Commercial Streaming Codecs

For some streamers, open-source solutions meet all their needs. For others, commercial codecs deliver efficiency and optimizations that justify the cost. This article explores the factors that influence those decisions.

The 2024 Streaming Media Readers' Choice Awards

The readers have spoken! We've counted all of the votes in the 2024 Streaming Media Readers' Choice Awards, and—drumroll, please—it is now my pleasure and sworn duty to present winners and runners-up in each of our 17 categories.

Presenting the 2024 Streaming Media 100

Here we reveal the 2024 Streaming Media 100, our list of the top 100 companies in the streaming universe outside of Europe. This list complements the Streaming Media Europe 51, which recognizes Europe's key streaming innovators, exemplars, and disruptors.

Q&A: NBCUniversal SVP Monica Williams Talks Streaming the Olympics, Cross-Platform CX, and the Power of Metadata

In this wide-ranging interview with Monica Williams, NBCUniversal's SVP of digital products and operations for the company's content distribution business, we discuss how the proliferation of digital platforms across the OTT, CTV, and online ecosystems has brought new content distribution challenges, the boon of metadata for improving customer experiences, and the 17-day everything-must-go-perfectly marathon of distributing the Olympics.

Q&A: Google Cloud's Anil Jain Explains How Generative AI Is Driving Digital Transformation for M&E and DTC

For Anil Jain, leading the Strategic Consumer Industries team for Google Cloud has meant helping traditional media companies embrace cloud and AI, move to an OpEx-centric business model, and adapt to a more development-oriented mindset in engineering and product management. In this interview, Jain discusses the global shift to cloud-based operations in the media industry, the ways generative AI is disrupting everything from production to packaging to all aspects of the user experience, and what media companies should be afraid of if they're not already.

The State of Enterprise Video 2024

Pricing, parity, and protection are three key themes in 2024's enterprise video market

Q&A: Adtaxi's Murry Woronoff Says Streaming TV Levels Have Surpassed 80% of U.S. Adults in 2024

A new report by Adtaxi, one of the nation's fastest-growing digital marketing agencies, has revealed that more Americans than ever are now defaulting to streaming as their primary viewing content source. Murry Woronoff, Agency Director - Marketing Research and Consumer Insights at Adtaxi, spoke with Streaming Media's Tyler Nesler about many specific aspects of the report and what the findings reveal about the current state of streaming as the industry continues to evolve rapidly.

The 2023 Streaming Media Readers' Choice Awards

The readers have spoken! Here we present North America's top tech solutions of 2023, as chosen by the readers of Streaming Media.

Scripps Networks’ Senior Director of Product Yazmin Wickham Talks Viewer-Centered OTT UX Design

Recently I caught up with Scripps Networks Senior Director of Product Yazmin Wickham to get a better sense of the role a Director of Product plays in developing and managing UX at a diversified media company in the OTT and CTV universe. I learned how Scripps approaches the viewer experience, both in AVOD and SVOD models, and attempts to deliver as consistent an experience as possible across a wide array of platform, and the challenges and advantages of maintaining a unified (or nearly unified) text stack across the board.

Streaming Media’s Trendsetting Products and Services of 2023

A detailed guide to Streaming Media's Trendsetting Products and Services of 2023.

Buyers’ Guide: Cellular Bonding Solutions

Thanks to bonding and some of the other technologies discussed in this guide, the days of sending glitchy, buffering video to viewers should be behind us. Read on to learn about the many options available, at a wide variety of price points, to ensure that streaming professionals can deliver the best video possible.

YoloLiv YoloBox Mini

In this review, I am going to be taking a look at YoloLiv's latest little streaming box, the YoloBox Mini

The Building Blocks of the Metaverse

The most important aspects of the entire metaverse project are the interchange standards and the tools, protocols, formats, and services that enable persistent and ubiquitous virtual simulations. Without them, there will be no metaverse.