Report finds ads & AI tools are streamers’ targets

Bitmovin’s seventh annual Video Developer Report has found that the streaming industry believes advertising and AI-powered tools are its biggest opportunities for growth.

150 respondents from across the streaming ecosystem around the globe were asked what they thought the biggest opportunities for growth will be in 2024, and advertising was the most popular answer with 36%. Meanwhile, AI-generated content and video enhancements were second with 32% and low latency in third with 31%.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, and a possible issue for that opportunity, ad insertion was seen as the biggest challenge (33%), with controlling costs (29%) and playback on all devices (26%) following.

Advertising/AVOD was the most popular monetisation option (56%), with FAST the priority for 39% - up from 40% and 26%, respectively. Server-Side Ad Insertion is used by 67% of respondents and Client-Side ad insertion is used by 51%, up from 55% and 44% in the previous year.

Stefan Lederer, CEO & co-founder of Bitmovin, commented: “After a challenging year, 2024 could see the video streaming industry have a renewed focus on growth, which is reflected in the jump advertising has made as the greatest opportunity for video developers, the fact AVOD is the top monetization model and the increased usage in advertising technologies. In 2024, it’s  essential that video streaming companies diversify their revenue streams by evolving their monetization models, and ad-based revenue models are clearly the most popular.”

In terms of which AI tools were most popular, over half of video developers will use audio transcription and speech-to-text in 2024, with personalization (39%) and tagging & categorizing video (37%) in second and third.

Worryingly, sustainability has been taken over as a priority by cost pressures, with 40% saying their company would like to prioritize green streaming, but cost has been the main driver of business decisions instead, and another 30% saying it isn’t something they are focusing on or factoring into business decisions. 24% agreed sustainability is a high priority and factors into their business decisions, even if it means paying a little more, whilst a further 6% stated green streaming is a top priority, regardless of costs.

Lederer added: “It’s clear that the industry has been constrained in making large advancements in sustainability and green streaming as a result of economic pressures. However, despite this, 30% of video developers and their businesses have still made it a key priority for their company, despite it meaning increased costs. As our industry sets its sights on growth and a more stable economy, the 40% that have previously been hyper-focused on their bottom line will be able to invest in prioritizing green streaming. There is great hope and the opportunity for innovation in this area in 2024.”

There were several options to boost sustainability with 52% of video developers pointing to lowering data transmission with more efficient encoding and energy-efficient network technology. Optimizing playback efficiency and power consumption of end-user devices (38%) and utilizing cloud native services and data centres in regions with “green” power sources (35%) were other options.