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There is a lot of talk in the industry about AV1 and all of the new MPEG codecs coming out this year: VVC, EVC and LCEVC. With these new codecs on the horizon, now is the time to look at what’s going on with HEVC in 2020.

OTT video consumption is rising rapidly. To effectively manage bandwidth congestion, some popular streaming services are reducing their bitrate by 25%. Here, we’ll help shed light on why and also give some guidance on what can be done in both the short and mid-term to cope.

Consumers today are watching video on a growing number of screens, and video quality expectations are constantly increasing. While HD video is the mainstream viewing experience today, UHD HDR is getting attention — both from consumers and standards organizations. The reason UHD HDR is attractive is because it provides viewers with an immersive video experience at a resolution that is four times greater than HD. HDR expands the available color space, creating more vivid pictures, and increasing brightness and points of darkness.

The European Commissioner for Internal Market and Services asked major streaming platforms like Netflix and YouTube to reduce the impact of streaming on the internet. Another side effect of the new coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. Some feared they would now only be able to view content in Standard Definition (SD).

Today’s UHD HDR technology is maturing. However, even with dozens of cameras and specialty slow-motion equipment, we’re not yet able to film an entire game in 4K. To provide an entire game in UHD HDR today, you need to upscale from the initial shot format. The video for this year’s American football championship final was produced in 1080p60 and upconverted to 2160p60. The signal was produced in HLG and then sent in different HDR formats:

OTT for sports is becoming increasingly attractive. There are growing investments in content acquisition that show how more and more companies are getting into the OTT game. According to a recent ReThink TV report, streaming will see sports media rights revenues hit $85 billion by 2024. Amongst the world's most lucrative sports, the price of soccer rights is expected to swell from $12.8 billion to $31.9 billion during this time period, primarily due to greater viewership of Europe’s top leagues in Asia and North America.