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.

Q&A: TiVo's Chris Kleinschmidt on Glastonbury 2025 and Lean-Back Livestreaming Cultural Events

With Glastonbury 2025 in the books, Streaming Media spoke with TiVo VP EMEA Advertising Sales Chris Kleinschmidt about the streaming lessons learned from the event, in a cultural moment when Gen Z fans say they increasingly regard straightforward first-screen livestreaming experiences as a reasonable substitute for experiencing the live event onsite. 

Deltatre Announces Acquisition of Endeavor Streaming

Deltatre, a leading international provider of streaming, digital, data, and graphics solutions for the sports, media, and entertainment industries, today announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Endeavor Streaming from Endeavor Group Holdings, Inc. 

Who Owns the Emotion in Sport?

The most powerful moments in sport aren't being broadcast. They're being clipped, remixed, and shared long before the highlights drop.

Creating New CTV Ad Standards

IAB Tech Lab has recently released some new standards for CTV advertising, known as the Ad Format Hero Initiative. The organisation asked and received more than 100 CTV ad format descriptions/concepts from the industry on classifying new formats. Next up, they ran an industry survey (completed 16 April 2025) to determine what should be prioritised. The Ad Format Hero Task Force selected eight formats based on the survey results. The idea is to create standards so that sensibly, engineering and operations teams don't have to reinvent the wheel every time they want to insert the right creative.

Telestream vs. Encoding.com lawsuit goes public with reputations at stake

Telestream, the veteran digital video software and workflow tech provider, is fighting a lawsuit brought by two former employees which may have salutary lessons for company owners planning a sale to private equity. The suit, brought by Greggory Heil and Jeffrey Malkin, co-founders of Encoding.com, against Telestream claims Unpaid acquisition consideration, wrongful termination, fraudulent transfer, and successor liability.

Access Advance Reveals Royalty Rates for Video Streaming Services

In this interview, Jan Ozer speaks with Peter Moller, CEO of Access Advance, and Dylan Zhou, Senior VP of Licensing, about the recently announced royalty structure and initial participants in Access Advance's Video Distribution Patent Pool. The conversation outlines the codecs covered (VP9, AV1, HEVC, VVC), the targeted use cases (video streaming and content distribution), and how the royalty structure is designed to balance fairness and industry adoption.

Q&A: Celebrating Pride Month With Quickplay’s Paul Pastor 

Quickplay Co-Founder Paul Pastor has been using his platform as an out gay executive to advocate for more authentic and positive LGBTQ+ representation and inclusion in the tech world. In this Q&A, Pastor shares how he feels about the progress that's been made in LBTQ+ inclusion, why it's important to be your authentic self at work, what streaming media can do to engage in allyship, and how Quickplay is showing up for LGBTQ+ people, and more.

JustWatch Reveals Streaming Trends for LGBTQ+ Content in the UK During Pride Month

As Pride Month celebrations sweep across the UK, JustWatch - the world's largest streaming guide - has unveiled an annual analysis spotlighting the best streaming platforms for LGBTQ+ films and TV shows in the UK. This year's analysis showcases which services offer the richest selection of queer content, reveals the most-watched LGBTQ+ titles of the year, and examines how queer film and TV production has evolved over time.

DIY Broadcast: How Underrepresented Sports Are Building Their Own Streaming Stacks

That's changing. With automated cameras, cloud production platforms, and AI-driven tools now capable of delivering the full suite of broadcast workflows—from live switching and graphics to clipping, highlights, and distribution—sports that once had no way to show themselves are building their own streaming stacks. They're not waiting to be picked up. They're going live—and taking control.

Netflix makes quietly aggressive aggregation play

Netflix announced at Cannes Lions that it will distribute the channels and on-demand content of French commercial broadcaster TF1 to Netflix members in France, beginning next year. If successful, Netflix will have jumped a start on all its rivals who have so far resisted, or failed to entice, broadcasters anywhere to share their entire schedule and programme output with a third-party streaming platform.

Twitch Unveils Dual-Layout Streaming at TwitchCon Europe: Technical Innovation or Industry Revolution?

As video producers, we all agree on one thing: we want to serve content in whatever format the viewer prefers. Until now, for live streaming in landscape or portrait, it's been a one-or-the-other proposition. That's changing. At TwitchCon Europe, amid the usual fanfare and cosplay, Twitch quietly announced a feature that could reshape the future of live streaming: dual-layout live streaming.

Warner Bros. Discovery drop linear ballast to float HBO Max

Having trailed the move a year ago, Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) chief David Zaslav has followed through on plans to split the company in half. The company is to separate into Streaming & Studios (HBO) and Global Networks (TNT Sports, CNN, B/R, Discovery) by mid-2026 effectively undoing the $43 billion merger between WarnerMedia and Discovery in 2022.

Voting is open for the 2025 Streaming Media European Innovation Awards

Voting is open for the 2025 Streaming Media European Innovation Awards. In 2025, we've got 13 categories. The polls are open - let the voting begin!

Merzigo Shows Localization as a Fundamental Content Growth Strategy

Originating from Turkey, with bases in London and L.A., Merzigo has become a global business by helping content owners like Warner Bros. Discovery and Walt Disney maximize revenue from program distribution on YouTube and Facebook. It just inked a new deal with Fremantle which extends its reach further across North America, Europe and Asia.

BBC trials low-latency live streams during Glastonbury and Wimbledon

The BBC has taken its trial of Low Latency DASH with chunked CMAF segments to the next stage by assessing how well its approach performs when received by viewers watching marquee sports and music events on iPlayer at home. The trial, which is for select viewers of BBC Two viewed live on iPlayer, will likely include music festival Glastonbury, tennis championship Wimbledon and the Women's soccer Euros which all start by the end of June or beginning of July.

Ad supply is outstripping demand, say JWP Connatix

As streaming ad inventory continues to exceed demand, JWP Connatix see an emerging buyer's market, with biddable CTV and context-driven monetisation for live and VOD expected to define the next phase of programmatic advertising.

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!

Last chance to nominate for the 2025 Streaming Media Innovation Awards

Nominations close Saturday 31 May for Streaming Media's 2025 European Innovation Awards.

ICYMI: Streaming Media Connect May 2025

Streaming Media presented its 17th Connect virtual conference May 20-22, featuring speakers from Paramount, Meta, Google, NBA, Roku, Warner Bros. Discovery, AWS, Akamai, Fubo, DAZN, Fremantle, IAB, Philo, Estrella, Eluvio, nanocosmos, Cerberus, and more, and session topics ranging from and sports on FAST to biddable advertising to SGAI to AI in live streaming to Media Over QUIC (MoQ) and more.