Media streaming: it's an OTTortunity
If you're old enough to remember dial-up access to the Internet, you'll recall that even downloading a simple image could seem to take forever. It seems remarkable, then, that the first live sports event to be streamed was back in those 56K days, when ESPN SportsZone streamed a live radio broadcast of a baseball game between the Seattle Mariners and the New York Yankees to thousands of its subscribers back in 1995.
We've come a long way since then. Just two years after that first ever OTT broadcast, Netflix was founded. Today, it has close to 160 million subscribers worldwide - and is adding around 5 million every three months. Its annual revenues are rapidly approaching $20 billion.
Streaming media, Video on Demand, OTT - call it what you like - is now an established way for us to consume content. From Netflix and Amazon Prime through YouTube to traditional' broadcasters' catch-up services, non-linear rapidly becoming the de facto standard for what we used to call watching TV.
Good news
Which is good news for us at Bridge Technologies. According to research and consulting firm Frost & Sullivan, the OTT monitoring and compliance market will see significant growth - from today's $62.0 million to $149.7 million in 2024. That's a hell of a business opportunity.
It was back in September 2012 that we announced our OTT Engine was shipping for all our probes, giving true end-to-end OTT monitoring capability alongside monitoring of cable, satellite and terrestrial services, without adding unnecessary extra layers of infrastructure. A year later, we updated it to provide support for MPEG-DASH.
The rise of OTT services, and how operators manage the change in the way TV is consumed in a non-linear way, was at the forefront of the creation of the OTT Engine. It was specifically developed to bridge existing understanding of packet- and chunk-based media, distributed over standard http protocols and servers. We knew that enabling broadcasters to readily understand this maturing technology within known and familiar frameworks, event and alarming structures, would be extremely important for successful implementation of any OTT platform.
It's interesting that the first example of streaming media involved sport - because sport in particular, and live events in general, are credited with driving much of the growth in OTT. In the UK, for example, Sky Sports and BT are paying around £5 billion for the rights to show live Premier League matches as a way of attracting subscribers. It's been demonstrated that major sporting events - like the recent Rugby World Cup - create a spike in subscriptions (even if many are cancelled when the tournament has finished )
High bar
But, when it comes to sport especially, the bar - in terms of image quality - is set high. Viewers have become used to the pristine delivery of content by terrestrial broadcasters: no buffering, no jitter, no image break-up. The same is true for all content (although with movies and box sets, for example, it is, perhaps, less critical): viewers have become used to perfect image quality, and they're not prepared to compromise, even for the advantages of programming on demand, multiple camera angles or social media integration. The potential issue is only exacerbated by the multi-screen phenomenon in which the TV set in the corner of the lounge is only one of many devices in play - and, it seems, a device that's diminishing in importance as we turn to the joys of mobile, watch anywhere media.
There is, of course, a further challenge: when it comes to the distribution medium, OTT operators and streaming companies are far from being masters of their own destiny. Neither the Internet nor 4G (and, eventually, 5G) can guarantee perfect connectivity. Given the kind of investment companies are putting in to OTT services, acquiring new subscribers is a hugely expensive undertaking. The last thing those organisations want or need is churn resulting from inadequate image quality.
And that, of course, is where our monitoring tools come in. The OTT Engine is the most complete and sophisticated solution for monitoring OTT services, extending from ingest right through to the viewing device, enabling providers to have real active monitoring of all channels, whether for live or VoD content. It is compatible with all our IP probes for HLS, MPEG-DASH, Smooth Stream, HDS and RTMP assets.
Appropriate
All Bridge Technologies probes have OTT/ABR capabilities that are appropriate for monitoring in adaptive bitrate streaming systems. For example: for the VB120/VB220, the total number of OTT streams that can be monitored is 250 (25 engines). For the VB330, the figure is 500 (50 engines). Each OTT Engine operates autonomously and only requires knowledge of the URL from which the media is being fetched. The OTT Engine then parses the manifest file provided by the origin or edge-server, extracts the different profiles served, validates syntax, checks chunk counters and then does the same for the individual profiles.
Another extremely helpful quality check delivered by the VB288 appliance enables OTT operators to inspect massive amounts of content services and spot any issue that would not be immediately apparent to the human eye. The VB288 supports unreferenced MOS, blocking, blurring, noise, contrast and brightness reporting, for a deep dive into any video analysis.
All consuming content
OTT has enabled whole new ways of consuming content - and even helped create new kinds of content: it's hard to imagine that esports and online gaming would even have been possible without it. In addition, 2018 was the first year that online streaming platforms like Netflix and Amazon produced a greater number of original shows than traditional broadcasters. Streaming is now a proven, reli
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
12/06/2026
YES Network and The Gotham Sports App will air seven Athletes Unlimited Softball...
12/06/2026
The United Football League will host its FAST Innovation Suite at the 2026 United Bowl presented by Credit One Bank on Saturday, June 13 at 3:00 p.m. ET at Audi...
12/06/2026
PTZOptics and LayerJot will present live demonstrations at InfoComm 2026 showing how natural-language AI prompting, robotic camera control, and on-device comput...
12/06/2026
MultiDyne Video and Fiber Optic Systems will exhibit at InfoComm 2026, featuring...
12/06/2026
Ateme has announced that Eurovision Services is using Ateme's software-based frame-rate conversion technology for international live event workflows. The de...
12/06/2026
Bitmovin and Simplestream have announced a partnership with Xperi to simplify the launch of OTT streaming services on TiVo OS smart TVs and devices. The collabo...
12/06/2026
Net Insight has announced that a multinational technology company is deploying a...
12/06/2026
MLB Players Inc., the business arm of the MLB Players Association, has announced a partnership with Athletes First to develop and sell brand partnerships across...
12/06/2026
Guntermann and Drunck (G&D) and VuWall have announced the CommandKeyboard-Advanc...
12/06/2026
Comcast Smart Solutions announces a new smart technology deployment with Major L...
12/06/2026
Elevation Worship completed the initial leg of its Elevation Nights 2026 tour ...
12/06/2026
AJA Video Systems has announced KONA IP25 support for Colorfront Transkoder and ...
12/06/2026
Audinate Group Limited (ASX: AD8) will exhibit at InfoComm 2026 (Booth C7321, Ce...
12/06/2026
Pac-12 Commissioner Teresa Gould has announced the appointment of Scott Adametz as Chief Technology Officer. The Pac-12 describes the hire as the first CTO appo...
12/06/2026
Grass Valley has announced AMPP Edge Live, a production system combining Grass Valley hardware, NVIDIA Blackwell GPU acceleration, and AMPP OS in a single platf...
12/06/2026
At one time a trailblazer with the launch of the Longhorn Network, the Universit...
12/06/2026
Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent rating news and is derived from press rel...
12/06/2026
Chyron has announced PAINT 10.4, an update to its illustrated replay and sports ...
12/06/2026
SVP, Production Mark Gross: With the new schedule, with not having every Sunday night, it's given us an opportunity to take a step back and reimagine what ...
12/06/2026
For Televisa Technical Engineering Manager Roberto N nez Ibarra and the small team of 12 technicians and two production personnel at the IBC things are already ...
12/06/2026
Simple Steps to Better Acoustics - Taming The Small Room
Most of us mix in spare rooms and small spaces, where the acoustics fight us at every turn. At Gear...
12/06/2026
Latest addition expands vintage-inspired effects palette
Meris' Ottobit pedal range draws its inspiration from vintage gaming consoles, and the latest a...
12/06/2026
Soundbox-based chamber strings series expanded
Sonora Cinematic have just announced the launch of the second instalment in their Soundbox-based chamber stri...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
AJA Announces KONA IP25 Integration with Colorfront Software
Brie Clayton June 12, 2026
0 Comments
Collaboration enables uncompressed SMPTE ST 2110 I/O ...
12/06/2026
URSA Cine 12K LF Used to Create Visuals for STUTS' K-Arena Concert
Brie Clayton June 12, 2026
0 Comments
Organic visuals projected on a giant scre...
12/06/2026
MTI FILM Acquires Mango New Edit, Expanding its Global Post-Production Services ...
12/06/2026
AI Point Tracking Speeds Up Complex VFX Tracks in Mocha Pro
Jessie Electa Petrov June 12, 2026
0 Comments
The 2026.5 release adds automatic point trac...
12/06/2026
Bitmovin, a provider of video streaming solutions, has partnered with Simplestream, a provider of OTT and broadcast solutions, and technology provider Xperi, to...
12/06/2026
Leostream Corporation, creator of the world-leading Leostream Remote Desktop Access Platform, today announced Jigsaw24, a leading B2B IT solutions provider wit...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
How Aussie indie games and screen are levelling up with IP 11 June 2026
Ari Harrison, Pro Jank Footy
Head of Games Joey Egger and Ari Harrison of Umbrella sha...
12/06/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Unveils First-Look Images from Villaflor, Santiago Mitre's New Film
Entertainment
12 June 2026
GlobalArgentina
Link copied to ...
12/06/2026
Back to All News
Cross the Boundaries of the Real World into the Spirit Realm i...
12/06/2026
With John Daro, DI Colourist at Warner Bros. Water Tower Color Tuesday 23 June, 10am-1pm or 3-6pm
Restar Corporation
Tokyo
Register here
John Daro is the ...
12/06/2026
Meet The Grumpy Onion Ireland's newest online sensation, all he wants is to ...
12/06/2026
RT stays Up All Night with brand new daily 2026 FIFA World Cup Vodcast
Adding to the fun around 2026 FIFA World Cup tournament, RT has launched a brand new d...
12/06/2026
A fentanyl countermeasure that adapts to combat future black-market drugs Scripps Research scientists developed a vaccine that teaches the immune system to rapi...
11/06/2026
The immense size of the tourney and its Atlantic-spanning operation also disting...
11/06/2026
Nielsen has released a new soccer fandom consumer research report, The Fans Behind The Game: FIFA World Cup 2026 Edition, examining the soccer audience in the...
Media streaming: it's an OTTortunity
