As the years come and go, we have seen countless trends and advancements in the video streaming industry. Since giants like Netflix dominated the media, it’s become a race against time to create bigger and better platforms with content variety and exceptional user interfaces.

With tech advancing as fast as it has in the last few years, streaming services not only need to catch up, but try and get ahead of the game. And so, we’ve come up with 5 top trends that we think you’re going to see in 2022…

AVOD – Advertising Video on Demand

Advertising on demand almost feels like a step back rather than a step forward, you might think. AVOD refers to streaming services that don’t use a subscription method to make their money, but advertising and commercials. When streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime began it was a novelty and even an achievement that we didn’t have to sit through adverts, and could stream to our heart’s content.

But according to the Leichtman Research Group, 54% of consumers are willing to accept ads if it saves them money. The market is flooded without subscription services, and so with people deciding that perhaps they have one too many subscriptions they can’t keep up with, AVOD is becoming more and more popular and could see a HUGE boom in 2022. Last year was the first time we had seen a boom in AVOD services, making up 50% of all viewers in the US.

With big-name TV networks like NBC Universal, Paramount and HBO Max bringing out their own services, we’re sure to see the demand rise for ad-based platforms.

AI – Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence is booming in pretty much every aspect of technology now, so it shouldn’t be breaking news to hear that the video streaming industries are adopting more and more AI into their platforms. Speaking of AVOD above, AI is actually being used in video advertising to target far more niche audiences with specific products and services.

In an episode that we released at the end of November, we spoke with SmarDTV about some of their AI applications using RDK software. Tony Strutt told us about potential use cases such as being able to tell your remote to search for a particular item of clothing on a character in your favourite drama, or for set-top boxes to be able to detect home intruders or health emergencies.

To hear more about these applications, check out the episode below!

 

5G

5G is now becoming the standard for data streaming. With its impressive speeds and fantastic reliability, it’s capable of being 100 times faster than the best speeds reached by 4G LTE. The capabilities for 5G are best noticed through streaming content – particularly in live streaming – as it’s been a problem area in data and remote connectivity since the beginning.

But with 5G, we could see the end of buffering and therefore a surge in mobile/tablet streaming. User interfaces will need to ensure they’re more mobile and tablet friendly, offering the same experience to iOS and Android users alike. PWC ran a survey that shows 29% of consumers would be happy to pay a premium if 5G would provide a higher quality of video and fixed buffering issues.

In 2022, you could see huge numbers of people turning to streaming via. data on the go rather than binge-watching at home now that COVID-19 restrictions are slowly easing.

The Shift in the Premium Market

For years, it’s been no secret that Netflix has been the front runner for video streaming without too much competition – but this is starting to change.

With new services like Disney+, HBO Go, Discovery+ etc, the viewership on Netflix is starting to disperse a little. More content is now available, and it’s quite possible that the global pandemic has had a huge hand in this. Perhaps customers feel they have watched everything to their tastes on Netflix with so much time on their hands during lockdowns, and now there are so many other platforms dangling treats at close range…

With the pandemic came a huge rise in live streaming events, from sporting to live music, and other platforms have adapted and held these events whereas some of the larger platforms have stuck to on-demand. With 5G capabilities and the rise in live events with streaming options, you’re bound to see a rise in subscriptions with those platforms.

Sustaining the COVID-19 Boom

Of course with the pandemic, we’ve been locked in our homes for months on end with streaming services at our fingertips. March 2020 saw a huge spike in consumption, and it drove companies to change the way they worked in order to accommodate their consumers.

And with the day-to-day boredom, people found themselves watching things that they never normally would, which gave platforms a boost when social media got wind of the phenomenon. Perfect examples of this can be seen with Tiger King in 2020, and Squid Game in 2021.

The focus for 2022 as the world begins to live with COVID-19, is keeping this momentum going. People are returning to work, kids are back at school, entertainment and leisure facilities are reopening – so how do we continue this pace?

Mostly, by staying fresh and using these new trends to your advantage. Implementing things like AI technology, creating enticing and easy to use UI interfaces, checking the changes in the market and attitudes towards streaming.

Written by Jamie Walker, Host of The RDK Podcast & Head of Video at Paratus people.
Contact Jamie via email: jamie.walker@therdkpodcast.com/jamie.walker@paratuspeople.com