JW Player Leaders Predict What’s in Store for Video Next Year
As 2017 winds down, we look ahead to the most important trends and opportunities in the future of video. From shorter mobile video ads to the rise of native apps and machine learning, the evolution of the industry is only just beginning.
Get a head start on navigating the landscape with 2018 predictions from our video experts.
Brian Rifkin, Cofounder, SVP Strategic Partnerships:
2018 will be the year of less is more.
The most successful publishers will implement faster sites with fewer but more impactful ads.
2018 will be the year of the shorter mobile video ad.
As the 30-second video ad continues its steady decline, the 6- to 15-second ads will dominate mobile.
2018 will be the year of intent to watch.
By creating an “intent to watch” experience, publishers will be rewarded with more loyal viewership and greater monetization.
Jeroen Wijering, Cofounder, Chief Innovation Officer:
2018 will be the year of actual machine learning products.
In 2017, all the big clouds launched audio, video, and language processing systems based on machine learning. However, those systems gave us very inaccurate metadata. That data can’t be scaled to grow audiences and automate workflows. It’s a problem we’ll crack in 2018.
2018 will be the year mobile users will start deleting apps.
In 2017, the majority of mobile users (51%) installed exactly zero apps a month. Moving forward, we may even see a decline in apps as more users “return to the web” with progressive web apps (PWAs) and HTML5 technologies.
Major indications of this trend came this week from Apple and Microsoft. Apple is enabling Service Workers (an essential API used in PWAs) by default in the next version of Safari, and Microsoft announced it would enable Service Workers and support full-featured PWA experiences in Microsoft Edge and the Microsoft Store.
Rob Gill, VP of Product:
2018 will be the year when OTT platform winners emerge.
OTT revenues are climbing (and will reach $120 billion by 2020). Leading the way will be giants like Roku and Android TV.
2018 will be the year when artificial intelligence (AI) improves editorial workflows.
We’ll see more AI automation of the production, editing, and management of video content.
John Luther, SVP Product Strategy:
2018 will be the year of WebAssembly.
Everyone will be talking about (and implementing) WebAssembly. The ability to run low-level binary code alongside JavaScript will move the Web further toward a universal “native” app platform. Together with PWAs, WebAssembly will allow users to do more “app-like” things within a browser or embedded web view, while gaining better performance and battery conservation.
2018 will be the year when AVOD (still) reigns.
Despite current anxieties about quality, brand safety, and ad blocking, AVOD (ad-based video on-demand) will continue to grow as the preferred business model over SVOD (subscription-based video on-demand).
The barriers against SVOD include:
Consumer SVOD budgets that are already saturated
Improved ad targeting and SSAI (server side ad insertion) technologies that support AVOD
Clumsy signup and login flows in SVOD
Exorbitant back-end vendor fees in SVOD
High subscriber turnover
To succeed in SVOD, you must have enough cash to make premium long-form content (think giants like Netflix and Hulu) or a very strong niche (Crunchyroll, Rooster Teeth, Shudder).
Ready to take advantage of the latest video innovations? Schedule time to talk with one of our video experts.