A lot has changed in the online video landscape since JW7 launched in June of 2015. Viewing habits and technology standards are constantly shifting. The player has met these changes head-on, evolving to ensure that publishers and their end-viewers never miss out on displaying and watching video online. So if it weren’t enough to be quite simply our fastest, most scalable, and easiest-to-use web video player, here are three more reasons to update to JW7 today.
The Demise of Flash is real
It is actually happening and sooner than you might think. Google’s auto-pausing small Flash content was just the first step. Chrome will no longer use Flash unless you are one of ten websites that still heavily rely on the plugin. They plan on releasing this update sometime within Q4 of this year. Safari 10, due to release in the fall, will also by default not use Flash.
JW Player will only need to use Flash if you are monetizing with Flash-based advertising creatives. Ad creatives have proven to be slow to fully embrace HTML5 and JavaScript. As we approach the end of this year here are a few things to keep in mind when thinking about the future of your video content.
Enable Cross Origin Resource sharing on your content servers.
If you were using Flash for delivering content using HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) resource sharing was dictated through a crossdomain.xml file on your web-server. With Flash going away, you now need to make sure that JavaScript can request assets from multiple origins, you do this by setting up CORS.
Migrate away from Flash based Ad Creatives
Reach out to your ad partner and ensure that your fill is using mp4s or JavaScript based VPAID creatives. Otherwise you will miss out on monetizing your content in the world’s most used web browser, Chrome.
Update to JW Player 7
HLS in HTML5 and VPAID 2.0 JavaScript creatives are only available in the latest version of JW Player.
Mobile Web has Surpassed Desktop Web
In May 2016 more videos were consumed on mobile devices over desktop browsers for the first time ever in JW Player’s network of video publishers. Desktop browsers still accounted for 49% of all plays but that means 51% were watched in mobile browsers, mobile apps, and OTT apps. Your video player and content needs to run on mobile and this means being 100% HTML5.
Protecting your content across browsers
There are many different ways to protect your content, from signed urls to geo-blocking. Another popular way is to use the Encrypted Media Extensions in modern browsers to interface with DRM and key management systems. Earlier this year we saw Adobe discontinue reselling its DRM technology, Adobe Access. This was used as the Content Decryption Module (CDM) within FireFox. To accommodate this change, FireFox has since added Google Widevine as the CDM for their browser which allows publishers to use the service for protecting their content in Chrome as well. If you want to be able to take advantage of this functionality you will need to update to the latest version of JW Player and use MPEG-DASH as your streaming media format.
We obsess over video technology so you can focus on your content
At JW Player we ensure that our video technology is updated regularly to ensure viewers have the best possible experience. Keep updated on our progress by following our release notes and checking out our roadmap.