How to quickly and easily reduce streaming costs

All rights reserved. © Bitmovin Inc 2020
BITMOVIN | WEBINAR by Gerald Zankl
How To Reduce Streaming
Costs. Quickly. Easily.

APAC + EMEA Specialists
Gerald Zankl
Presenter
gerald@bitmovin.com
Yuhan Lin
Bitmovin Specialist, APAC
yuhan@bitmovin.com
Martin Dalberg
Bitmovin Specialist,
UK+Nordics+Benelux
martin@bitmovin.com

● Today’s Goals
● Current situation in the industry
● The Importance of Reducing Streaming Costs
● Streaming Media Business Models
● Costs of Streaming Services
● Ways to reduce costs. Quickly. Easily.
● Summary
Agenda

You got an overview on the current situation of
streaming services and why it is important to reduce
costs NOW and how you can do this easily and fast.
Today’s Goal

Current situation in the
Streaming Industry

Streaming video is taking off

All rights reserved. © Bitmovin Inc 2020All rights reserved. © Bitmovin Inc 2020
“One in ﬁve people around the
globe are under lockdown.”
The Guardian, March 2020

Streaming video consumption is increasing
Viewers are watching more
and are watching longer, but
data use is growing faster!
But what about
video revenues?

NETFLIX
DOESN’T
MONETIZE
VOLUME.They monetize subscribers.

Revenues
$20B
Costs
$12.3B
Proﬁt
$7.7B
Revenues
0-27%
Costs
+…%
- =
- =
+219%
Time Watched
increased
massively.
COVID-19
Business Model Example,
subscription-services, SVOD
Proﬁt
-...%

What was the COVID-19 impact of increased usage?
Subscription-VOD Services, e.g. Netflix, HBO, Hulu...
Massive increase in time watched, but users still paying same monthly subscription
fee (as shown on the previous slide).
Revenue stays the same if no new users, but costs increase = Profit decreased.
❌
❌
Ad-VOD Services, e.g. Publishers
Massive increase in video impressions, but couldn monetize everything because
advertisers where reducing their budgets. Revenue decreased, costs most likely
increased = Profit decreased.
✅
Transactional-VOD Services, e.g. Amazon Prime titles
Monetized their contents with increased usage. Revenue increased, costs
increased as well = Profit stay the same.

● There is extreme public pressure on content distributors to lower bandwidth
consumption while still delivering a positive experience for viewers.
● As providers see record levels of growth, they also need to ensure they are
managing costs appropriately as they scale.
In addition to Business impact,
Technology impact
All rights reserved. © Bitmovin Inc 2020All rights reserved. © Bitmovin Inc 2020

Ways To
Reduce Costs

CDN
Decrease
bandwidth
Decrease quality
Restrict usage
ANALYTICS
Decisions on
revenue + costs
User base
Device base
Content
PLAYER
Make vs. Buy decision
Player maintenance
on ALL platforms and
devices (100+!!!)
ENCODER
Improve encoding
efﬁciency with new
codecs, like VP9/HEVC
Rethink your encoding
infrastructure (cloud vs.
on-prem)
Make vs. Buy decision
Ways To Reduce Costs
CMS
Title selection
Suggestion systems

15

“Hulu is home to a library of world-class content in Japan, and we are always
striving to ensure that the online experience matches it. Bitmovin is helping
us to achieve that through their Per-Title, 3-Pass and Multi-Codec encoding
technologies which allows us to deliver the highest video quality within our
customers’. Thanks to Bitmovin, we can continue to exceed the expectations
of our customers by offering an enhanced viewing experience, while
simultaneously reducing costs.”
- HJ / PLAY said
CASE STUDY

Hulu - The Challenges
● Cost
○ Cloud Origin Storage Costs
○ CDN Egress Costs
● Quality
○ Mixed Content Types, encoded in a single “Golden Ladder”
varied drastically in visual quality at the highest bitrates
○ Delivering better quality video over smaller pipes
● SVOD Market Competition
Customers judge their experience, based on the best experience they
have had anywhere else, including HD broadcast OTA.
● Technology Adoption
New Codecs - AV1/VVC not ready for Primetime. Room to optimise what's already available

Hulu - Cost Reduction
3-Pass Per-Title Multi-Codec
Combine it all together for 30% CDN savings

Per-Title Encoding
Adjust bitrate ladder based on complexity
No pieces of content are the same,
why encode them the same?
Beneﬁts:
1. Bitrate reduction - Saving money
on CDN Egress
2. Storage reduction - Saving money
on Storage
3. Quality improvement
● Consistent perceptual quality
across media library
● Encode every asset in the quality
users enjoy, but not more
● Present high quality also to viewers in
low bandwidth scenarios (developing
countries, mobile connections, etc.)

Multi-Codec
The Right Codec for Every Device
Important:
97.5% of
China’s Mobile
Market can
support a more
efﬁcient codec
than H.264
Bandwidth Savings 0% 40-50% 30-40% 80%

Hulu Japan
Bitmovin technologies used:
● 3-Pass Encoding
● Per-Title
● Multi-Codec: H.264, HEVC and VP9
Result: Combine it all together
for 30% CDN cost savings

Summary
● There was never a time, where it was more important to reduce costs
● Reducing cost while reducing viewer experience is a bad idea
● Aim for offering an enhanced viewing experience, while simultaneously reducing costs
● Start to analyse and think of strategies NOW
● Start with one part of the value chain and take it step by step
Further sessions and Help needed
● Contact us anytime: sales@bitmovin.com

Thank you, Questions?
Gerald Zankl
Presenter
gerald@bitmovin.com
Yuhan Lin
Bitmovin Specialist, APAC
yuhan@bitmovin.com
Martin Dalberg
Bitmovin Specialist,
UK+Nordics+Benelux
martin@bitmovin.com
Want to have slides and video recording of today’s session?
If yes, set up a meeting with your regional Bitmovin Specialist to talk about more details.

How to quickly and easily reduce streaming costs

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