Video streaming is surging; it has begun to overtake broadcast streaming on TVs in different parts of the world. The quality of the stream is critical for businesses whose income depends on streaming. A minimal delay in the video starting or even a slight buffering makes viewers move away.
Due to COVID-19 spread, our work, entertainment, and schooling have started to take place at home. And it’s the primary reason that screen time has improved dramatically. According to a report, video streaming increased by 19% in the fourth quarter of 2019 to 25% during the second quarter of 2020. There is tremendous pressure to deliver a high-quality streaming experience to streamers; hence it becomes crucial for businesses to measure streaming quality.
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Americans viewed an average of 142.5 billion streaming minutes during the second quarter, compared to only 81.7 million hours spent during 2019. The video-streaming giant Netflix has the largest share of streaming views at around 34%, followed by YouTube at 20%. At the same time, Hulu and Amazon cover 11% and 8%, respectively. Disney Plus covers 4%, and other OTT and streaming platforms cover 23%.
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Netflix had a 41% share during the fourth quarter, while YouTube and Hulu had 21% and 12%, respectively. Looking to a competitive market, businesses who want to secure their place have to focus on measuring streaming quality, helping them provide their customers with excellent results.
What are Streaming Metrics?
Video streams use different tools to measure the quality. Mainly it includes two standard sets of streaming metrics, that is:
1. Quality of Experience (QoE);
2. Quality of Service (QoS).
However, it can be considered a valuable measurement, even though they include some blind spots as it concerns the video streaming experience. Despite the detailed QoS and QoE, you can even use Conviva evaluate; the QoE aspects can provide precise performance pictures and video quality.
Five Metrics to Consider for Measuring Video Streaming Quality Right Away
There are five video streaming quality measurement metrics that viewers do not realize the performance of customers. The video streaming quality measurement metrics are as under.
Bit & Play Rate
Bit rate explains the quality of the video a consumer is experiencing, and it’s one of the most important metrics to measure video streaming performance. Video having a higher-than-average bit rate can be considered streaming content with a high resolution or quality image.
The bit rate determines how several bits of a video can be broadcasted during a specific period. The higher the bit rate defined has a direct impact on the play rate of the online video. The higher the bit rate, the much better the pay rate. Videos that are popular among a larger audience will have a higher pay rate when compared with others.
Buffer Fill
Buffer fill is time spent filling in the buffer, especially when the video starts. It’s a crucial metric because you need to know how long users must wait before the online video starts to play. It simply indicated that if users stare at the buffer rotating icon for longer than they want, they abandon watching the video and move to a better alternative.
Video Length
The video streaming content starts once the buffer is filled. If all goes smoothly, the download rate can easily keep pace with the bit rate. It makes it easier for viewers to view the content in smooth playback; the process is not similar each time, sometimes the buffer gets drained, and streaming content on OTT platforms halts just because there is not enough video to continue.
The time spent waiting is termed lag length, and it is an essential performance metric for knowing each viewer’s experience. The leg length is not more significant than the initial buffer fill, and if it’s, you know that your viewer’s experience has been rudely interrupted on different occasions.
Lag Ratio
Waiting time over watching time is simply an equation that provides you with a lag ratio. Because there is an initial buffer period, the answer you found can’t be zero. However, you can get it relatively cheap.
Play Length
A critical metric is the actual minutes, seconds, and hours streamed out of the data center or play length. It enables you to understand the capacity and plan the infrastructure accordingly. It makes it straightforward for you to plan a content delivery network and estimate peak data volumes and overall demand for streamed data.
Conclusion
Keeping end-users engaged is a primary key to streaming successfully, especially when the video streaming market has exploded globally. Video streaming services like Disney+, Netflix, HBO Max, and many more provide an extraordinary variety of programming choices.
With the increasing demand, high quality and performance have become a topic of concern. Understanding video delivery performance has become a set of performance metrics for measuring streaming quality. You need to find ways to measure the quality of streams and know where there is any deterioration in the streaming content, making it easier for you to provide your customers with an improved experience than ever before.
You can invest in a ready-to-use video streaming script that makes it easier for you to upload, manage, and remove content whenever you want. Feature-rich OTT and video streaming platform is developed keeping present viewers’ demand at the center focus.