The Evolving Streaming Media Landscape

Video streaming is finally the killer application the research community has been hoping it would become for the past 10 to 15 years. Today, the statistics around video streaming services are mind-boggling; for instance, YouTube is currently streaming 6 billion hours of video each month. In this article, the author discusses some of the technological and non-technological factors that have resulted in the phenomenal uptake of streaming video. These include how the shift from traditional viewing platforms such as broadcast/cable television is impacting viewing habits, and how these changes can potentially lead to substantial innovation in content creation, delivery, and the interaction between the content´s consumers and the interfaces delivering it to their devices.