This summer’s sporting extravaganzas – from the Euros and Copa America finals, the Tour de France and Wimbledon, and, of course, the Paris Olympics – promise a global surge in viewership for live streaming. Recent data from Amdocs suggests that the Paris Olympics will be the first Games where streaming becomes the preferred viewing method for the majority of viewers in the US (51 per cent, up from 28 per cent at Tokyo 2021). This presents a significant challenge for Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) and streaming service providers as they grapple to maintain a high Quality of Experience (QoE) for viewers. Traditional content delivery methods are reaching their limits, especially in underserved markets that often lack the infrastructure necessary to support high-quality streaming.
As mass-streamed live events quickly become the norm, a new report from Qwilt, which surveyed 259 content publishers primarily across Europe and North America, sheds light on the challenges and considerations of content publishers looking to plan and execute mass live streamed events. It identifies ongoing and new themes in mass live event delivery in 2024 – from CDN capacity and performance to QoE metrics, overall event success, capacity requirements, and cost optimisation. The survey found that CDN performance and capacity continue to dominate concerns, with 29% identifying CDN performance as their greatest technical concern regarding video delivery. It highlights the critical need for ongoing improvements and innovations to meet growing demand and user expectations.
The connectivity hurdle in underserved markets
Underserved markets, typically located in rural areas or developing regions, are often the biggest challenge for content publishers looking to deliver a consistent QoE in their live streamed events as they grapple with a lack of robust internet infrastructure required for high-quality streaming. These areas may have limited or no access to CDNs, and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) might have insufficient network capacity to handle live streaming demands, especially during peak periods.
This lack of connectivity creates a significant barrier for viewers in underserved markets. They are more likely to experience disruptions like buffering, pixelation, and other issues that mar their viewing experience. These problems are particularly troublesome for live sports, where viewers crave real-time immersion and want to see every play unfold. A frustrating streaming experience can lead to churn, with viewers abandoning streaming services in favour of traditional broadcast television.
Open Caching: Bridging the Gap
Open Caching – an open standard developed by the Streaming Video Technology Alliance (SVTA) – offers a compelling solution for underserved markets by placing content caches closer to viewers. This distributed network architecture reduces reliance on long-distance backhaul links, which are often congested in underserved areas. By caching content locally, Open Caching significantly cuts latency and improves throughput.
Open Caching transforms the streaming experience for viewers in underserved markets in several ways. It shortens the physical distance that data must travel to reach the viewer, translating to a significant improvement in latency. Lower latency minimises buffering and ensures a smoother, more responsive viewing experience. By alleviating congestion on backhaul links by caching content locally, Open Caching frees up bandwidth for other applications and improves overall throughput for viewers in underserved markets.
Open Caching can also help ease costs for both content providers and ISPs. By caching content locally, Open Caching minimises the amount of data that needs to be transported over long distances, which can be expensive. It also increases the reliability of live streams by reducing reliance on a single point of failure. If one cache server becomes overloaded, viewers can still be served content from another cache server.
A brighter future for streaming in underserved markets
Live streaming applications like sports broadcasts benefit immensely from Open Caching. The inherent unpredictability of live streams, with traffic spikes during crucial moments, can overwhelm traditional CDN infrastructure, leading to rebuffering and poor video quality. New formats, including Virtual and Augmented Reality (AR/VR), UHD video, social media and gaming, all put further strain on traditional CDNs. Open Caching mitigates this strain, enabling direct delivery from the edge cache and significantly shortening the distance data needs to travel, ensuring a more reliable stream.
Open Caching has the potential to revolutionise live sports streaming in underserved markets. By providing a more reliable and higher-quality viewing experience, Open Caching can help bridge the digital divide and ensure that everyone has the opportunity to enjoy live sporting events. It means sports fans receive fewer interruptions during critical moments of the game, whether it’s a spectacular shot, a key play, or a moment of controversy. This improvement in the reliability and quality of streaming can help drive greater engagement and user satisfaction and a more loyal and expansive audience for sports broadcasters and streaming platforms.
As CDN performance and capacity remain key concerns for content publishers, there is a clear need for solutions like Open Caching to address the growing challenges of live streaming delivery. The result is that all viewers – from capital cities to rural countryside – can join in the shared global experience that live sports bring in the same, uninterrupted quality.
