Some of the biggest names from the online video ecosystem have teamed up to form the Streaming Video Alliance (SVA) to facilitate creation of architecture, standards and best practices that will scale the infrastructure for online video and improve efficiency for all providers in the ecosystem while preserving a high quality experience for consumers.
The SVA will initially focus on three main areas which include defining specifications for an open architecture to carry live and on-demand video, identifying best practices that will help online video interoperability and efficiency, and creating a common approach to measure and report the quality of experience for video.
“In light of this extraordinary demand for and shift to online video consumption, many industry members have come together to begin to foster collaboration on a new open architecture and ensure online video will continue to flourish. The hope is that companies throughout the ecosystem will join this effort to develop a multi-faceted solution that works for all elements of the ecosystem,” the Alliance noted in a press release.
Alcatel-Lucent, Charter Communications, Cisco, Comcast, EPIX, Fox Networks Group, Korea Telecom, Level 3 Communications, Liberty Global, Limelight Networks, Major League Baseball Advanced Media, Qwilt, Telecom Italia, Telstra, Ustream, Wowza Media Systems and Yahoo! are some of the Strategic Video Alliance’s founding members.
Interestingly, Netflix and YouTube, which are considered as the biggest drivers of streaming online video traffic, remained absent from the list.
A Netflix spokesperson said: “We aren’t planning to join. Given the scale of Netflix video traffic, we custom-built our Open Connect network to ensure Netflix members have the best viewing experience and we provide it free to ISPs.”