Sports programming has always been seen as the last bastion of broadcasters and pay-TV operators in their running battle with streaming; it was content that could help them maintain their footing as more consumers turned to over-the-top delivery of their movies, news and episodic TV.
But that’s changing as more sports leagues, sports teams and sporting figures have discovered what everyone else knows: If you want to reach a larger audience — and to keep the one you have — you need to go over the top and be available on any device, anywhere and at any time.
And, just as streaming providers and content owners have learned that insights driven by data is crucial to their growth, so too has the sporting world.
OTT sports usage data is a part of Brightcove’s Global Video Index for the first time in Q3 2019. Sports will be a part of future Video Indexes moving forward, as we analyze hundreds of millions of data points for insights into how viewers are watching, what devices they are watching on and what kind of content they’re consuming.
Sports audiences take to OTT
A recent study from USC’s Annenberg School for Communications found that 78% of self-described “intense sports fans” who would pay for a sports-specific channel, would be willing to pay more for a sports streaming channel.
And, as we found in the Q3 2019 Global Video Index, they watch on every device in — and out — of the home.
More than half (54%) of sports content views begin on smartphones globally, that’s up 49% from a year ago. Connected TVs (CTV), meanwhile, saw a 312% increase in views over-the-top, with the highest completion rates of any device.
Some sports findings:
·   In North America, connected TVs saw sports video views increase 730%, with computers (58%) used most often to view sports content.
·   In Australia/New Zealand, CTV views were up 188%, followed closely by smartphone views (+135%). Smartphone’s share of views was highest at 68%.
·   The Asia-Pacific region saw sports consumed most often on mobile devices (61%) but saw the highest completion rates on computers (61%).
·   In Europe, smartphones ruled, with 71% of sports video views starting there. Y/Y views increased 71% on smartphones and fell 43% on computers.
·   Japan/Korea, meanwhile, saw most sports views on smartphones (56%), with the highest growth in terms of views (+124%) also occurring on smartphones. Completion rates were highest on computers and tablets.
Mobile remains a ‘growth industry’
As 5G begins to deploy globally (Ericsson’s Mobility Report expects 2.6 billion 5G mobile connections by 2025) consumers will gradually see speed increases and use more data than ever before. Ericsson expects consumers to use 24 GB of data a month, compared to 7.2 GB today, with about half being video.
In Q3, we saw mobile’s share of video views increase to 62%, with computers trailing at 38%, a significant increase from a year ago, and even last quarter.
Smartphones saw more than half (52%) of all video views, up from 41% a year ago. It was the first time that video views on smartphones alone had the majority of share. The number of video views increased on every device but computers, showing that the migration of online streaming video from its original “home” was accelerating.
The number of views on smartphones increased in every region, with Y/Y gains from a low of 6% (North America) to a high of 33% (Middle East/Africa).
APAC (77%) and Middle East/Africa (60%) saw the highest percentage of video views on smartphones.
We expect the share of video views on smartphones to continue as consumers, in emerging markets especially, use smartphones as their primary screen.
Along the way…
The dominance of iOS continues to wane as more Android phones – especially more affordable models from China — continue to flood emerging markets.
Four markets remain solidly Android-based. Asia-Pacific is at an all-time high of 90% Android share, followed by Middle East/Africa (81%), Latin America (81%) and Europe (72%).
Continuing a trend, long-form video (21-40 mins.) and ultra-long-form video (41+ mins.) continued to see growth on all devices but computers, which slipped slightly.
Smartphones continue to see a large number of long-form (21-40 minutes) and ultra-long-form (41+ minutes) starts, 64% and 55% respectively. But, virtually every content length saw significant growth on all devices.
Interested in learning more about the latest video streaming trends? Download the full report.
The Brightcove Global Video Index reflects the anonymized, aggregated, online video metrics of Brightcove customers.

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COVID-19 has quickly swept through our socio-economic footprint and impacted individuals, families, communities, and businesses around the world. Our thoughts are with those who have been affected by the virus. Our team has spent a great deal of time preparing for the weeks and months ahead with a laser focus on our customers, partners, and employees.
We know the critical role that Brightcove video plays every day in organizations, from communication to employees, to the delivery of critical news to customers around the globe, and everything in between. We have taken several measures to ensure that the COVID-19 crisis does not impact the experience with Brightcove’s platform or services. Below are the ways in which we have taken action and these will continue to evolve as required.
Safety of Employees
Our number one priority is the health and safety of our employees around the globe. To that measure, we have:

Abided by guidelines/travel restrictions: All of our global offices are adhering to guidelines and best practices from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and other global health organizations.
Ability to work from remote locations: Many teams at Brightcove have worked remotely from all corners of the globe, for over a decade. This practice has enabled us to provide you with world-class service even in a time of social distancing.
Next Steps: A cross-functional team within Brightcove is closely monitoring all aspects of the pandemic and will take prudent, agile, and swift action necessary to ensure the safety of our employees and the continuity of service. We are committed to doing our part to minimize the spread of COVID-19 while ensuring service continuity for you.

Continuity of Service:
We are committed to ensuring that our technology continues to support the needs of your organization.  We will continue to focus on:

Infrastructure: All Brightcove products are built upon a highly reliable commercial cloud infrastructure and delivered through a variety of content delivery networks (CDNs).
Flexibility:  As with any best-in-class SaaS organization, we are able to perform all systems monitoring and product development remotely.
Global Presence: Our R&D and Support teams are globally dispersed and able to provide you with around the clock access. Though geographically dispersed, we are one global, highly coordinated team, dedicated to supporting your business needs.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to our global Technical Support team via our Support Portal: https://supportportal.brightcove.com

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Brightcove’s just-released Q4 2019 Global Video Index (download the complete report here) found a big increase in the time spent viewing streaming video on a pair of devices — smartphones and connected TVs.
The increase on screens at opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of size seems out of character with the streaming world, but it may simply be an example of evolution. Where we once talked about the democracy of screens, that whatever screen at hand was the one we were most likely to choose to watch, viewers have evolved and now use mobile devices to source content and connected TVs to consume it.
Tablets and desktop computers are losing ground, meanwhile, with computers taking the biggest hit, a decline in video views of more than 10%.
Online news becomes a staple; especially in crises
If there’s any doubt streaming video has become mainstream across the world, how consumers are getting news related to the coronavirus outbreak should put an end to it.
Data from Brightcove shows streaming media/entertainment and streaming news numbers are riding a surging wave of viewing, almost certainly driven by the coronavirus crisis.
Whether it’s social distancing prompting consumers to camp out in front of screens to watch streamed entertainment, or a need for the latest news that has viewers checking in on developing stories more often, Y/Y streaming numbers have seen big gains.
In the first two weeks of March, for example, the amount of time spent viewing news video increased 14% from the previous year, while the actual number of videos viewed jumped more than 31%.
On March 13 alone, when U.S. President Donald Trump declared a national emergency, time viewing news online increased 47% from a year ago and the number of news videos views jumped nearly 66% – the highest total for a single day in Q1 for the past two years.
Broadcasters used to be the go-to source for developing news stories, but the COVID-19 crisis has shown that consumers increasingly turn to streaming news sources for the latest updates – as well as in-depth coverage of news that’s important to them. With streaming, news providers can update news on the fly, provide broader, deeper coverage, and pull in points of view from around the globe. And, they don’t need to worry about fitting reports into arbitrary time slots. They have the flexibility to tell a better story.
Q4 2019 Global Video Index sees rise in time watched
Time watched overall during Q4 increased by nearly a quarter, up 23% Y/Y, according to the Q4 2019 Global Video Index. Connected TVs saw time watched more than double globally, up 114% from a year ago, with smartphones rising 30% and tablets up 6%. Only computers saw a decline in time watched, about 2%.
Australia/New Zealand saw time watched on connected TVs increase 173% with North America seeing a significant increase in time watched on smartphones, more than 53%.
Marketing & Sales see rise in mobile use
In Q4, smartphones were the name of the game for marketers trying to reach consumers online. More than 62% of all marketing video views were on mobile devices globally.
Asia-Pac saw an even higher percentage of marketing video on smartphones, 82%, up from 55% the previous year. ANZ increased to 55%, Europe was at 62%, Latin America 61% and North America 53%.
Computers saw the second largest share of retail and marketing video views in every region with tablets trailing and connected TVs even further back. While smartphones earned a bigger share of video views in every market, computers lost share. Asia-Pac saw computer’s share of video views drop by more than 50%, Japan/Korea saw computers fall behind smartphones for the first time, as did North America. MENA saw smartphone share grow to 49%, pulling even with computers during the quarter. In every other region smartphones surpassed computers.
Tablets slipped in every region and connected TVs saw limited growth. But connected TV share is likely to add pace over time as viewers continue to look to the big screen for content, more premium content makes its way onto CTVs and marketers follow.
Engagement (time spent), meanwhile, with retail and marketing video on smartphones is up in every market: Asia-Pac (+380%); ANZ (+41%); Europe (+78%); Japan/Korea (+12%); LatAm (+52%); MENA (+91%); and, North America (+71%).
The bottom line
As the Global Video Index showed, Q4 traditionally has been a quarter of growth for OTT with the holidays driving viewing time on new devices and company’s racing to get content and platforms into the public eye.
But Q1 this year could see significant change as the coronavirus begins to have an impact on how critical information and news is shared around the world.
The true measure of just how far streaming video has come will be even more apparent in Q2, as large portions of the world’s population begins to “shelter in place” to slow the spread of the virus. Will the amount of streaming video consumed increase? Of course it will.
Stay tuned… and stay well.

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In the last few weeks, we’ve seen an unprecedented amount of organizations forced to close their physical doors and set up operations, meetings, and events in the virtual world. No surprise, video has remained a core tool for enabling these organizations to stay connected with both employees and customers. Today, we are sharing a quick tip on how to scale your Zoom meeting to hundreds of thousands of attendees, leveraging Zoom and Brightcove Live.
With Zoom + Brightcove Video Cloud, remote and geographically dispersed speakers can join a Zoom meeting or webinar to create a multi-speaker experience, such as a company town hall or a live webinar panel discussion, that can cost-effectively scale to reach thousands or hundreds of thousands of attendees. By copying and pasting Zoom’s RTMP stream into the Brightcove Video Cloud Live module, you can securely stream the source video and capture detailed video analytics for large scale events within seconds.

Figure: Zoom meetings and webinars with Brightcove Video Cloud
**Brightcove Player and Brightcove Live **
The Brightcove Player and the Brightcove Live modules are industry-leading tools that enable you to stream your events to any device across any of your properties and simulcast them to YouTube and Facebook.
Once connected in Video Cloud, you can take advantage of features, including:

Player Customization enables you to style and customize the look and feel of the Brightcove Player leveraging Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and the Brightcove Player module.
Live Video Clipping allows you to create a short, teaser clip that can be posted to social media to drive views to live stream.
Live Event Portal offers pre-, during, and post-event states and supports page-level ads and calls to action.
Single-Sign-On (SSO) enables you to authenticate viewers and secure your video content.

Videos from Zoom that run through Brightcove Live are automatically added to your Video Cloud media library and are immediately available for your normal production workflow. For step by step instructions on how to connect Zoom and Brightcove Video Cloud read the Host Zoom Conferences with Brightcove support article.
Happy Meeting!

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Next-gen 5G wireless networks are just starting to light up around the globe, promising beefier video streaming capabilities like greater speed and more robust reliability. The deployments can’t come fast enough, as share and time spent with over-the-top content continues to grow, especially in emerging markets.
Events like Australia’s drought-driven fires, the coronavirus pandemic and other news events – like national elections – all are driving up time spent watching video on smartphones, as Brightcove’s Q4 2019 Global Video Index (download the complete report here) found.
The quarterly Video Index, which is based on more than 400 billion anonymized data points from Brightcove customers, found that time spent watching streaming video during Q4 increased 23% Y/Y globally, with spikes in news viewing in Australia Y/Y and Q/Q.
Smartphone get 55% of the world’s video views
Smartphone share of video views neared 55% in the quarter and time spent watching video increase substantially. Globally, consumers spent 30% more time watching streaming video on iPhones and Android-based smartphones than they did during the same period a year ago.
Even tablets, which have seen their share of video views stagnate in recent quarters, saw time spent watching increase 6% in Q4 2019, compared to a year earlier.
Computers, while still seeing strong usage in short-form video viewing (0-5 mins.), were the lone device where consumers spent less time watching videos in the quarter. Computers, overall, actually also saw a sharp decline in the number of videos viewed during the quarter; that number was down 10% from a year ago.
The biggest winner in terms of global growth were connected TVs, with time watched up 114% and video viewing share growing 25% in the quarter,
The 2% decline in time spent watching videos on computers and 10% drop in views are indicative of the evolution taking place in streaming video. Where we once talked about the democracy of screens, that whatever screen at hand was the one we were most likely to choose to watch, viewers have evolved and now use mobile devices to source content on the go, and to watch that content on connected TVs.
Smartphones rule in emerging markets
While connected TVs are seeing growing video consumption in most developed markets, there are several, most notably developing markets in Asia-Pacific, Latin America and MENA (Middle East/North Africa) where mobile screen rule.
For example, 81% of all video starts in Asia-Pac were on smartphones in Q4 2019, up from just 45% a year earlier. Time watched jumped 38% and completion rates were at 48%, similar to the rest of the world (ROW).
In Latin America, share of video starts on smartphones was 57%, up from 43% a year earlier. Time watched was up a modest 4%, but completion rates on smartphones topped 50% for all video lengths (from 0-5 mins. through 41+ mins.), one of the better completion rates in the world.
MENA saw video starts on smartphones grow 78% Y/Y to take a nearly two-thirds share of video starts on all devices (64%). Time watched on smartphones was up a strong 41% with completion rates at 47%.
But smartphones play a major role in mature markets, too, especially, as we’re already seeing in Q1 data, during times of crisis, like the coronavirus pandemic.
Smartphone share of video views during Q4 in Europe hit 58%, and 59% in Japan/Korea. Australia/New Zealand saw share at 38% and North America 40%. But in three of the four regions, the number of video views on smartphones was up significantly, more than 65% in ANZ, 81% in Europe, and more than 60% in North America. Japan/Korea saw just a modest 20% increase in views, but did have the highest share of video views on smartphones among the four markets at 59%.
During crisis, news is king on a smartphone
As noted earlier, smartphones were a go-to source for information during Australia’s devastating fires late last year. During Q4 2019, news views were up 22% Y/Y on all devices. The biggest gain was shown by mid-form video (6-20 mins., a typical half-hour show excluding commercials), up 97% Y/Y. Views of short-form video (0-5 mins.), meanwhile, increased 31% and long-form content views were up 6%.
But smartphones led the pack.
Global Video Index data showed the number of news video views of all lengths doubled between Q4 2018 and Q4 2019 on smartphones in Australia. Short-form video views (0-5 mins.) were up 159%, medium-form video views (6-20 mins.) increased 182%, with the number of views for news-related videos over 21 minutes in length rising about 18%.
Short-form video views also increased on tablets and connected TVs (18% and 123% respectively), with computer views declining 13%. While medium-form content views increased 182% on smartphones, views also were up on tablets (85%), computers (60%) and connected TVs (43%).
The bottom line
With 5G on the horizon, there’s little doubt mobile will play an increasing role in the distribution and consumption of streaming video, especially on smartphones, the screen most often at hand for a massive proportion of consumers globally when they need news, for example, on the go.
For content owners, especially those for whom news content is critical, smartphones must be a pillar of any distribution strategy… it certainly is for viewers.
Stay tuned… and stay well.

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Whether you permanently work from home or not,  being able to shoot a decent video has become a core skill set required for just about everyone wanting to communicate effectively. The fact is that as we become more global, we need to capture, show, demonstrate, and communicate, and video is a great way to do that.
The good news is that as gear gets cheaper and more affordable, it also gets better in quality and easier to use, making it more accessible to the rest of us. Today we will look at some gear and techniques that must meet three qualifications:

It has to improve something dramatically. It has to affect the quality of your end product directly, otherwise what’s the point?

It has to be relatively affordable. “I’ll give you a few options to choose from depending on your budget.”

It has to be easy to use. “I don’t have time to learn a complicated piece of tech.  I just need it to work” We’re talking more or less plug and play here.”

We’ve all been subjected to that video of a person shooting up their nose, with what looks to be Edison’s first light bulb illuminating them, talking to us from an echo chamber, or sitting in front of a window as if they were in the witness protection program.  The good news is that each of these problems is easy to fix.  All you need is a little bit of knowledge and, in some cases, an affordable piece of equipment.
Let’s start with audio.  Good audio is arguably more important than good video. The truth is people will tolerate a lower quality picture before they tolerate low-quality audio.

My recommendation is this $60 video mic by Rode. Simply plug it into your phone or camera, and presto you’ve dramatically improved your audio. It’s affordable, makes a massive improvement, and couldn’t be easier to use.

If you want to take it to the next level, we need to get into a lavalier mic set up. Typically a decent one of these with a mic starts at $700-$1000. I present to you the Rode Wireless Go for $200. One end plugs directly into your phone or camera while the other clips onto you. The cool part is that the transmitter has a mic already built-in. With this setup, you can be as far away from the camera as you want, and the audio is still crystal clear. Once again, affordable and sounds excellent, and is plug and play.

If you do nothing else after reading this, get a good mic. It will immediately set you apart from the others.
Next, let’s talk about lighting. No matter what camera you are shooting with, if you have bad lighting, it will look bad. The opposite is also true. No matter what camera you are shooting with, if you have good light, you can get some fantastic results.

My recommendation is the $45 Aputure AL-M9. Aputure is known for its high-end lights, but this tiny light packs a punch with very complimentary soft light. It can easily be attached directly to your camera or any 1/4 inch screw compatible stand. I’ve even taped it to the wall. Additionally, you can easily adjust its brightness to suit your shooting needs. For this price, it’s a no-brainer.

If you want a lot more light, with more control and convenience, the $169 Core SWX TorchLED Bolt 250W is a fantastic option.  This light is very bright, and you can adjust the color and brightness with a convenient remote. I like it because not only does it look beautiful, it’s also compact and easy to store and still affordable.

Next, let’s talk about the camera. I’ve been hinting at this, and it’s true you CAN get started with your phone. So long as you know your phone’s strengths and weaknesses.

Its Achilles’ heel is light, or the lack thereof. Phone cameras do not do particularly well in low-lit rooms, including most offices, whether home or in an office building. Hence the importance of having an extra light in your kit.  Having said that, don’t wait to start shooting because you don’t have a fancy camera.  Start with your phone, add in a good mic, and a light, and you’re ahead of the curve.

If you want to upgrade your image quality substantially, I recommend one of the entry-level mirrorless cameras on the market.

They are relatively inexpensive.
You graduate to a camera with upgradable lenses, so it’ll last you longer.
They perform better in low light.
You get that beautiful shallow depth of field, which we all think looks so cinematic. (ooo ahhh)
Examples of a camera like this would be a Canon EOS M50 or a Sony a6000, both of which you should be able to pick up for approx $500 with a kit lens included.

Finally, let’s talk about stabilizing your shot.

You’re going to need something to put your camera on while you film yourself.  For beginners, a simple tripod will do the trick. I’m a big fan of the $39.99 Neewer tripod. It’s small, lightweight, and does the trick.  There are many more expensive options out there, but for starters, this is all you need.

If you want a smaller tabletop solution, you can look at something like the Manfrotto Pixi for around $50.

Let’s take a moment to talk about composition (or pointing your camera). When you talk about a tripod, you automatically imply that you’re going to set your camera on it and point it somewhere. How you point it and how you frame your shot can make a huge difference in how professional your video looks. Best of all, this part is free.  So here are your completely free composition 101 tips.

Clean up. The less you have in your shot, the better. Get rid of anything and everything you can. Take a moment to look at what is behind and around you. Is your kid’s toy in the shot on the floor? Dirty laundry in the room down the hall? Is an unsightly extension cord hanging out of the wall?  Little things like this go a long way.

Rule of thirds. This is the easiest way to make sure your shot looks a bit more interesting. Simply draw two vertical lines and two horizontal lines across your screen.  Now place your subject on any of the intersections.

Take advantage of any pre-existing lines.  A simple rule is to try to have any existing lines point toward your subject. This will naturally draw the viewer’s eyes to the subject.

Remember that these composition techniques apply whether you’re shooting a blockbuster movie or a webinar with your webcam.
Bonus Tip – B-roll & Gimbals

If you’re already using a lot of the gear and techniques discussed above and want to take your video to the next level, add some B-roll.  B-roll is footage that demonstrates what you are talking about in your main video (unofficially called A-roll). You can use this footage to add interest and help explain or show what you are talking about.

One of the coolest and now most affordable tools to help you capture cinematic B-roll is a gimbal. In a nutshell, it stabilizes your footage while you move your camera around, allowing you to get some beautiful moving shots without all the shakiness. While there is some technique to be learned to master your gimbal, straight out to the box, it will already improve your footage immensely. For your phone, I suggest looking at the $139 DJI Osmo Mobile 3.  If you’re using one of the mirrorless cameras mentioned above, take a look at it’s $439 older brother the DJI Ronin-SC.

And that’s it. I hope you’ve found these tips helpful. As you can see, it doesn’t have to be expensive or complicated to dramatically improve your self-shot videos, no matter where you are shooting.

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