2021 Video Streaming Latency Report

The need to replicate real-life exchanges with live streaming technology has never been so crucial. Over the past two years, businesses in every industry have leaned on video streaming to better engage their audiences and invent new opportunities. For many, ensuring low-latency video delivery has been a key requirement for successful adoption.

Our 2021 Video Streaming Latency Report gathers data from more than 200 broadcasters across the globe, in industries ranging from media and entertainment to fitness, surveillance, and everything in between. We examine the impact global trends have had on the industry and the state of video streaming latency in 2021.

 Report Highlights

• Streaming use cases keep growing. While live sports broadcasts still make up the majority of live streaming content, 16% of those surveyed belonged to niche categories ranging from underwater exploration to construction safety.
• Most live streams aren’t live. Or, to put it another way, more than 52% of survey participants experience more than a three-second lag in their live broadcasts.
• Interactivity is the name of the game. Popular motivators for decreasing latency include audience polling, Q&A, bidding, and the like.
• RTMP and HLS maintain their stronghold, but next-generation formats are on the rise. These include WebRTC, SRT, Low-Latency HLS, and low-latency CMAF for DASH.
• The industry needs real-time streaming at scale. The majority of broadcasters surveyed are aiming to achieve real-time delivery to audiences of 300+ viewers (and luckily, Wowza has a solution)

From the top streaming protocols in use today to the average delays that broadcasters are experiencing, this report has it all. Don’t wait to take a peek at the data — download the PDF today.