The State of MPEG-DASH 2017

February 22, 2017

In 2016, the video industry saw the influence of MPEG-DASH (Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP) growing for many converging reasons. With the accelerated demotion of Silverlight and Flash plug-ins in browsers, only HLS (HTTP Live Streaming) and DASH are surviving in the adaptive bitrate (ABR) format landscape where Media Source Extensions (MSEs) increase their dominance. In the U.S., HLS is clearly taking the lead, at least until the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) version of DASH gets in the game as a rationalization factor between broadcast and over-the-top (OTT). In Europe, however, DASH is already strong. It has grabbed the attention of most broadcasters, pure OTT players, and streaming service providers looking at future-proofing their ABR format strategy, supporting 4K/Ultra HD (UHD) delivery scenarios and premium services.