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Podcast Episode 9 is live! This week we breakdown the confusing Super Bowl streaming numbers, earnings recap from Roku, Paramount, Fastly, Akamai and Brightcove – www.danrayburnpodcast.com

We also call out Phenix for their bogus ultra-low latency claims around the Super Bowl and the narrative they are pushing with the media claiming “sports streaming is broken”, when it isn’t. Finally, we cover the latest impact to streaming media related stocks which had another bad week, with some seeing big declines in their stock price.

Companies, services and people mentioned: NBC Sports, Peacock TV, Paramount+, AMC Networks, Roku Inc., Akamai Technologies, Fastly, Brightcove, Phenix Real Time Solutions, Chas Mastin, Alex Zambelli, Will Law, Catie Keck.

There’s been a lot of Q4 2021 and full-year 2021 earnings released by vendors over the past two weeks. If you’re in the industry, here’s the key numbers and takeaways you should be aware of. People have lots of “opinions” on companies, but everyone should know the numbers (facts).

• Brightcove
  – Q4 2021 revenue of $52.6 million, down 2% year-over-year
  – Total 2021 revenue of $211.1 million, up 7% year-over-year
  – GAPP net income for 2021 was $5.4 million, (net loss of $5.8 million in 2020)
  – Revenue guidance for 2022 of $207-$215 million, (at midpoint, 0% growth)
  – Ended Q4 2021 with 3,135 customers, (2,227 premium/total declined from Q3)
  – ARPU of premium customers was $95,360 in Q4 2021
  – ARPU of starter customers was $4,100
  – Has new incoming CEO in March
  – Market cap of $306.95 million
  – Stock: 52-week high $25.26, closed at $7.47 (more details here)

• Akamai
  – Q4 2021 revenue of $905 million, up 7% year-over-year
  – Total 2021 revenue of $3.461 billion, up 8% year-over-year
  – GAAP net income for 2021 was $652 million, up 17% year-over-year
  – No 2022 revenue estimates given
  – Security Technology Group revenue for 2021 was up 26% year-over-year
  – Edge Technology Group revenue for was flat year-over-year
  – Will acquire IaaS platform provider Linode for $900 million
  – Linode is anticipated to add $100 million in revenue in fiscal 2022
  – Had $2.2 billion in cash and cash equivalents at end of 2021
  – Market cap of $16.3 billion
  – Stock: 52-week high $120.68, closed at $100.33 (more details here)

• Fastly
  – Q4 2021 revenue of $97.7 million, up 18% year-over-year
  – Total 2021 revenue of $354.3 million, up 22% year-over-year
  – GAAP net loss for 2021 was $222.7 million
  – Revenue guidance for 2022 of $400-$410 million
  – Total customer count of 2,804 in Q4, (445 were enterprise)
  – Hired new CPO and CMO
  – Market cap of $2.2 billion
  – Stock: 52-week high $97.98, closed at $18.70 (more details here)

• Cloudflare
  – Q4 2021 revenue of $196.3 million, up 54% year-over-year
  – Total 2021 revenue totaled $656.4 million, up 52% year-over-year
  – GAAP net loss for 2021 was $260.3 million
  – Revenue guidance for 2022 of $927-$931 million
  – Had $1.8 billion in cash and cash equivalents at end of 2021
  – Market cap of $31.02 billion
  – Stock: 52-week high $221.64, closed at $95.87 (more details here)

• Vimeo
  – Q4 2021 revenue of $106 million, up 27% year-over-year
  – Total 2021 revenue of $392M, up 38% year-over-year
  – GAAP operating loss for 2021 was $61 million
  – Revenue guidance for 2022 of 15%-18% year-over-year growth
  – Changes definition of “enterprise” customers
  – CFO departing, CEO going on maternity leave
  – Had $321.9 million in cash and cash equivalents at end of 2021
  – Market cap of $2.09 billion
  – Stock: 52-week high $58, closed at $12.63 (more details here)

The live stream of the Super Bowl didn’t utilize ultra-low latency streaming because there was no business value in offering it. From what I observed, the live stream of the Super Bowl was 10-35 seconds behind the TV feed, depending on the streaming platform and the device used for viewing. After every Super Bowl, many vendors like to highlight how the stream of the Super Bowl lags the TV feed and that the broadcast network should have implemented ultra-low latency. Why? There has to be a business value in doing it and in the case of the Super Bowl, there isn’t one. This is why the 2022 Super Bowl stream by NBC and previous ones by CBS and FOX didn’t deploy an ultra-low latency streaming workflow.

From a pure ROI standpoint, reducing the latency of the Super Bowl stream would not have allow NBC to deliver more ads or increase the amount of time viewers watched. There is ALWAYS a cost vs. quality tradeoff that takes place with any streaming media service or event. A few years ago, I worked on the Super Bowl as a consultant to one of the broadcasters and the additional cost across their workflow to implement ultra-low latency streaming for the game would have been well over $1 million for the day.

For some applications around betting, real-time interactivity, auctions etc. offering an ultra-low latency stream makes sense. But for the Super Bowl, there isn’t a business reason for doing it. Also, many vendors are quick to say that NBC or whomever should have just “dropped in” their ultra-low latency solution, but we all know it doesn’t work that way. It has to be implemented into the entire workflow from ingestion to delivery, across many different vendors and platforms. It is not as easy to implement, at scale, as some make it out to be. Ultra-low latency serves it’s purpose for certain video applications but the Super Bowl isn’t one of them.

Podcast Episode 8 is live! This week we breakdown Disney’s earnings, the problems at Vimeo, Brightcove’s appointment of a new CEO and how the media struggles to separate facts from opinions – https://www.danrayburnpodcast.com

This week we breakdown earnings from Disney including the new subscriber numbers and ARPU they announced, while also losing $593 million in their D2C business in Q4 2021.

We also detail earnings at Vimeo along with some major problems in their business and multiple changes they announced regarding their go-to-market strategy. Other news highlighted includes revenue numbers from FOX Corporation, new bundling pricing from fuboTV, Brightcove’s appointment of Marc DeBevoise as their new CEO and the problem many in the media have separating facts versus opinions.

Companies and services mentioned: Disney+, ESPN+, Hulu, Disney Streaming Services, FOX Corporation, Tubi, Vimeo, Brightcove, fuboTV, Needham & Co., Netflix, Allure Security, Discovery, WarnerMedia, Innovid, TVSquared, Roku Inc., Peloton.

I’ve kicked off my testing of the Super Bowl stream across a combination of 30+ devices and platforms. Follow this post for the latest updates below during the game. All streaming boxes and TVs are connected via ethernet with all MacBook’s, iPads and iPhones on Wifi. I’m utilizing a 100Mbps connection up/down from Verizon FiOS and at the bottom of the post is a list of all the devices and streaming platforms being tested. If you experience any Super Bowl streaming issues, you can send them to me via email (dan@danrayburn.com) or on Twitter /danrayburn.

February 15: NBC Sports says the “Average Minute Audience” for the Super Bowl live stream was 6 million across Peacock, NBC Sports Digital platforms, NFL Digital platforms, Rams and Bengals mobile properties, and Yahoo Sports mobile properties. NBC Sports says the 6 million number is “according to the traditional counting of streaming, which is the comparable metric to last year’s 5.7 million”. The delivery rises to 11.2 million AMA viewers, which takes into account “co-viewing from connected devices”.

10:01am – And that’s a wrap. I’ll post streaming numbers from NBC Sports as soon as they put them out.

8:01pm – Not seeing any issues across any platforms or devices right now. Twitter pages/support pages for YouTubeTV, Peacock TV and Sling TV are all quiet.

7:20pm – All streaming apps working well across my iPad and iPhone models, so issues seen on my end, other than the NFL app issue below, which is now working.

7:02pm – Mobile streams are looking good with the Yahoo Sports App but the NFL Mobile App isn’t loading any video for me.

6:46pm – The 4K stream on YouTube TV is looking good across Apple TV, Roku and Amazon Fire TV devices.

6:38pm – Hulu is having issues with WWE right now, don’t know if any impact due to the Super Bowl. Hulu says on Twitter, “Sorry for the continued trouble! Our team is aware of and is investigating this behavior. Although we don’t have an ETA to share at this time, we assure you we’re hard at work to get to the bottom of this. Thanks for your patience in the meantime!”

6:35pm – Kickoff is underway with the stream looking good for me using Peacock TV, Sling TV, YouTube TV and NBC Sports apps along with websites from NFL.com, NBCSports.com. Startup times vary, but most are under 2 seconds.

6:28pm – Some users on Hulu are reporting issues with audio on their local NBC channel. Hulu says they have “received similar reports regarding KSHB and our team is currently investigating this issue.”

Hardware Tested:
– Apple TV (Gen 4/5)
– Fire TV Stick (4K/4k Max/Lite/Cube 1st Gen)
– Xbox One
– Samsung (Q60A/QN90)
– LG (OLED C1/NanoCell 90)
– Vizio (M6)
– Roku (Ultra 4670/Express 4k 3940/Stick+ 3821/Streambar Pro 9101)
– MacBook (Pro 2021/2019, Air 2013)
– Apple iPad/Air/Mini (2020/2018/2015)
– Apple iPhone (various models via 4G/Wifi)

Streaming Platforms Tested:
– Peacock TV
– Hulu + Live TV
– YouTube TV
– Sling TV
– fuboTV
– NBC Sports website
– NBC Sports App
– NFL website
– NFL Mobile App
– Yahoo! Sports App

Podcast Episode 7 is live! This week we cover earnings recaps from Meta, Google, Amazon, Starz; Latest Ad Revenue from YouTube and Amazon; Brightcove and Dolby Make Acquisitions – https://www.danrayburnpodcast.com

This week we breakdown all the numbers you NEED to know from Amazon, Meta and Alphabet’s earnings including Amazon’s disclosure of revenue ($9.7 billion) from its fast-growing advertising business, AWS revenue growth of 40% and Amazon raising their Prime membership fee. ($119 to $139 annual)

We also cover Apple’s negative impact on Meta’s business, estimated to be in the order of $10 billion in 2022, and YouTube’s ad revenue of $8.6 billion, up 25%. We also cover Brightcove’s acquisition of audience insight platform Wicket Labs and Dolby’s acquisition of ultra-low-latency video platform Millicast.

Companies and services mentioned: Netflix, Comcast, Peacock TV, Apple TV+, Verizon, Charter, HBO Max, Discovery, Disney+, Spotify, AT&T, Hulu.

The call for speakers and sponsorship details for the NAB Show Streaming Summit, taking place IN-PERSON in Las Vegas, April 25/26, are now open and online at www.nabstreamingsummit.com. Please contact me at with any questions (917-523-4562).

I’m placing speakers now for round-table panels, new 30-minute case study presentations and fireside chats. Thanks to current sponsors Oracle, Edgecast, Qwilt, Agora, Dolby Laboratories, Streaming Global, FPT Software, KOCOWA, PDG and more on the way!