Episode 120: Creating the Best Video Experience With Data with Keith Zubchevich at Conviva

Jun 12

Keith Zubchevich, President & CEO at Conviva, started his career in technology more than 30 years ago, and he fell in love with the industry. He spent time at five different innovative technology companies, with most of his focus being on new market introductions. Around 2008, he became part of the early founding team at Conviva, a company that was formed to measure video performance before video was widely accepted on the internet.

Measuring video quality

Keith and his team were confident that video was coming to the internet back then despite the fact that there was no streaming, there was no YouTube, the iPhone had yet to be released, and the only way to watch video online was through a Flash Player on a Windows PC.

They knew that measuring the performance of videos online, when they got there, was going to be an in-demand service. Unlike broadcast and cable, where the quality of delivery of the video had been established for decades, video quality on the internet was a big unknown.

They started by measuring the quality of service for users consuming videos. That was a matter of measuring when the video was playing and when it was stopped. Over time they added more metrics, and their offering evolved into measuring quality of experience.

Content is king, but experience is queen

There was an old saying in the early days of marketing online businesses that content is king. Keith jokes that content is king, but quality is queen and the queen runs my house. Quality of experience gave publishers a window into the engagement and viewer experience they were getting on the videos they published.

The big publishers at the time were by and large coming from a background in television. They had a brand to protect, and they were able to use the metrics that Conviva provided to constantly improve their delivery methods, which drove higher viewer engagement.

Keith and his team would run into many clients and potential customers who didn’t really understand the complexity of delivering video content at the time. The internet was not built to stream video, and people didn’t understand that. They sent emails and everything was fine, so why couldn’t they have the same experience with video?

They had to teach people about buffering and bitrates and packets, all factors that could affect video-delivery quality. The big publishers and broadcasters who had eyes on being able to charge for online video content quickly realized that these factors were important to consider because nobody was going to pay for a low-quality video experience when they could just turn on their TV.

Digging into data points

Conviva tracks a wide variety of data points that inform their clients of the quality of their video experience. Keith has seen examples where a broadcast company executive will see engagement in a show drop dramatically, and that executive will make the decision to increase the marketing spend on that show to attract new viewers. But sometimes there is a technical problem with the delivery of the video, which is causing viewers to abandon the video. In a case like that, the executive is throwing money at the wrong problem.

Conviva measures data points that include resolution, or how human eyes detect the quality of the video they are watching. If there are fluctuations in the bit rate, people might see a blurry picture that clears up and then becomes blurry again, which can lead quickly to abandonment. Ensuring that the video is delivered at the highest possible bitrate can solve that problem and increase the number of views.

Another measurable is join time. That is the time it takes for the video to start. People expect to click play and for the video to start immediately. If there is a one-second delay, viewers may stick around, but if the delay gets to two or three seconds, the loss of viewership could be significant.

Video today and into the future

High-quality streaming services came along at a time when people were tired of high cable bills based on rigid bundles that made consumers feel like they were paying for channels they had no intention of watching. The godfather of streaming was, and still is, Netflix. They made the transition from being a DVD delivery subscription service to streaming in a way that changed the industry.

Their streaming video on demand set the standard for subscription streaming, and their use of data was key to their success. They weren’t just a streaming service, they became a data-driven digital content business. They figured out a way to successfully determine what individual viewers wanted to watch, based on their viewing history, and became wildly successful because of their recommendation engine.

When they started creating their own shows, they used their data to determine what kinds of shows to produce. They might combine the most popular genre with the most popular actor and the most popular director, then use that combination as the basis for a new show. By using that formula, they created a lot of great content and won a lot of awards.

But the competition is strong these days with companies like Disney going all-in on streaming. An advantage that Disney has is that they have captured viewers' attention since they were babies. They have automatic credibility in the industry.

With consumers going from having just a handful of choices between cable and satellite providers, to now having a seemingly endless supply of streaming service choices, there has been a bit of an overcorrection and saturation. Consumers with multiple streaming platforms to choose from can get confused as to what show is on what service. Keith sees some kind of consolidation coming in the future.

He is very excited about the future of video. The way video can be delivered with the advent of high-speed WiFi, 4G and 5G. It’s also opening up new places for videos to be delivered, like in cars or to remote areas. But however and wherever video is delivered, publishers are going to want to be able to measure the quality of the viewer experience and how their videos are performing.

That’s what Conviva does. And Keith has been there for the whole ride, from Flash Players on a PC to real-time streaming on a phone you carry around in your pocket.

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