It’s “Game On” With NETSCOUT Live Streaming Video Assurance

The global pandemic had a commercially disastrous effect on the entertainment industry, with media coverage chronicling declines in cinema, theater, concert, and other live-event businesses worldwide. In several of these sectors, government assistance was the only lifeline keeping some businesses on autopilot until the social distancing effects associated with COVID-19 began to diminish and in-person attendance resumed.

In that the same 18-month timeframe, however, there was explosive growth in the global live video streaming business. Looking at recent trend analysis, some reports estimate this market will grow to more than $800 billion by 2027. In sports entertainment, for example, the restrictions on live-event presentation are driving many leagues and organizations to advance a digital-first, direct-to-fan event model, with the end goal of bringing subscribers “closer to the action” without the necessity of in-person attendance. This model envisions customer experience enhancements that include advanced replay options, real-time statistics, and live chat.

With live attendance at stadiums or arenas still not in play for many teams’ devoted followers, perhaps an increasingly personalized, high-quality, real-time game presentation is a next-best option, all without leaving the comforts of home.

This expanding market is offering opportunities to long-established broadcast platforms as well as to new video streaming industry players. Regardless of the event type or platform, however, the ability to consistently deliver on the promise of high-quality live streaming video is what will differentiate providers and their abilities to retain subscribers in this market, and that translates to presentations free from unified communications (UC) impairments such as jitter, latency, or packet loss.

For one internationally recognized media company, NETSCOUT offered an unmatched, integrated approach for live streaming video assurance and network traffic packet capture that leveraged our “event site to co-located” visibility, 100GB network speed support, and UC analytics for MPEG transport stream (MPEG-TS) formats.

Read how NETSCOUT provided the solution this media company uses for assuring real-time event broadcast and streaming quality for its subscribers and partners.