Originally Published in September and updated in December, 2025 with video from the Devoncroft IBC industry event.
Stefan Lederer, CEO of Bitmovin @ Devoncroft in IBC
TL;DR
This blog brings together product highlights and leadership insights from IBC 2025, capturing how Bitmovin is advancing streaming monetization, playback quality, and AI-powered workflows. It includes four product highlights demonstrated at our booth, plus three video insights from Bitmovin leaders on broader industry trends.
Product highlights
- Server-Guided Ad Insertion (SGAI) with Bitmovin’s Player: Monetization with new ad formats (picture-in-picture, L-bar) and cost-efficient personalizatio
- Playback Score in Bitmovin’s Observability Analytics: Quality of experience (QoE) tracked in one simple metric combining startup time, smoothness, and resolution
- AI Scene Analysis with Bitmovin’s VOD Encoder: AI-powered scene-level metadata for contextual advertising, smarter recommendations, and discovery
- AI Anomaly Detection in Bitmovin’s Observability Analytics: AI-based proactive alerts to detect and resolve streaming quality issues before they impact viewers
IBC conversations
- AVOD and live monetization (Igor Oreper): Scaling ad-supported live events and VOD with resilient workflows
- Bitmovin at IBC + Akamai AMP 2 (David Godfrey): Device coverage, QoE insights, and AI-powered ad features
- 9th Video Developer Report (Reinhard Grandl): Industry research on cost control, monetization, and AI adoption
Intro
At this year’s IBC, we recorded a selection of product highlights (Check out all demos here) and conversations that reflect some of the most important topics in streaming today. Across the discussions, themes such as monetization, playback quality, and the practical application of AI emerged repeatedly, as platforms strive to balance growth with cost efficiency. Viewers expect seamless experiences across devices and content that feels relevant to their interests, while providers face the challenge of delivering all of this reliably at scale. That’s why we focused on showing how Bitmovin’s products are helping to unlock new ad formats, simplify how quality is measured, and apply AI in ways that deliver measurable value. Some recordings focus on specific product innovations, while others step back to address broader industry trends and customer priorities. Together, they offer a window into how Bitmovin collaborates with streaming platforms to address today’s challenges and prepare for tomorrow.
In this blog, you’ll find four product highlights that demonstrate new capabilities in Bitmovin’s Player, Analytics, and VOD Encoder, as well as three leadership insights that cover broader industry trends.
Product Highlights from IBC
Unlocking and Enabling Server-Guided Ad Insertion (SGAI) with Bitmovin’s Player
Server-Guided Ad Insertion (SGAI) is a hybrid workflow that combines the advantages of client-side and server-side ad insertion. It allows the video player to receive guidance from the server on how and when to place ads, which makes it possible to deliver both seamless playback and personalized ad experiences.
Bitmovin’s Player integrates with leading ad technology providers such as YoSpace, AD Insertion Platform, Google Ad Manager, and AWS MediaTailor to enable SGAI workflows (see our demo). While others in the industry may claim support, Bitmovin is one of the only providers with a thoroughly tested and deployable SGAI workflow available on the market today. This gives platforms the confidence to implement SGAI in production environments without heavy custom development. With Bitmovin, providers can introduce innovative ad formats like picture-in-picture, double-box, and L-shaped ads that generate new revenue opportunities while keeping the viewing experience uninterrupted.
Benefits of using Bitmovin’s Player for SGAI include:
- Flexible ad formats that increase monetization opportunities without disrupting playback
- Seamless integration with major ad technology providers for faster deployment
- Proven and deployable workflows that reduce implementation risk
- Lower infrastructure strain while maintaining personalized ad delivery at scale
In the video, James Varndell is presenting our SGAI demo
Playback Score with Bitmovin’s Observability Analytics
Playback Score is designed to give streaming providers a clear view of the quality of experience in a single number. It brings together the most important playback factors consolidated into one score. With this, teams can understand performance at a glance without having to dig through multiple dashboards or raw data.
Within Bitmovin’s Observability Analytics, the Playback Score can be tracked over time to show whether performance is improving, remaining stable, or trending downward. The score creates a shared reference point for the entire organization. Executives can monitor a simple performance metric, while technical staff can drill into the underlying analytics when action is needed. This balance of simplicity and depth ensures streaming providers can monitor service health effectively and respond quickly to changes in viewer experience.
Benefits of using Bitmovin’s Observability Analytics for Playback Score include:
- One score that combines the most important metrics to measure the quality of experience
- Clear trend tracking to identify improvements or declines in performance
- Simple reporting for business teams with deep analytics for engineers
- Faster identification and resolution of issues affecting viewer experience
In the video, Peter Kanzow is presenting our Playback Score demo
AI Scene Analysis with Bitmovin’s VOD Encoder
AI Scene Analysis gives streaming providers a deeper understanding of their content by automatically detecting scene boundaries and identifying objects, moods, and audio cues. It generates natural language scene descriptions, which can enrich metadata for discovery and improve searchability. Integrated into the Bitmovin VOD Encoder, automated ad marker insertion and IAB taxonomy outputs can be passed directly to ad providers, such as AWS MediaTailor or Broadpeak, to enable contextual ad targeting. Beyond advertising, it supports use cases for content reuse, including automated highlight generation, improved recommendations, and more interactive playback experiences, while laying the groundwork for upcoming workflows such as vertical clipping and other agentic tools (Read more in our blog).
Benefits of using AI Scene Analysis with Bitmovin’s VOD Encoder include:
- Contextual ad targeting that increases relevance and CPMs
- Natural language descriptions that enhance discovery and search
- Automates metadata creation, reducing the need for manual review and tagging
- A flexible foundation for highlights, clipping, and future AI-driven use cases
In the video, Callum Amor is presenting our AI Scene Analysis demo
AI Anomaly Detection with Bitmovin’s Observability Analytics
AI Anomaly Detection uses machine learning to continuously monitor playback performance and flag unusual patterns, such as sudden spikes in startup time or increases in buffering on specific devices. Integrated into Bitmovin’s Observability Analytics, it gives teams real-time alerts so they can act before viewers are affected. This proactive approach helps protect the quality of experience, reduces reliance on customer complaints, and lowers the risk of churn caused by hidden issues.
Benefits of using AI Anomaly Detection with Bitmovin’s Observability Analytics include:
- Proactively identifies issues before they disrupt the viewer experience
- Provides real-time alerts across devices, platforms, and regions
- Reduces reliance on customer complaints to uncover hidden problems
- Helps protect retention and reduce churn by maintaining consistent quality
In the video, James Varndell is presenting our AI Anomaly Detection demo
Industry insights from Bitmovin leadership
AVOD and Live Monetization with Igor Oreper
Ad-supported video on demand (AVOD) and live streaming continue to grow, but providers face a difficult balancing act between delivering at scale and maximizing ad revenue. In this insight, Igor Oreper, Bitmovin’s Chief Architect, explained how Bitmovin is addressing this challenge by strengthening both monetization (check our whitepaper) and resiliency. Server-Guided Ad Insertion combined with AI Scene Analysis creates new ways to personalize ads and increase CPMs, while Bitmovin’s Live Encoder provides the robustness needed to handle everything from global sports events to thousands of smaller live streams each day. The key message is that scaling ad-supported content is not just about delivering ads. It also depends on resilient workflows that ensure quality and reliability even under the highest demand.
Benefits of Bitmovin’s approach to AVOD and live monetization include:
- Hybrid ad insertion workflows that combine personalization with ad-blocking resilience
- AI-driven insights that improve contextual targeting and increase ad value
- Resilient live encoding designed for both small-scale and marquee live events
- A scalable approach that supports higher engagement and long-term revenue growth
In the video, Igor Oreper is talking about AVOD and Live Streaming workflows
Bitmovin at IBC + Akamai AMP 2 with David Godfrey
In this insight, David Godfrey, Senior Vice President & GM Asia Pacific at Bitmovin, highlighted two key themes from IBC: the launch of Akamai’s AMP 2 powered by Bitmovin, and the latest industry research from Bitmovin’s Video Developer Report. He explained how Bitmovin’s Player extends device coverage within AMP 2, while integrated Observability Analytics provides richer QoE insights and AI-driven features like Server-Guided Ad Insertion. David also pointed to broader market trends such as the growing focus on cost control, AI moving into production workflows, and persistent challenges with playback quality, emphasizing that Bitmovin’s technology is being applied to address these needs today.
Benefits of Bitmovin’s role in AMP 2 and industry insights include:
- Expanded device coverage through Bitmovin’s Player inside Akamai AMP 2
- Deeper QoE insights and observability for better operational visibility
- AI-powered features like SGAI to improve monetization opportunities
- Industry research that highlights cost control, AI adoption, and playback challenges
In the video, David Godfrey is presenting our integration with Akamai, the features we’ve deployed, and the Video Developer Report.
The 9th Video Developer Report with Reinhard Grandl
In this insight, Reinhard Grandl, Bitmovin’s Chief Product Officer, shared findings from the 9th edition of the Video Developer Report, one of the most comprehensive surveys in the video streaming industry. He noted that cost control has overtaken monetization as the top priority for many respondents, with 38% citing it as their biggest challenge. Monetization remains a close second, creating pressure to innovate in ad workflows while keeping infrastructure spend under control. Reinhard also emphasized that AI is no longer experimental, as nearly every respondent indicated plans to integrate it into their core stack. These results underline the dual challenge platforms face: managing costs while investing in new technologies to remain competitive.
Key insights from the 9th Video Developer Report include:
- Cost control has become the top challenge for streaming providers
- Monetization remains critical, requiring smarter ad and workflow strategies
- AI adoption is now mainstream across the streaming industry
- Platforms must balance efficiency with innovation to stay competitive
In the video, Reinhard Grandl is presenting the 9th edition of the Video Developer Report.
The Wrap Up
The recordings from IBC capture a selection of highlights that reflect how Bitmovin is helping streaming providers tackle today’s most pressing challenges: improving monetization, safeguarding quality of experience, and applying AI in ways that deliver real value. While these videos represent only a small part of what was showcased at the event, they illustrate both the depth of our product innovations and the broader industry insights shared by our leadership team. Together, they show how Bitmovin’s Player, Analytics, and VOD Encoder are supporting new monetization models, enabling sharper observability, and paving the way for AI-driven workflows that benefit both providers and viewers.
