OTT is ahead of traditional broadcasting in 4K, finds Qarva

Live 4K TV delivery by OTT video services is still challenging. There are neither 4K live channels, not broadcast, nor OTT yet. We will see some broadcast 4K channels later this year. The matter is that open Internet connection bitrate goes down as distance increases from Video streaming server to client – this is natural limitation, but causes plenty of instability.

On the other hand, High Quality of User Experience is crucial factor in adopting 4K. QoE is as important as content itself. QoE is not only pixel number or color number, but also experience of the whole process of user interaction with TV or Video streaming service: how fast video will start, or the TV channel will change, how stable it will go without buffering and quality dropdown, accuracy of Pause/Play, if there is Rewind from Live TV function and how fast and precise it is.

We will see satellite 4K channels as well as OTT-delivered live 4K channels. We see that now OTT is ahead of traditional broadcasting in 4K delivery. And of course there will be extensive use of UltraHD 4K for VOD. There is increasing number of UltraHD TV sets at homes so this 4K transition is inevitable.

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