Each year, Haivision conducts a state-of-the-industry survey in an effort to capture trends in the broadcast industry and the challenges that broadcast professionals face. This year, we received the most responses to our survey to date, gathering insights from more than 700 broadcast professionals globally. These respondents shared their diverse perspectives as engineers, live content producers, operations managers, and many other influential roles. From this, we learned about the finer details – like which codecs are most popular in today’s live broadcast workflows – as well as grander predictions like the potential benefits of 5G-based broadcasting.  

Today we’re thrilled to share the results of our fourth annual survey, which covers a range of topics, from IP and cloud adoption to 5G and transport protocols. You can download the entire report here before diving into the top five broadcast industry trends we share below.  

Live Video Contribution

One of the most notable broadcast industry trends from this year’s survey is our respondents’ use of internet to transport live video for contribution. In fact, 86% use internet, with 3G/4G/LTE taking second place. As the internet becomes more popular in its use for video contribution, other elements of the broadcast workflow must follow suit. As a result, 68% of respondents use SRT for live video transport, overtaking RTMP.  

5G Adoption

The potential for 5G to amplify live broadcast capabilities has been a key driver in organizations’ adopting the next generation technology – at least to some degree. This year’s survey indicates that 73% of broadcasters already use or plan to use 5G for broadcast contribution in the next two years.

survey 1

Cloud-based Workflows

Cloud has become an integral element to broadcast workflows, but it is clear that on-premise technology remains critical. Despite 84% of broadcasters stating their use of at least some cloud-based technology in their workflows, 60% rely on cloud for less than a quarter of their workflows.

survey 2

IP Infrastructure

We asked broadcasters what their organization’s top technology priorities are in the coming year, to which 51% responded that both enabling remote production and transitioning to IP are top of mind. Similarly, over half of those surveyed already use IP infrastructure.

Sustainability

This year, we did something a little different: we introduced new questions on the importance of sustainability among our respondents’ organizations. Of the three questions asked, one statistic of note is that 45% of broadcast professionals work for organizations that are actively working on developing sustainability strategies or already have sustainability plans in place.

Digging Deeper into 2023 Broadcasting Trends

After diving into this year’s survey findings, it’s clear that in order to deliver engaging, high-quality content for audiences around the world, broadcasters must meaningfully engage with new technologies such as 5G, cloud, and IP. Next-gen technology offers true potential for production teams to effectively achieve broadcast objectives through faster and more efficient means. And, as cloud and 5G innovation continues, we anticipate the many benefits these technologies will bring to live broadcast workflows.

The Broadcast Transformation Survey and Report is something that we look forward to every year. It’s always fascinating to get a glimpse into the workflows, trends, and challenges that live broadcasters around the world face. While the above takeaways offer insight into some of what the data shows from our survey, they really just scratch the surface.