HTML5: What Video Producers Need To Know

Jan Ozer discusses HTML5 on OnlineVideo.net and in particular the implications for video producers of a move away from plug-in based video delivery technologies like Flash towards native browser solutions.  The main point is that HTML5 will likely not add much in terms of user experience if your DAM system or web site already offers video which can be viewed by most of your users:

“Supporting HTML5 expands a web site’s encoding chores and forces them to re-write their Flash or Silverlight-based applications in Javascript. At the same time, these sites lose their ability to protect their content via digital rights management, or deploy via adaptive streaming, which improves the overall viewing experience. Sites that are advertising supported lose access to some advertising networks, though this will likely resolve more quickly than some other issues.” [Read More]

However, for Flash/Silverlight fans, Jan’s closing points may be unwelcome reading:

“At some point in the future, HTML5 (or later) will become so established that major video distribution sites like the three and four letter networks and user-generated video sites will stop supporting Flash (or Silverlight) playback. Flash (or Silverlight) will become less important to viewers, so fewer will install the plug-ins. At that point, sites that don’t support HTML5 will start losing viewers.” [Read More]

This certainly does seem to becoming an orthodox opinion and one would have to conclude that Flash is increasingly on borrowed time as a mainstream technology and it’s questionable whether Silverlight ever got far beyond the ‘me too’ stage anyway.

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