ABI Research announced new competitive analysis yesterday and is scoring Harmonic and Elemental as the best overall video encoders, while Akamai gets the top overall ranking for cloud video service provider from the market intelligence firm.
“The amount of M&A activity in the space, especially among encoding vendors, is indicative of a quickly evolving market that has not yet settled,” Eric Abbruzzese, research analyst at ABI Research, says. “Evidenced by the major acquisitions of cloud encoding experts Elemental and Envivio, companies are realizing the value of flexibility and scalability available in cloud-based platforms. We expect this type of activity to continue, leaving room for a select few heavy hitters.”
Both Harmonic and Elemental tied for best overall video encoders, with ABI awarding Elemental as best for implementation. Elemental customers include Comcast, ESPN and Warner Brothers, and ABI says the company shows promising worldwide growth due to its live and file based strengths and forthcoming benefits from its acquisition by Amazon Web Services.
Harmonic ranks the highest for innovation, according to ABI. “The company, together with acquired Thomson Video Networks, shows promise due to the strong High Efficiency Video Coding support seen through early partnerships and demonstrations,” ABI says.
Similarly, though Akamai got the ABI nod as best overall cloud video service provider, Ooyala was called out by the research firm for “best implementation” because of the company’s advertising platform, as well as its geographic reach in the Americas, Europe and the Middle East. ABI reports that it named Akamai on top as best innovator in cloud video service providers because of its offerings in terms of flexibility and available APIs, and “its quality of service is made incredibly impressive by its robust footprint.”
“When considering this trend toward virtualized and cloud-based services, there is potential for smaller, more focused companies to enter the spotlight through acquisition by larger players,” Sam Rosen, managing director and VP at ABI Research, concludes. “Those that do not currently rank as high in the assessment may still make promising acquisition targets thanks to specialization in areas not fully served by larger companies.”
The findings are part of ABI Research’s Mobile, Multiscreen, and Cloud Video Delivery Service, which includes research reports, market data, insights and competitive assessments.
