The proliferation of Smart TVs, connected set top boxes and other connected devices - such as Amazon's Firestick - has predicated a surge in the number of people swapping their tablets, laptops and mobiles for their television, with seven in ten viewers now opting for the big screen when it comes to watching Broadcast Video on Demand (BVoD). As the divide between traditional broadcast TV and internet-delivered services blurs, broadcasters may find that one of their biggest challenges isn't just technical, but psychological too. When was the last time your television signal was interrupted? Probably a long time ago. As consumers, we've become accustomed to seamlessly viewing content in high definition as a matter of course, which raises our expectations for other services experienced through our televisions. Compounding this, according to the State of Online Video report, 21.6 per cent of people abandon an online video after the first rebuffer. As such, broadcasters need to ensure that their VoD content is being delivered with, as seamlessly as possible, low latency. This can be achieved through chunking or the use of new technologies such as WebRTC, which leverages the user datagram protocol to deliver sub-second latency even for major live events in high definition quality.
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