Do you feel like an organization or product is missing? Reach out to us through LinkedIn. Read more about the OTT Changelog.

So what changed in March 2020?

  • 🍏 Apple's complete phasing out of third-party cookies is one to write down, and so is the Swift 5.2 release. The HLS spec got their periodic update. Nothing spectacular changed though.
  • 🦊 Firefox did some changes to PiP.
  • 😷 Microsoft and Google paused working on their Edge and Chrome releases due to COVID-19.
  • 👩‍💻 DASH-IF had a busy month.
  • 📺 Tizen 5.5 and webOS 5.X info got published to the Samsung and Tizen websites.

Browsers

Source Date Item
Chromium 2020-03-26 Chrome and Chrome OS release updates
  • Upcoming Chrome and Chrome OS releases are paused due to COVID-19.
Chromium 2020-03-18 Upcoming Chrome releases
  • Upcoming Chrome and Chrome OS releases are paused due to COVID-19.
Chromium 2020-03-12 New developer dashboard and registration flow for Chrome Web Store
Firefox Beta 2020-03-10 75.0beta
Firefox Nightly 2020-03-10 76.0a1
  • Picture-in-Picture update: add support for keyboard controls on most websites (Play, Pause, Seeking, Volume)
  • Picture-in-Picture update: put PiP in fullscreen by double-clicking.
Google Web Updates 2020-03-01 The Chromium Chronicle: Time-Travel Debugging with RR
Google Web Updates 2020-03-01 What's New In DevTools (Chrome 82)
Edge 2020-03-20 Update on Stable channel releases for Microsoft Edge
  • Microsoft paused working on the Stable channel for Microsoft Edge due to COVID-19.
Edge 2020-03-11 Improving DevTools accessibility in Microsoft Edge
Safari 2020-03-29 Safari 13.1 Beta Release Notes
  • Picture-in-Picture: Added support for the Picture-in-Picture API.
  • Media Capabilities: Added support for HDR video using the Media Capabilities API.
  • Remote Playback: Added support for the Remote Playback API.
WebKit 2020-03-26 Release Notes for Safari Technology Preview 103
WebKit 2020-03-24 Full Third-Party Cookie Blocking and More
  • Third-party cookies completely blocked as of iOS and iPadOS 13.4 and Safari 13.1 on macOS. This could impact your stream if it relies on these type of cookies.
WebKit 2020-03-05 Release Notes for Safari Technology Preview 102
Firefox Nightly News 2020-03-18 These Weeks in Firefox: Issue 71
Firefox Nightly News 2020-03-03 These Weeks in Firefox: Issue 70
Google Web Updates 2020-03-01 What's New In DevTools (Chrome 83)

Organizations

Source Date Item
Dash IF 2020-03-29 DASH-IF publishes Low-Latency DASH extensions and 2nd Community Review for DASH-IF Ad Insertion.
Dash IF 2020-03-23 DASH-IF publishes Live Media Ingest Technical Specification.
Google Developers Blog 2020-03-24 Alfred Camera: Smart camera features using MediaPipe
  • Use-case of MediaPipe. Read if you are into object-detection.

Company Blogs

Source Date Item
Bitmovin 2020-03-05 Bitmovin’s Video Top Video Technology Trends 2020
Crunchyroll 2020-03-18 Behind VRV’s Recommendation Engine
  • Read if you are into recommendation engines.
JW Player 2020-03-24 JW Player Launches Video Thumbnails
Netflix 2020-03-13 SVT-AV1: an open-source AV1 encoder and decoder
Netflix 2020-03-03 How Netflix uses Druid for Real-time Insights to Ensure a High-Quality Experience
THEOplayer 2020-03-12 ABR for More Efficient Bandwidth Usage
Showmax 2020-03-22 Cost Effective Encoding Noises
Dailymotion 2020-03-03 One year with Jenkins X
Eyevinn Technology 2020-03-07 The hockey stick
Eyevinn Technology 2020-03-04 Keep an Eye on the Video Quality
Roku 2020-03-24 Disney+ now available on Roku streaming devices in the UK & Ireland!
Roku 2020-03-13 How to Activate Your Roku Streaming Player or Roku TV
Roku 2020-03-06 International Women’s Day: The best films created by female directors

Encoders, Transcoders, Packagers

Source Date Item
Bitmovin Encoder 2020-03-24 Encoder 2.42.0
Bitmovin Encoder 2020-03-10 Encoder 2.41.0
Bitmovin Encoder 2020-03-04 Encoder 2.40.1
Encoding.com 2020-03-12 12 March 2020
Verizon Media Platform 2020-03-25 Improved Analytics & New Services Tab
Verizon Media Platform 2020-03-20 Log pushing enhancements
Shaka Packager 2020-03-30 v2.4.2
dav1d 2020-03-05 dav1d 0.6.0 'Gyrfalcon', the fast and lean AV1 decoder
  • 2.5 times faster than the previous patch.
rav1e 2020-03-06 v0.1.1
AWS MediaPackage 2020-03-09 Updated maximum time-shifted and live-to-VOD manifest length
AWS MediaTailor 2020-03-13 New avail.index dynamic ad variable
AWS MediaTailor 2020-03-10 New AdVerifications and Extensions elements

Frameworks

Source Date Item
Flutter 2020-03-26 v1.16.3
React Native 2020-03-26 v0.62.0

Ads

Source Date Item
IMA Android 2020-03-25 3.18.1
  • Adds scaling for Companion Ads on high-pixel-density devices.
IMA Android 2020-03-04 3.18.0
  • Adds pause() and resume() to the VideoStreamPlayer interface.
IMA HTML5 2020-03-25 3.377.0
  • Service release; no new features.
IMA HTML5 2020-03-20 3.376.3
  • Service release; no new features.
IMA HTML5 2020-03-16 3.375.0
  • Service release; no new features.
IMA HTML5 2020-03-11 3.374.1
  • Service release; no new features.
IMA HTML5 2020-03-10 3.373.2
  • Fixed a bug that caused VOLUME_CHANGED and VOLUME_MUTED events to not fire correctly.
IMA HTML5 2020-03-02 3.372.1
  • Service release; no new features.
IMA iOS 2020-03-26 3.11.4
  • Increases the minimum runtime version to iOS 10
  • Fixes a bug where some UI updates could trigger on a background thread
  • Fixes an issue where strict flags would make IMACompanionAd's init conflict with NSObject's
  • Deprecates the loadURL method on the IMAVideoDisplay protocol
Prebid.js 2020-03-25 Prebid 3.13.0 Release
Prebid.js 2020-03-17 Prebid 3.12.0
Prebid.js 2020-03-11 Prebid 3.11.0 Release
Prebid.js 2020-03-05 Prebid.js 3.10.0 Release

Operating Systems

Source Date Item
Windows 2020-03-25 Announcing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 19592
Windows 2020-03-20 Update on Stable channel releases for Microsoft Edge
  • Microsoft paused working on the Stable channel for Microsoft Edge due to COVID-19.
Windows 2020-03-30 The top 10 reasons to switch to the new Microsoft Edge
  • One of the selling points is that it's the only Windows browser which lets you watch Netflix and 4k.
  • Another selling point is that it's the only browser on Windows 10 to support Dolby Audio and Vision.

Platforms

Source Date Item
Android 2020-03-18 Android 11: Developer Preview 2
Google Cast 2020-03-12 March 12, 2020
  • CAF Receiver: Shaka Player to 2.5.8.
  • CAF Receiver: Added support for new device capability IS_CBCS_SUPPORTED to deviceCapabilities.
iOS iPadOS 2020-03-29 iOS & iPadOS 13.4 Release Notes
Samsung Tizen 2020-03-29 2020
  • Info on Tizen 5.5 published!
tvOS 2020-03-29 tvOS 13.4 Release Notes

Players

Source Date Item
Azure Media Player 2020-03-04 2.3.4
Bitmovin Web 2020-03-17 Web 8.31.0
Bitmovin Web 2020-03-03 Web 8.30.1
Bitmovin Web 2020-03-03 Web 8.30.0
Bitmovin iOS 2020-03-16 iOS 2.42.0
Bitmovin iOS 2020-03-02 iOS 2.41.0
Bitmovin Android 2020-03-23 Android 2.41.2
Bitmovin Android 2020-03-17 Android 2.41.1
Bitmovin Android 2020-03-16 Android 2.41.0
Bitmovin Android 2020-03-02 Android 2.40.0
Bitmovin Roku 2020-03-15 Roku 1.23.0
Bitmovin Roku 2020-03-01 Roku 1.22.0
dash.js 2020-03-12 Dash.js v3.0.3
  • Implement a first version of the Common Media Client Data specification.
JW Player Android 2020-03-16 3.12.0
JW Player iOS 2020-03-16 3.11.1
Radiant Media Player 2020-03-14 5.7.6
Radiant Media Player 2020-03-06 5.7.5
Radiant Media Player 2020-03-05 5.7.4
Radiant Media Player 2020-03-04 5.7.3
Shaka Player 2020-03-24 v2.5.10
Shaka Player 2020-03-24 v2.5.10-master
JW Player Web 2020-03-29 v6.12.0
Clappr 2020-03-05 0.3.12
Clappr 2020-03-05 0.3.11
Clappr 2020-03-05 0.3.10
MediaElementJs 2020-03-16 4.2.16
MediaElementJs 2020-03-09 4.2.15
Radiant Media Player 2020-03-29 5.7.7
React Native Video 2020-03-11 4.4.5
VHS 2020-03-28 v1.13.1
VHS 2020-03-26 v1.13.0
VHS 2020-03-16 v1.12.3
Video.js 2020-03-25 v7.7.6
VHS 2020-03-30 v1.13.2
JW Player iOS 2020-03-26 3.12.0
JW Player Web 2020-03-23 v8.13.1
THEOplayer 2020-03-30 🚀2.69.0
THEOplayer 2020-03-18 2.68.1

Programming Languages

Source Date Item
Swift 2020-03-25 Swift 5.3 Release Process
  • Swift 5.3 will be cut in the Swift repo on April 20, 2020.
Swift 2020-03-24 Swift 5.2 Released!
  • Offers improved compiler diagnostics.
  • Has code completion improvements.
  • Has improved build algorithms.
  • Part of Xcode 11.4.
Kotlin 2020-03-23 Add changelog for 1.4-M1
TypeScript 2020-03-02 TypeScript 3.8.3

Specifications

Source Date Item
HLS 2020-03-29 draft-pantos-hls-rfc8216bis-06
  • Expires September 26, 2020.
  • Master Playlist Tags moved up in the document.