Bitmovin’s Video Developer Report 2025/26 Reveals Cost Control as Streaming Industry’s Primary Challenge

Vienna - Austria, September 11, 2025 - Bitmovin, a leading provider of video streaming solutions, today released the 9th annual Video Developer Report 2025/26, offering an in-depth look at the evolving challenges and trends in the streaming industry. With insights from hundreds of video professionals worldwide, the report remains the most comprehensive benchmark of the state of video delivery, monetization, and technology adoption.

Cost Control Tops the Streaming Industry Agenda

The Video Developer Report 2025/26 reveals that cost control is the number one concern for 38% of respondents, making it the single largest challenge facing video teams. Bandwidth, storage, and infrastructure optimization are the key cost areas under scrutiny as providers look to maximize ROI while expanding services.

Ad insertion follows closely behind at 37%, while maintaining consistent monitoring and analytics (31%) and ensuring reliable playback across all devices (31%) also rank high as persistent difficulties in today's fragmented ecosystem.

Monetization Models Reach New Balance

The 2025/2026 edition of the Video Developer Report highlights a near parity between AVOD (37%) and SVOD (36%), reflecting a maturing balance of monetization strategies. FAST channels are also gaining ground, with 26% of providers adopting them as cost-efficient tools to extend reach and complement subscription models.

Among advertising workflows, server-side ad insertion (SSAI) remains the dominant approach, used by 37% of providers.

AI Adoption Moves Mainstream

AI has firmly moved beyond experimentation, with most providers now deploying it to achieve operational impact and measurable ROI. The Video Developer Report 2025/26 finds that the most common applications of AI include:

• Accessibility improvements (46% using transcription and speech-to-text)
• Personalization (35%)
• Video tagging and categorization (35%)
• Recommendations engines (33%)
• Video quality optimization (29%)
• Quality of experience (20%)

Industry Perspective

Stefan Lederer, CEO and Co-Founder, Bitmovin, commented: "As always, the report shows how technologies are maturing, which strategies are gaining traction, and which challenges persist. It's clear from this year's report that economic pressures are continuing to shape strategy across the industry, and while monetization workflows remain complex, the conversation has broadened to include efficiency gains across the streaming pipeline. The report findings underscore a market balancing growth ambition with the realities of tighter budgets, and the need to optimize workflows."

Download the Video Developer Report 2025/26

The latest Bitmovin Video Developer Report 2025/26 Edition is now available for download.

Bitmovin will be exhibiting at IBC from 12^th - 15^th September (booth 5.G58). For more information or to book a meeting, please visit https://bitmovin.com/ibc/

-ENDS-

About Bitmovin

Bitmovin is the leading provider of video streaming solutions for global digital media companies and service providers. The company has been at the forefront of industry innovation and all major developments in the digital video streaming industry.

Bitmovin built the world's first commercial adaptive streaming player and deployed the first software-defined encoding service that runs on any cloud platform. Its cloud-native technology offers the most flexible and scalable media encoding, playback, and analytics solutions available with unparalleled device reach, ease of integration, and world class customer support. Bitmovin customers benefit from optimized operations, reduced time-to-market, and the best viewer experience possible. Bitmovin is headquartered in San Francisco, California and has major offices in Vienna, Klagenfurt, Austria as well as London, Berlin and Denver. The company has over 400 customers across the globe, including ClassPass, BBC, fuboTV, Hulu, and Discovery. For more information, visit https://www.bitmovin.com.