The role of cloud-based video service assurance platforms to monitor end-to-end streaming quality

I've been researching content deliver networks (CDNs) lately, including Ericsson UDN, AWS, Limelight Networks, and Akamai Technologies, trying to better understand the value-chain, costs, and ROI for video content delivery. But I keep coming back to quality assurance. For sure content is still king, but good content doesn't matter without good quality streaming. The questions is: how do you monitor and measure video quality proactively so you don't first hear about problems from end-customers complaining on social media? Especially if you leverage third-party CDNs. 

Churn is certainly an issue with all online services and even more so with OTT services. Studies show viewers will abandon your content if quality problems persist. Subscribers are not very forgiving and they may never come back to your content in a world with so many content options.

This new mini white paper from Telestream, sponsor of the recent OTT Executive Summit, is a helpful primer on the issues to consider and suggests some important best practices: https://marketing.telestream.net/acton/fs/blocks/showLandingPage/a/... 

Some of my key take-aways:

-Subscribers are very sensitive to video quality problems and will abandon even desired content if they persist

-Many content service providers don't have full visibility into the full content delivery chain

-Using a third-party CDN requires you to adopt a flexible, cloud-based solution to assure content availability and understand service performance after the CDN

-Content delivery is expensive, so it's a good idea to have a service assurance strategy that optimizes premium content, where any service degradation experienced by subscribers is intolerable

At four pages the paper is a quick read and includes three mini customer case studies: http://bit.ly/2KxSI2r