The deployment of GPAC open source software (OSS) across Netflix’s worldwide content operations was announced in November 2022 by Motion Spell SARL, a Paris-based media technology software and consulting company with a strong focus on R&D. Motion Spell is the exclusive commercial licensor of GPAC OSS.

As part of the deal, Motion Spell provided consulting expertise to Netflix’s R&D division. Netflix is not the only company to integrate GPAC OSS. Facebook also recently mentioned how they leveraged GPAC’s MP4Box to alleviate Instagram’s live video compute times by 94%. This choice prevented an upload capacity shortage within 12 months.

To get a deeper understanding of how GPAC is licensed, the use cases for commercial licensing, its value proposition for the streaming media industry, and how Motion Spell came to be the exclusive commercial licensor for the software, I spoke to Motion Spell‘s CEO Romain Bouqueau.

GPAC is a professional-grade multimedia open-source software and some consider it the leader in packaging and streaming. After 20 years of continuous development by the open source community, some suggest that GPAC OSS has commoditized the business of packaging. GPAC is now considered as a critical infrastructure component for video streaming services and today, GPAC is to packaging what FFmpeg is to encoding.

For packaging, GPAC is articulated around the ISO Base Media File Format (ISOBMFF), a technology developed at MPEG. The GPAC open source community has independently contributed to ISOBMFF and related technologies like fMP4, CMAF, DASH, or Common Encryption. Its efforts greatly contributed to the dominance of ISOBMFF, which is royalty-free (and has no relationship to the MPEG-LA patent-pool).

When a company licenses GPAC software they must either make themselves compliant with open source licensing rules, or, they have to request a commercial license from Motion Spell. Such a commercial license comes at a fraction of the price of building an equivalent product while keeping the flexibility of a custom software.

In a nutshell, open source software licenses enable anyone to use the software for free, but they have to respect certain requirements. Free software gives users the freedom to run, copy and change the software. When they distribute their own version of the software, modified or not, they then must provide their users with the same rights and publicly acknowledge its origins.

Some specific use cases include:

• You don’t want to distribute GPAC source code as dictated by the LGPL. You don’t want to publicly acknowledge that you have used GPAC in any way. You do not want the name or accreditation to GPAC, or the GPAC filenames, to appear in your product.
• You want to claim proprietary ownership over the code after you’ve modified it. You want to redistribute and charge for the modified software. You want to prohibit reverse-engineering of the modified software by third parties.
• You want to do the above things, but you also need support, training or custom developments. For example, you need help to integrate or deploy GPAC into your operations. You use the GPAC libraries but you don’t know how to build your own GPAC executables.

Motion Spell’s CEO Romain Bouqueau says that Motion Spell was created to enable commercial licensing fees to be shared with the contributors. He said that over the course of its lifetime, $15M has been spent developing GPAC, so they needed funding to continue to sustain the software. Motion Spell is now inviting business users, who use the software extensively, to participate in the funding of this critical infrastructure, now that Motion Spell believes that packaging has become commoditized.

Motion Spell counts 100+ customers for GPAC including Netflix, Akamai, Fox, Cisco, Comcast, Ericsson and AWS Elemental. When joining the GPAC corporate community, Motion Spell makes it easy to access the necessary commercial licenses, plus support, training and custom developments for all kinds of commercial multi-media and video streaming use-cases.

Netflix and Motion Spell will present some of what they have done together at the NAB Show Streaming Summit, April 17-18 in Las Vegas.

There’s a lot of vendors in the market when it comes to transcoding video and many options to pick from based on requirements. Some vendors offer the ability to purchase stand-alone transcoding services that are cloud based with other vendors including the functionality as part of a much larger video platform solution. We also have vendors that sell software and hardware based transcoding products for on-prem deployments and others that specialize in certain types of transcoding for live and VOD deployments inside the firewall and within service provider networks. Like all products and services in the video ecosystem, specific customer requirements and the application use case for video dictate which solutions will work best.

Below I have I’ve updated my list of vendors that offer currently offer cloud-based transcoding services that can be purchased outside of a larger video platform. Some would call these stand-alone transcoding services. For instance, vendors like Haivision, Wowza, Deltatre, Vimeo, Amagi, Kaltura, ATEME, Endeavor Streaming, Zype and many others are not on the list as they offer a deeper video stack, of which transcoding is one element. They don’t sell cloud transcoding services by itself.

Over time I may add to this list and update it to include hardware-based encoding options along with those that offer a larger video workflow that has encoding inside of it. By my estimates, that would make the list close to 100 vendors and a bit unmanageable. So for this specific post, I am focusing on just cloud-base transcoding services that can be bought stand-alone. If you feel I’ve missed any vendors, (probably a few I forgot), you can email me and I’ll look at the request, but that doesn’t guarantee they will be added. They need to meet the criteria above.

• Alibaba Cloud
• Amazon
• API.video
• Azure
• Baidu AI Cloud
• Bitmovin
• Coconut
• Encoding.com (Telestream)
• Google Cloud
• Harmonic
• Huawei Cloud
• Hybrik (Dolby)
• JW Player
• Kingsoft Cloud
• Mux
• Qencode
• Visionular
• Zencoder (Brightcove)

Questions or comments? Please email me at any time.

I’m pleased to announce the launch of a second podcast, called “Executive Interviews“. Each month I’ll interview executives to get their thoughts on opportunities and challenges they are seeing in the streaming media space. For the first episode, Kevin McGurn, President of Sales and Distribution for Vevo joined me for a discussion around Vevo’s FAST strategy. (Listen here)

Kevin discusses the success Vevo is seeing with regards to their content programming and how it changes per region; their monetization strategy with advertising; how they are getting such high engagement numbers; the importance of multi-platform distribution; and why the largest volume of their viewership happens on the large screen.

If your company has an executive they would like to be considered for the interviews series, please reach out to me.

Podcast Episode 48 is live! This week I highlight all the key numbers you need to know from Netflix’s earnings including subscriber numbers, free-cash-flow, paid sharing and projected numbers around AVOD revenue. I also give my review of HBO Max’s first live sporting event on the platform with the US women’s national team soccer match against New Zealand. Finally, I run through all the new sports licensing deals with NBCUniversal, (U.S. Soccer Federation), Viacom18 (Women’s Indian Premier League) and the rumors Apple will bid on the Premier League domestic television rights that come up for renewal in 2025.
 Thanks to this week’s podcast sponsor, Agora.

Companies and services mentioned: Netflix, HBO Max, Nielsen, JW Player, InPlayer, DAZN, Amazon Prime Video, NBCUniversal, Peacock TV, Viacom18, Apple, Sky Sports, BT Sport, Alphabet, Microsoft.

Podcast Episode 47 is live! This week we highlight the price increases from fuboTV, DirecTV Stream and HBO Max’s ad-free plan, with many live linear plans now being more expensive than cable TV. We also discuss news from FOX Sports who said their NFL Playoffs/Super Bowl broadcast schedule will not be broadcast or streamed in native 4K, but rather will be captured and produced in 1080p HDR and upscaled to 4K. We breakdown the new subscriber numbers from DAZN and their announcement that it now has 15 million premium paying subscribers and highlight their financial numbers reported by the media. Finally, we debate how many FAST channels are considered too many with Samsung announcing their Samsung TV Plus service now has over 1,800 channels globally and more than 200 in the US alone. Thanks to this week’s podcast sponsor, Agora.

Companies and services mentioned: Netflix, HBO Max, fuboTV, DirecTV Stream, DAZN, Curiosity Stream, Samsung TV Plus, NBC Sports, Sunday Night Football, FOX Sports, BSD Crown, Amazon, Twitch, DirecTV.

[Updated April 1, 2025] Over the past 18 months, we’ve seen a lot of changes in the CDN vendor landscape. Below is an updated list of vendors I am tracking in the market that offer commercial CDN services to deliver video for content owners and vendors that provide CDN platforms for deployment inside telecom networks or DIY CDN buildouts. (list is at: www.cdnlist.com) At the bottom of the post is the history of all the CDN vendors tied to video delivery, nearly 100 dating back to 1994, along with what happened to the companies. For almost 20 years, I have been offering free help to any CDN customer who has questions on their CDN deployment, including vendor selection, latest pricing, creating an RFP, CDN technologies, etc., so feel free to reach out to me at if I can help. If you want to know more about the size of the CDN market, see my post from July 2024 at www.cdnmarket.com (Global CDN Services Market About $5B in 2023, Expected To Grow 3% In 2024, Driven by AWS)

With this vendor list comes a LOT of caveats, which are essential to note. The term “CDN” means many things to people and is an umbrella term that covers the delivery of many different types of content. Not all commercial CDNs specialize in delivering the same type of content for small objects, large objects, streaming, etc., and many CDNs offer a lot of other services in the cloud security, edge, and application realm. Just because all the vendors are on this list together does NOT mean they can be compared apples-to-apples! Customers have to drill down into specific requirements around their performance needs, capacity, regions of delivery, SLA, etc., and then use those metrics to compare which CDN vendors genuinely have a similar offering. Some CDNs target SMBs (small and medium businesses) where pricing could be as low as $100 a month, and still other CDNs won’t even quote a customer under $5,000. There is no one-size-fits-all, and the differences between CDNs can vary widely, especially regarding capacity in specific geographic regions outside North America. PoPs on a map do not equal capacity or guarantee performance.

For my list, I am including CDN vendors who deliver video as part of their core services but not resellers, like a hosting provider that white-labels a CDN provider. I’m also not including “most” telcos and carriers that have their own CDN, what we call DIY, since most of them don’t resell it as a service but instead use it to deliver content within their own network. There are more than 100 telcos, ISPs and carriers worldwide that have a combination of their own CDN or a hybrid model that mixes in commercial CDNs, so there are simply too many of them to list.

I am not listing vendors by network size, number of customers, etc., but in alphabetical order. If you strip out the vendors in China, the top four commercial CDNs based on revenue related to delivery services (note I didn’t say “video” revenue) would be Akamai, Amazon, Cloudflare, Fastly, and CDN77.

Every time I make this list, I get companies that say they are missing. If you think you should be listed, contact me at dan@danrayburn.com, and I will review your company. But please note, if you have a website with no info, no details on the executives, no customers mentioned, dead links, have pricing at $10 a month and call yourself an “enterprise” solution, you won’t be added. I also don’t accept payment to add a company to the list.

Companies Offering Video CDN Delivery Services or Platforms

• Akamai
• Alibaba Cloud (primary focus region is China)
• Amazon CloudFront
• ATEME (operator platform)
• Baidu (primary focus region is China)
• BaishanCloud (primary focus region is APAC)
• BelugaCDN (primary focus region is EMEA)
• Broadpeak (operator platform for DIY CDN)
• Bunny.net
• BytePlus (owned by ByteDance, primary focus region is APAC)
• CacheFly
• CDN77
• CDNetworks (owned by ChinaNetCenter, focus region is APAC)
• CDNsun (primary focus region is UAE)
• ChinaCache (only operates in China, sold off international business)
• ChinaNetCenter (primary focus region is China)
• China Telecom (primary focus region is China)
• Cloudflare
• Comcast Technology Solutions
• EdgeNext (owned by BaishanCloud, primary focus region is APAC)
• Fastly
• Gcore
• GlobalConnect (primary focus region is Nordic)
• Google Cloud Media CDN
• Huawei Cloud (primary focus region is APAC)
• Jet-Stream Cloud (primary focus region is Europe)
• KeyCDN (primary focus region is Europe)
• Kingsoft Cloud (primary focus region is China)
• MainStreaming (primary focus region is Europe)
• Medianova (primary focus region is Europe)
• Microsoft (Azure Front Door)
• Netskrt
• Ngenix (primary focus region is Russia)
• Ora Streaming (owned by Varnish Software Group with Intel as partner)
• Qwilt
• Tata Communications
• Tencent Cloud (primary focus region is APAC)
• Varnish Software (platform for building DIY CDN)
• Vecima (operator platform)
• Velocix (operator platform)
• Wangsu (primary focus region is China)

History Of CDN Vendors and What Happened to Them
In addition to the current CDN vendors in the market, I think it’s important to remember how the CDN industry got to where it is today. Many CDNs raised tons of money but didn’t have a business model; some only focused on selling at the lowest price, and many had technology that simply didn’t work. The CDN market has been through many hard times over the past 25 years, and here’s a running list of what happened to all the vendors.

• Activate.net (acquired by CMGI Oct. 1999)
• Advection (closed down, exact date unknown, looks to be 2017)
• Adero (acquired by Intokmi Dec. 2000)
• Aerocast (acquired by Motorola in 2002, then shut down)
• Aflexi (acquired by OnApp August 2011)
• Ankeena (acquired by Juniper April 2010)
• Bandcon (acquired by Highwinds July 2010)
• BigBand Networks (acquired by Arris Oct. 2011)
• BitGravity (acquired by Tata Communications Jan. 2011)
• Blackwave (acquired by Juniper Oct. 2010)
• Blaze (acquired by Akamai Feb. 2012)
• Broadcast.com (acquired by Yahoo! April 1999)
• Burst.com (shut down in 2002, turned focus to enforcing patents)
• BNI Video (acquired by Cisco Oct. 2011)
• Cable & Wireless (withdrew from the U.S. 2002, sold U.S. company to SAVVIS)
• CacheLogic (changed name to Velocix Feb. 2008)
• CDNetworks (acquired by KDDI Oct. 2011 / re-acquired by ChinaNetCenter Feb. 2021)
• CDNVideo (acquired by ChinaNetCenter Feb. 2021)
• CenturyLink (changed name to Lumen Sept. 2020)
• ChinaCache (Overseas Business acquired by BaishanCloud in Feb. 2023)
• Cidera (went out of business Jan. 2001, formerly named SkyCache)
• Cotendo (acquired by Akamai Nov. 2011)
• Digital Fountain (acquired by Qualcomm Feb. 2009)
• Digital Island (acquired by Cable & Wireless May 2001)
• DigitalPipe (went out of business sometime in 2001)
• Dyn (acquired by Oracle Nov. 2016)
• EdgeCast Networks (acquired by Verizon Jan. 2014 / re-acquired by Limelight Networks June 2022)
• Edgio (select delivery contracts acquired by Akamai, Uplynk acquired by Lynrock November 2024; select EdgeCast assets acquired by Parler, February 2025)
• EdgeCast Cloud Services (Shut down by Pulse, May 2025)
• E-media (acquired by Streaming Media Corp. in 2002)
• Ericsson Edge Gravity (closed down June 2020)
• Escene Networks (acquired by Intokmi June 2001)
• FastForward Networks (acquired by Intokmi Sept. 2000)
• Fastweb(acquired by 21ViaNet in Sept. 2012)
  
• FastSoft (acquired by Akamai in Sept. 2012)
• Globix (chapter 11 Jan. 2002, hosting/media services sold to QTS Oct. 2006)
• Grid Networks (merged with GMS April 2009)
• Hibernia Networks (acquired by GTT Jan. 2017)
• Highwinds (acquired by Stackpath Jan. 2017)
• Ibeam (went chapter 11 Oct. 2011, assets acquired by Williams Communications)
• Intel (closed down offering in 2002)
• Intervu (acquired by Akamai Feb. 2000)
• Itiva (went out of business sometime in 2010)
• itv.net (acquired by PopCast in 1999)
• Instart Logic (acquired by Akamai Feb. 2020)
• Inktomi (acquired by Yahoo! Dec. 2002)
• Level 3 (acquired by CenturyLink Nov. 2017)
• Lilac Cloud (acquired by F5 Q2 2023)
• Limelight Networks (changed name to Edgio June 2022, in merger with EdgeCast)
• Lumen (excited the CDN business Oct. 2023 selling off select contracts to Akamai)
• MaxCDN (acquired by StackPath July 2016)
• Microcast (chapter 11 Dec. 2000)
• Mirror Image (closed down Dec. 2017)
• Move Networks (put assets up for sale June 2010)
• Octoshape (acquired by Akamai April 2015)
• Oversi (acquired by Allot Communications Sept. 2012)
• Panther Express (acquired by CDNetworks Feb. 2009)
• PeerApp (acquired by ZephyrTel Telecommunications July 2018)
• Real Broadcast Network (closed down by RealNetworks Q1 2010)
• Red Swoosh (acquired by Akamai April 2007)
• Sandpiper (acquired by Digital Island Oct. 1999)
• Savvis (exited the space by selling CDN assets to Level 3 Dec. 2006)
• SightPath (acquired by Cisco in 2000)
• SkyparkCDN (acquired by G-Core labs in 2017)
• Skytide (acquired by Citrix Dec. 2013)
• Servecast (acquired by Level 3 July 2007)
• Speedera (acquired by Akamai March 2005)
• St3 (went out of business Jan. 2002)
• StackPath (exited CDN business Aug. 2023 with Akamai acquiring approximately 100 enterprise customer contracts)
• Strangeloop Networks (acquired by Radware Feb. 2013)
• Streaming Media Corp (renamed Nine Systems, acquired by Akamai Sept. 2006)
• Streamroot (acquired by CenturyLink Sept. 2019)
• StreamPipe (acquired by Ten-TV Feb. 2002, then re-sold to Loudeye Nov. 2002)
• SyncCast (acquired by Technicolor April 2007)
• Technicolor (video network sold to FCDE March 2011)
• Teltoo (acquired by Haivision July 2020)
• Twin Prime (acquired by Salesforce Dec. 2016)
• Velocix (acquired by Alcaltel-Lucent July 2009 / acquired by Nokia April 2015 / Nokia’s IP Video business sold to Volaris Group Jan. 2019)
• Verivue (acquired by Akamai Nov. 2012)
• Verizon Media (acquired by Apollo Sept. 2021, CDN was part of Verizon Digital Media Services rebranded as Edgecast)
• Vidscale (acquired by Ericsson April 2018)
• VitalStream (acquired by Internap Feb. 2007)
• Volera (spinoff by Novell in 2001, closed down in 2003)
• Voxel.net (acquired by Internap Jan. 2012)
• Vusion (went out of business May 2009)
• Williams Communications (acquired by Level 3 Dec. 2005)
• WorldStream (went out of business Aug. 2001)
• XCDN (owned by Exceed which was acquired by Akamai Nov. 2019)
• XDN (acquired by Fortinet Jan 2013)

Open to corrections if you see any errors.

Podcast Episode 46 is live! This week we highlight some of the layoffs across the industry (Vimeo, Amazon, Kaltura, Amdocs, JWP) and why getting to positive cash flow for vendors is and should be the number one goal in 2023. We also detail the latest ARPU numbers from OTT services and some TV news from CES, with Roku announcing the first-ever smart TV designed and built by Roku and a still unnamed partner. Finally, we discuss the extremely fragmented landscape for video advertising metrics, the news of Nielsen ONE and how every major media company has struck deals with measurement firms like VideoAmp, EDO, Comscore, and iSpot to replace or supplement Nielsen. Thanks to this week’s podcast sponsor, Agora.

Companies and services mentioned: Vimeo, Kaltura, JPW, Amazon, Netflix, Disney, Nielsen, Videoamp, Amdocs, Transmit Live, Warner Bros. Discovery, Roku, Samsung, Google TV, EDO, Comscore, iSpot.