EncodingIndustry Trend

Survey: 77% of Video Teams Face Budget Blocks, Not Tech Limits

According to Netint's 2026 State of Video Encoding Survey of 286 professionals, 77% of teams report being constrained by budget or capacity rather than technology limitations. The survey also found that 30% of respondents do not track total cost of ownership, and another 30% operate without formal quality metrics. The article argues the industry's primary bottleneck has shifted from technical capability to organizational execution, with the key challenge now being the ability to operationalize existing technologies.

Key Takeaways

77% of video teams are constrained by budget or capacity, with only a fraction citing technology limitations.
30% of surveyed professionals do not track Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) for their encoding operations.
An additional 30% of teams operate without any formal quality metrics to guide their work.
The central challenge has shifted from developing new capabilities to operationalizing existing technologies to achieve faster time-to-value.

Why It Matters

These findings suggest the video engineering value chain is maturing, shifting focus from raw capability to operational efficiency. The challenge is no longer just discovering what’s possible, but deploying it cost-effectively. For technology vendors, this pivot means that solutions simplifying deployment and reducing operational overhead may find more traction than those offering only incremental technical advancements. The key signal to watch is how vendor go-to-market messaging shifts from performance benchmarks to demonstrating faster, more measurable 'time to value' for resource-constrained teams.

StreamingMeme Analysis

For buyers evaluating encoders, CDNs, and cloud transcoding, this survey reframes the RFP: the bottleneck is capacity and budget governance, not another codec checkbox. Procurement should prioritize TCO, automation that reduces operator load, and clear upgrade paths over peak-spec demos.

StreamingMeme’s take: vendors that only sell “better compression” will lose to platforms that prove fewer people can run more channels. Ask for staffing models, failover runbooks, and cost-per-stream evidence in the PoC.

This connects to the broader industry shift from growth-at-all-costs to profitable hybrid stacks—same pressure showing up in CTV monetization and rights inflation elsewhere in this enrichment set.