The State of Video Encoding | Early Access
Thank You for Helping Shape This Report
The 2026 State of Video Encoding Report exist because 286 engineers, architects, and executives took the time to share what they’re actually doing – not what the industry wishes were true. You were part of that.
This is the full 46-page report. No shortened version, no summary. The same data, analysis, and archetype breakdowns that will be released publicly, in your hands first.
Industry data is only as good as the people behind it
Surveys like this one work because practitioners and decision-makers contribute honestly.
The result is a clearer picture of where the industry actually stands – on codec adoption, hardware decisions, AI integration, and the constraints that slow everything down.
That clarity helps all of us make better decisions. We hope this report is useful to you in return.
EMEA, North America, APAC, LATAM, Global
10 insights you'll find inside
01
The hardware monoculture is cracking
GPU and VPU evaluation intent are now within 2 percentage points of each other — 53.6% vs. 51.5%. For the first time in a decade, GPU incumbency doesn’t guarantee selection. 41% of hardware users already deploy more than one hardware type. The window to capture organizations diversifying away from GPUs is 12–18 months.
02
Cost and quality stopped being a tradeoff
75% of respondents cite at least one cost-reduction initiative. 45% simultaneously cite quality-of-experience improvement. Organizations are pursuing an average of 2.31 initiatives at once. Solutions that force a choice between cost and quality are facing structural resistance from buyers.
03
AV1 isn't a future codec.
It's a 2026 infrastructure decision
AV1 is currently in production at 17% of organizations. By end of 2026, 57% will have deployed or planned it – a 231% planned growth rate, the highest of any codec. Organizations with VP9 already deployed are 27x more likely to be running AV1. If you don’t have an AV1 roadmap, you’re already behind the curve.
04
AI crossed from experiment to infrastructure
60% of respondents already use AI/ML in at least one encoding workflow. 53% plan to expand in 2026. When asked unprompted what force will shape encoding’s future, 43.8% named AI – more than double any other answer. The shift isn’t toward transcription and classification anymore. Content-aware ladder generation is growing at +77%. QoE prediction at +50%. AI is moving into the core of the pipeline.
05
The real blocker isn't technology
Budget constraints and limited team capacity each affect over 40% of respondents. Technical barriers – integration gaps, licensing risk – trail by a factor of four. 49% of all video teams have five or fewer people. The organizations that win in this market will be the ones who make adoption easy, not just capable.
06
30% of the market is flying blind on cost
Nearly a third of respondents have no formalized TCO methodology. They’re making hardware decisions – codec selection, infrastructure investment, vendor evaluation – without a financial baseline to compare against. The largest buyer segment in the survey (Methodical Evaluators, 37% of the market) has the highest rate of untracked unit economics.
07
At scale, hybrid wins.
Hardware-only loses
At small and medium scale, organizations split roughly evenly between software and hardware approaches. At large scale, hardware-only drops to 16% and hybrid surges to 45%. Single-approach vendors are facing a shrinking addressable market as organizations grow.
08
Edge has strong interest and a large undecided middle
42% of respondents expressed interest in edge encoding deployment. 30% said they weren’t sure – the largest undecided segment in the entire survey. That 30% isn’t skepticism. It’s the absence of clear information, reference architectures, and proof of ROI at their scale.
09
A small segment sets the direction for everyone
Precision Engineers are 12.9% of the market. They lead in AI/ML expansion intent (78.8%), TCO sophistication (2.6 factors tracked on average), AV1 adoption, FPGA adoption, and edge interest. They’re build-oriented, ROI-driven, and they shape vendor roadmaps. Win them and you shape the narrative.
10
There are four buyer types. One default approach misses three of them
The data reveals four distinct buying archetypes – and cloud PoC acceptance alone ranges from 10.7% to 41.3% across them. Methodical Evaluators (37% of the market) require physical hardware in their lab and long sales cycles. Agile Innovators are SaaS-ready and cloud-first. Scale Operators want turnkey and headcount-neutral. Precision Engineers demand detailed ROI models. A single go-to-market motion leaves most of the market underserved.
The full report includes 46 pages of data, archetype analysis, and recommendations by stakeholder type.
Codec adoption trajectories. Hardware acceleration patterns. Executive vs. engineering priority gaps. Build vs. buy orientation. TCO maturity. 2027 projections.
Free. No paywalls after download.
* Data collected Q4 2025. Published by NETINT Technologies. n=286 video professionals across streaming, broadcast, and enterprise video.
