Mobile-Optimized JW Player 7 Released -- JW7 becomes World's Fastest Online Video Player

Mobile-Optimized JW Player 7 Launches as World's Fastest Online Video Player -- The industry's most advanced player technology improves performance on every screen and offers Quality of Experience analytics for publishers

JW Player, a leading online and mobile video platform and player technology company, has announced the release of JW Player 7 (JW7). With this release, JW7 becomes the highest performing cross-device video player in the market, with industry-leading time to first frame load speed. In addition, JW7 includes support for the popular adaptive streaming standard, MPEG-DASH, and dramatically expands player customization options, helping publishers to deliver the highest-quality video experience on any device.

The update also introduces a Quality of Experience (QoE) analytics API, which allows publishers to monitor the quality of the video experiences they are providing to consumers and to troubleshoot network performance issues. Specifically, the QoE API provides insights around CDN performance, the time it takes to video startup and playback, and the actual resolution of the video delivered. With this information, publishers can proactively reduce audience drop-off and minimize revenue loss that frequently results from poor network performance.

"JW7 is a significant step forward for our customers," said Dave Otten, CEO and co-founder, JW Player. "Video start speed is of the utmost importance to our customers, especially when their users are watching video on mobile devices. Every second of delayed start or buffering can cost them millions of dollars of lost revenue. Given this, we had two primary objectives with JW7: to optimize video playback experience on mobile and to improve speed and performance everywhere. We think we have accomplished these goals and are very proud to provide our customers with the tools they need to be successful with video."

JW Player 7 key features include:

Enhanced mobile device playback: HTML5 native, CSS skinning, scales interface elements to the device
Superior speed and performance: 35% faster load speed vs JW6
Improved adaptive-streaming: first major video player to support MPEG-DASH, a leading standard for adaptive streaming
Increased content protection: introduces Digital Rights Management (DRM) support in HTML5 adaptive streaming
Expanded advertising support: full support for Google's Interactive Media Ads HTML5 and Flash SDKs

Today's announcement follows JW Player's recent pricing overhaul, which made the company's Pro version of the JW Player available for free, providing publishers with enterprise level video tools like customized branding, hosting and analytics at no cost. Paid levels (Premium, Enterprise, and Ads) provide access to enhanced streaming, hosting, monetization tools and more.

For more information on JW Player 7, including pricing, check out the product page http://jw7.jwplayer.com/.

With the JW7 release and its new pricing model, JW Player is focused on giving greater control to content developers looking to benefit from online video, offering publishers a strategic alternative to walled-garden video platforms such as YouTube and Facebook.

"At JW Player, we believe that video is the most effective form of communication. It is for that reason that companies of all shapes, sizes and product offerings have embraced the medium," says Jeroen Wijering, co-founder, JW Player. "The video industry is not what it was five years ago, or even six months ago. In an environment where nearly anyone can be a content creator, we must continue to proactively adapt and innovate. The industry must be able to offer entry-level publishers expanded functionality and tools, beyond just hosting services, while major publishers who rely on video for revenue must be able to better understand how their content is performing."

About JW Player
JW Player is the New York-based startup that pioneered video on the web and is now innovating for the future. Started in 2008 as the world's first open source video player, today the company's customers span the globe across 193 countries and range from Fortune 500 companies to individual bloggers. The company's flagship product, JW Player, is live on more than 2 million sites with over 700 million hours of videos watched monthly by over 1.2 billion monthly unique viewers across all devices — phones, tablets, and desktops. Nearly five percent of all video streams worldwide are delivered through JW Player. In addition to the player, the company's services include video hosting and streaming, advertising, and analytics. For more information, see www.jwplayer.com.

SOURCE JW Player