HTML5 video: an update
I received a nice e-mail from Adam Wilcox in response to my post last night on Erik Huggers and open standards.
In it, he mentions a conversation he’d previously had with Alan Rusbridger on the subject of the video element. Alan said, at that time:
There are, also, other complex factors that we must consider concerning how we integrate essential business functions, such as video advertising and web analytics. Currently HTML5 does not offer simple solutions for either of these functions.
Now, it’s important to keep in mind what the HTML5 video element actually is, in the context of complex solutions such as Flowplayer and Brightcove. The video element is not a parallel to these kinds of solutions: like all HTML elements, it’s a building block — an equivalent to Flash’s built-in, low-level, video rendering facility. All of the clever things, like analytics, playlists, custom user interfaces, and so on, are crafted on top of this.
Likewise, the HTML5 video element provides a rich JavaScript API which can be built upon in the same way that Flash’s video widget is built upon with ActionScript.
And so, while it is certainly true that HTML5 video offers no in-built solution for advertising and analytics, the same is exactly as true of Flash video, too. In the case of Flash, there are plenty of offerings providing these facilities, and — predictably — such things are starting to appear for HTML5 video too.
Postscript regarding the BBC’s use of HTML5 video for iOS devices
Yes, it is true that the BBC does already employ HTML5 video for selected devices: specifically, iOS devices which don’t provide any means — without the aid of jailbreaking — keeping a copy of the streamed video. Because of the concern about people being able to jump through a myriad hoops in order to keep copies of streamed video, devices which make this slightly easier than a jailbreak are excluded from the HTML5 love.
