The core QoE metrics
- Video start time: seconds from pressing play to the first frame
- Rebuffering ratio: time spent stalled as a share of time spent watching
- Start failures: plays that never begin
- Playback failures: sessions that end in an error
- Average bitrate and resolution delivered
- Quality switches: how often the picture steps up or down
QoE vs QoS
Quality of service (QoS) describes the network and infrastructure: throughput, latency, error rates, server response. Quality of experience describes the result for the person watching. Good QoS usually produces good QoE, but the two can diverge: every server can be healthy while a player bug ruins playback on one device model.
Why it matters
Playback problems cost viewing, and viewing drives both advertising revenue and renewals. Slow starts lose viewers before the first frame. Stalls end sessions. A subscriber who meets errors repeatedly cancels and tells others why.
Using QoE data
- Break every metric down by device, app version, region, network and CDN
- Look at the worst-served viewers, not only the average
- Compare before and after each app release and encoding change
- Set alerts for sudden rises in failures during live events
- Relate QoE to retention: which problems precede cancellations
Last reviewed