Metrics overview

Understanding viewer engagement and the overall Quality of Experience (QoE) is essential for platforms and video developers. With our FastPix video data solution, we provide valuable insights that enable you to measure and enhance these critical aspects. This guide will explore the key metrics we have defined to assess viewer engagement and QoE, helping you optimize content delivery and improve user satisfaction.

Understanding views in video metrics

A "view" is defined as any attempt to play a video, regardless of whether the playback is successful. This includes instances where a viewer clicks the play button or when playback is initiated programmatically.

How views are counted:

• Initiation of playback: A view is recorded as soon as a viewer attempts to start the video. This means that even if playback fails (for example, due to buffering issues or network interruption), it still counts as one view.
• Session duration: Each view remains active until the video playback is either completed or interrupted—such as when the viewer navigates away from the page. Additionally, if playback stops but the viewer does not explicitly end it, the view will be counted for up to one hour.
• Continuous viewing: If a viewer pauses and then resumes watching the same video, it is still counted as a single view. Similarly, if a video is looped or replayed during a single session, it will not increase the view count.

Implications for data collection

When analyzing metrics based on views, it's essential to recognize that our measurements are derived from data collected during each unique viewing session. Therefore, if you notice an unexpectedly high number of views in your dashboard, it may be beneficial to review the implementation of your data tracking code to ensure that it initializes correctly for each playback attempt.

What metrics you get

To effectively measure viewer engagement and QoE, we categorize our metrics into six main groups:

1. Audience Metrics: These metrics focus on quantifying viewer engagement with the platform.
2. Quality of Experience (QoE) Metrics: These metrics assess the overall experience of viewers while interacting with video content.
3. Playback Metrics: These metrics provide insights into how effectively videos are being accessed and viewed by users.
4. Startup Metrics: Startup metrics measure the initial performance of a video upon playback.
5. Stability Metrics: Stability Metrics measure the reliability of video playback to ensure a smooth viewing experience.
6. Render Quality Metrics: Render quality metrics evaluate the visual quality experienced by viewers

Using APIs to retrieve metrics

To get audience metrics like Views across different timeframes and filter options, you can use the FastPix API endpoints. Below is a step-by-step guide to walk you through retrieving these metrics.

Step 1: Set up your API access

Before making requests to the FastPix API, ensure you have your Access Token ID and Secret Key ready for authentication. See the Basic Authentication Guide  for details on retrieving these credentials.

Step 2: Retrieve overall values for views

To get the views metric across different timeframes, you can use the [/overall](Step 2: Retrieve overall values for views To get the views metric across different timeframes, you can use the /overall endpoint. Here’s how to make a request: ) endpoint. Here’s how to make a request:

curl --request GET \ 
     --url 'https://v1.fastpix.io/data/metrics/views/overall?timespan[]=30:days' \ 
     --header 'accept: application/json' \ 
     --user '{Access_Token}:{Secret_Key} 

In the above request, you need to replace {Access Token ID} and {Secret Key} with your actual credentials. Also, adjust the `timespan` parameter as needed (Example: `7:days`, `30:days`, etc.).

{
  "success": true,
  "metadata": {
    "aggregation": "view_end"
  },
  "data": {
    "value": 118,
    "totalWatchTime": 2643439,
    "totalViews": 118,
    "totalPlayTime": 1722574,
    "uniqueViews": 15,
    "globalValue": 0.5107432787924294
  },
  "timespan": [
    1735117394,
    1737709394
  ]
}

Please refer our API reference for overall values to understand more about different parameters that you can apply.

Similarly, in order to visualize the value of a metric and number of views within a timeframe, you can use Get timeseries data endpoint . The response includes an array of data points, each representing the metric's value and view count at specific intervals.

Also, to understand how views are split across different dimensions like browser, device type, you can use List breakdown values . For instance, if you want to analyze how watch time varies across different device types. By calling this endpoint for the "watch time" metric and filtering by "device type," you can understand how engagement differs between mobile, desktop, and tablet users. This data will guide optimization efforts for different platforms.