iOS SDK 4.21.0 introduces improved captions handling and multiple bug fixes.

New Feature

• The player now ignores side-loaded captions if a video already includes embedded captions, preventing duplicate entries in the captions menu.

Bug Fixes

• The Google IMA dependency has been updated to v3.22.1, resolving a bug that affected project builds in the Xcode Simulator.
• The player no longer pauses or crashes during video seeking.
• nextUpPlaylistIndex now correctly respects 0 as the first video in the playlist.

 Broadcast Live now allows stream metadata to be retained when using the Live Clipping feature.

New Feature

Tags and custom parameters from Broadcast Live streams can be copied to new clips created with the Live Clipping functionality. This feature helps organize and search content easily and is useful when working with dynamic playlists. 

To provide a more streamlined experience, JWP's updated captions editor will fully replace the legacy captions editor.

Deprecation

The legacy captions editor will be deprecated on 13 January 2025 and is no longer supported. Please use the updated editor in the JWP dashboard.

For more information, learn how to add and manage closed captions. 

Broadcast Live has improved support for static ingest points, DVR functionality, and Live2VOD for OTT Apps.

New Features

• Static ingest points can now be applied to 24/7 live channels. 
• DVR can now be enabled on SSAI properties. Read more about how DVR functionality behaves on SSAI-enabled properties.
• For OTT Apps, the publish date of the Live2VOD media can now be updated to match the event's start date once the stream has started. Broadcast Live will no longer automatically make changes to the publish date beyond the stream start.

In this release, we've enhanced the styling and invoicing features of the billing page.

New Features

• The UX of the Billing page has been improved by simplifying the layout and adding visual cues for the invoice status.
• Billing details can be easily edited from the Billing page.
• For Enterprise customers who use Zuora for recurring billing, the Billing page now provides general information about upcoming invoices.

JWP 8.36.3 introduces accessibility improvements.

New Features

• Keyboard focus in UI and menu elements has been improved.
• Screen readers now correctly interact with subtitle and caption elements.

We're excited to introduce the Dynamic Strategy Rules library, a new feature designed to simplify strategy management. 

New Feature

This library provides a centralized repository for creating, storing, and reusing configurations for your JW Player Experiences.

Key Benefits

• Reuse configurations across branches and strategies
• Run A/B tests between configurations, promoting winning setups to enhance strategy performance
• Create multiple versions of each configuration type
• Centrally manage updates that automatically apply across all uses of the configuration

For more details, see the complete documentation for defining experiences in the Dynamic Strategy Rules library to create a JW Player Experience.

Deprecation

Advertising and Content Experiences will be deprecated. We strongly recommend recreating these experiences in the Dynamic Strategy Rules library.

• All Ad Experience features are available in an Advertising experience configuration.
• All Content Experience features are available on either the Player UX or Media Curation experience configuration.

This update introduces new features, including easier navigation from placements to linked strategies, a trigger action for setting autostart behavior, and support for infinite scrolling websites. Additionally, the Click to Play on error setting for pre-roll ads has been deprecated.

New Features

• When a placement is linked to a strategy, you can click View Strategy on the placement's settings page to navigate to the strategy.
• You can set autostart behavior through a new trigger action.
• The placement embed script now supports infinite scrolling websites.

Deprecation

The Click to Play on error setting for pre-roll ads on the Advertising Experience page has been removed. 

To recreate this behavior, you can create a trigger with the following settings:

• Trigger Type: Advertising Event
• Trigger Event: Ad No Fill
• Event Trigger Frequency: Every time
• Action Type: Player/Playback + Action: Stop
• Action Type: Player/Playback + Action: Set Autostart > Off (This prevents the player from restarting when a viewer scrolls the player back into view.)

Setting up Broadcast Live webhooks lets you receive notifications about stream events.

New Feature

Webhooks allow you to automate your workflow for Broadcast Live events by sending notifications to a designated URL endpoint when specific events occur, such as stream creation or streams going live.

Possible Webhook Events:

• Stream created
• Stream deleted
• Stream go live
• Stream transitioned
• Stream updated

You can now apply the placement ID and placement embed ID metrics to reports.

New Features

The placement ID metric can now be added when creating a Custom Report and querying data through Data Sharing.

The placement embed ID metric can now be added when querying data through Data Sharing.