[mikeryan]

HLS was a significant improvement over other options for live (rtmp) and adaptive bitrate solutions.

I mean it could be delivered via HTTP and was was built off of open standards for the manifest files. (HLS just breaks down mp4 files into smaller chunks and lists them in a text manifest file based on the mp3 playlist spec) *

It significantly moved the needle forward on how video was delivered and did so in a standards based way until DASH came along.

Not sure why the hate here for their “proprietary standard” it wasn't proprietary - just no one was using it and it eventually became a defacto standard because it “just works”.

* I know I’m simplifying this.

[duskwuff]

In particular, HLS allows existing HTTP load balancers and content distribution networks to be reused for video streaming -- you don't need to build or buy application-specific infrastructure to use it, as you would have with previous streaming protocols.