If your organization has been using Microsoft Stream , this news is useful! Microsoft has announced plans to retire Stream (Classic) and we anticipate that the Stream portal will no longer be available in about 24 months. Microsoft has published information about the planned retirement of Stream and the move to Stream (on SharePoint). It is important to note that Stream (on SharePoint) will not be available fully in GCC. Here are the details (From Microsoft).
Past
- September 2020 – Announcement of Stream (on SharePoint) and plan for a migration tool to help move content out of Stream (Classic)
- October 2022 – Opt-in for new meeting recordings to be saved to OneDrive & SharePoint instead of Stream (Classic)
- January 2021 – Opt-out for new meeting recordings to be saved to OneDrive & SharePoint instead of Stream (Classic)
- June 2021 – Stream (on SharePoint) new start page for office.com available under public preview
- August 2021 – New meeting recordings always saved to OneDrive & SharePoint instead of Stream (Classic)
- November 2021 – Announcement & demos of migration tool
- December 2021 – Migration tool available under private preview
- July 2022 – New Stream web app player added for videos in SharePoint & OneDrive with transcripts, chapters, comments, custom thumbnails, etc.
- October 2022
- Stream (on SharePoint) moved to general availability
- Migration tool + classic report available to all customers (except GCC) under public preview
Upcoming
- Estimate early Q1 CY2023 – Retirement date notice
- Stream (Classic) retirement date announcement
- Migration tool enhancements:
- Allow filtering of videos moved in a container to allow cleanup of unused content during migration
- Single video embed codes redirect and play inline
- New settings added to schedule/delay blocking of uploads & tenant disablement
- Retirement date notice + 3 months – No new videos can be uploaded to Stream (Classic) unless you take action to delay this change
- Retirement date notice + 6 months – No new videos can be uploaded to Stream (Classic) for any customers
- Retirement date notice + 8 months – Users no longer able to access or use Stream (Classic) unless you delay this change
- Retirement date notice + 12 months – Stream (Classic) is fully retired & automatically disabled
- Users no longer able to access or use Stream (Classic)
- Service shutdown will begin
- Any remaining content in Stream (Classic) that wasn’t migrated will begin being deleted
- Retirement date notice + 24 months – Stream (Classic) links and embed codes will no longer redirect to the migrated videos in OneDrive & SharePoint
Perspectives from the Kiefer Team
In speaking with our team of consultants, they have pointed out that they expect to see more integration with Microsoft 365 and fewer “portals” in the ecosystem. Stream (Classic) is a portal, you save videos in the stream location. Stream (on SharePoint) is integrated into M365, allowing you to get all of the benefits of Stream while saving videos just like any other document, form, job aid, etc..

Some customers have invested heavily in Stream (classic) using it to store training videos, internal video content, etc.. With the significant growth and investment in Microsoft Teams, and the more common use of Teams meeting recordings and transcriptions, Microsoft is demonstrating that it is possible to expand into video as documentation.
We anticipate this announcement will result in clients with questions about –
- Planning/Governance –
- Where should we put videos? How do existing videos map into SharePoint?
- Migration –
- How do we move our videos?
Kiefer can help you in making a plan and help you in preparing SharePoint for enterprise use. Contact us and we can schedule time with one of our experts!