Distributed Video Coding (DVC) is a new video coding paradigm based on two major Information Theory results: the Splepian-Wolf and Wyner-Ziv theorems. Recently, practical DVC solutions have been proposed with promising results; however, there is still a need to study in a more systematic way the set of application scenarios for which DVC may bring major advantages. This paper intends to contribute for the identification of the most DVC friendly application scenarios, highlighting the expected benefits and drawbacks for each studied scenario. This selection is based on a proposed methodology which involves the characterization and clustering of the applications according to their most relevant characteristics, and their matching with the main potential DVC benefits. (© 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved)