AWS Partner Network (APN) Blog
Watch Brasil Securely Streams Live Linear Content to Hundreds of Thousands of Viewers with Kaltura
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Watch Brasil is a provider of streaming services for 400 internet service providers (ISPs) in Brazil. Headquartered in Curitiba, Paraná, Watch Brasil offers video-on-demand content as well as live linear streaming to subscribers in every Brazilian state.
Watch Brasil grew its subscriber base to 500,000 and reduced piracy to zero after launching a next-generation streaming television service powered by AWS Partner Kaltura.
The company was looking for a way to stream live linear content, and Watch Brasil turned to Kaltura to deploy a solution that prepares, manages, publishes, distributes, and monetizes on-demand and live content using AWS media services. With its cloud-native streaming infrastructure, Watch Brasil can scale to stream content to hundreds of thousands of concurrent viewers around the world.
Kaltura’s mission is to power any video experience. Its market-leading video platform, video player, and wide array of video solutions are deployed globally across thousands of enterprises, media companies, service providers, and educational institutions, leveraging video to teach, learn, communicate, collaborate, and entertain.
Bringing Live and On-Demand Video to Brazilian Households
Watch Brasil was founded in 2018 to reliably deliver high-quality video content over the internet to Brazilian households. Working directly with regional ISPs, the company wanted to launch a streaming television service and distribute content to ISPs who could offer its service to their subscribers.
In spring 2021, Watch Brasil launched its next-generation streaming solution on Amazon Web Services (AWS). This streaming solution is powered by Kaltura and built on cloud-native AWS infrastructure. With Kaltura’s platform, Watch Brasil launched 54 linear channels in a matter of months and is now able to stream engaging content for subscribers to watch on the web, mobile devices, and connected televisions.
Within the first 6 months after launching the streaming service, Watch Brasil was streaming a wide array of content, including news, general entertainment, comedy and drama series, and international and national sports. It also grew its user base by over 25%.
Finding a Cloud-Native Streaming Solution
Kaltura is an AWS Competency Partner and software provider that helps operators and media companies transform their business and deliver cloud-based, next-generation television experiences.
“Among our offerings, we have a flexible streaming solution based on configurable modules, adapters, and open APIs,” says Alex Kalil, Director of Customer Success at Kaltura. “Our customers can create a competitive solution by connecting a wide range of third-party systems to our solution and develop streaming services that are adapted to their needs.”
When Watch Brasil began searching for a technology partner to deliver its live linear content, the company turned to Kaltura.
“We developed a trusting relationship, and we are very happy with the solution that Kaltura is delivering to us,” says Maurício Almeida, CEO of Watch Brasil.
After engaging Kaltura, Watch Brasil began distributing live content using Kaltura’s video player, supporting more than 8,000 device types. The cloud-native video player uses Amazon CloudFront, a content delivery network that securely delivers content to viewers with low latency and high transfer speeds.
Delivering Live Linear Content Using AWS Media Services
In 2020, Brazil changed its licensing laws and opened the digital entertainment market to ISPs. With the support of Kaltura, Watch Brasil was among the first companies in the country to take advantage of these new regulations. Kaltura delivered Watch Brasil’s next-generation streaming television service in only four months and helped increase the streaming provider’s subscriber base from 300,000 to 500,000.
After registering 150% growth in 2021, Watch Brasil attracted the attention of investors. In March 2022, the streaming company received an investment of R$28 million from venture capital firm Bertha Capital. This investment will support Watch Brasil’s continued expansion.
“In 2022, we project to reach two million subscribers, a growth of 400%,” says Ado Oliveira, Chief Content Officer and Co-Founder of Watch Brasil. “By 2023, we plan to double this number to four million subscribers.”
In addition to its streaming service, Watch Brasil continues to offer its video-on-demand content to 400 ISPs.
Kaltura’s solution uses AWS media services to support linear streaming, particularly AWS Elemental MediaLive, a solution that creates high-quality video streams through broadcast-grade live video processing. Kaltura’s platform also uses AWS Elemental MediaPackage to effectively prepare and protect content for delivery over the internet.
Digital rights management (DRM) is a critical component to securely deliver linear content and to protect the service from piracy viewing.
“When we speak with studios that create content, DRM is very important,” says Almeida. “With Kaltura’s AWS-powered solution, it’s very simple for us to meet strict requirements from studios and media providers.”
To support its multi-device DRM solution, Kaltura uses MediaPackage as well as a custom solution built using Amazon API Gateway, which makes it easy to create, publish, maintain, monitor, and secure APIs at virtually any scale. Kaltura’s solution reduced piracy frequency from 80% to zero during a soccer game in November 2021.
Using Kaltura’s cloud-native solution, Watch Brasil was able to quickly scale and support new users without the need to invest in its own data center. This has significantly reduced its infrastructure costs. By simultaneously saving costs and increasing subscriber revenue, the company was able to provision the necessary resources to scale the solution and support future growth.
Using Data Analytics to Shape the Future of Streaming
Using Kaltura’s online video solution powered by AWS infrastructure, Watch Brasil is expanding into new markets and rapidly growing its subscriber base. The provider can scale to support hundreds of thousands of concurrent viewers on the cloud. In the future, Watch Brasil will finish rolling out linear channels and adopt a third-party data analytics solution to better understand content performance, delivering deeper insights and metrics to its media providers.
By innovating and expanding its service, Watch Brasil can continue to support its future expansion.
“We are in a new market and in the middle of a digital transformation,” says Almeida. “There are a lot of streaming services available, so we need to understand exactly what our customers need and want. With the support of Kaltura, we are achieving our goals.”
Benefits
- Grew subscriber base from 300,000 to 500,000.
- Reduced piracy from 80% to zero for a live streaming event.
- Reduced infrastructure costs compared to on-premises solution.
- Scales to support hundreds of thousands of concurrent viewers.
- Increased number of subscribers by 25% in the first six months after launch.
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Kaltura – AWS Partner Spotlight
Kaltura is an AWS Competency Partner whose mission is to power any video experience. Its market-leading video platform, video player, and wide array of video solutions are deployed globally across thousands of enterprises, media companies, service providers, and educational institutions, leveraging video to teach, learn, communicate, collaborate, and entertain.