Globoplay abandons old TVs and joins Google

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Big Brother is so successful that it has become a problem for TV Globo. Earlier this year, those who tried to watch the reality show on Globoplay were often frustrated. It was virtually impossible to access the platform during the most exciting moments of the show.

At the time, Globo explained that Globoplay suffered from the “traffic blast effect”, when millions of users simultaneously migrated from the TV to the Rio station stream at the end of the program to continue following backstage.

Basically, the demand was so high that Globo’s infrastructure was unable to support the traffic.

In the last edition of BBB, more than 430 million hours were watched, of which 350 million in live streaming. The number of plays was 3.7 billion, with 2.4 billion live streams. There were peaks of 17.62 million concurrent requests on Globoplay, an increase of 352% compared to the previous edition, and still 2.618 million concurrent users on the platform, an increase of 261% compared to BBB20. The numbers were released by Raymundo Barros, Globo’s strategic and technological director, at the 5 × 5 Tec Summit, Friday 10.

Measures to reduce the impact of BBB22

In recent months, a revolution in Globo’s technology has taken place. First, the company’s data center was sold. Subsequently, a major contract was entered into between Google and the broadcaster to use the search giant’s technology and cloud services. Barros said at the meeting that the next BBB will already have Google services.

When asked what actions had been taken, in addition to the partnership with Google, to reduce the problems of BBB to Globoplay, Globo informed through his communication that measures such as “the increase of the infrastructure, the optimization of the code, the changes in the service architecture and the system shutdown at peak hours “were made.

In television broadcasts, actions to ‘move’ the explosion, such as delaying the end of the program in some squares, were adopted in the latest edition and will be used again.

Older TVs don’t work with Globoplay

Globo has also made large investments. The cost of the technology was among the company’s largest spending lines, along with content for Globoplay. In the first nine months of 2021, the costs and expenses of Grupo Globo were 28% higher than in the same period last year.

Who will be frustrated are the owners of old TVs. According to the Globo communication, another initiative was the implementation of a program to disable the application on televisions produced up to 2015. “We found that in these models there was a high probability of technical problems that could cause failures in live streaming transmission. This measure was necessary because manufacturers no longer support the operating systems that run on these old TVs, making it impossible to update the Globoplay app for the current needs of subscribers. “

The big bet for BBB22

Another measure taken by Globo was the expansion of its CDN (Content Delivery Network) structure. In short, CDN is a content delivery network connected to a group of geographically distributed servers that work together to provide fast delivery of content from the Internet.

Rather than just being on giant servers away from users’ homes, the content is also available on computers closest to users.

The move-to-cloud movement has also brought the most critical services and applications of Big Brother and Globoplay into a cloud computing environment as part of the close collaboration between Globo and Google Cloud.

“In the first case, the process of building its own CDN began in 2019, when the company closed the year with six POPs in operation. In 2020 it reached the threshold of 18 and, in the same year, it reached the its first international destination: the United States. In 2021 its points of presence were expanded to ensure a wide national distribution, reaching the milestone of 100 POPs in Brazil – as well as reaching Europe and Canada “, says the company.

Affiliates are part of the solution

Having your own CDN is one of the reasons Netflix is ​​so stable and hardly crashes. In this sense, Globo has the advantage of having affiliates spread across different regions of Brazil.

“This capillarity of the infrastructure guarantees the user a smaller jump to consume a video, exponentially improving the experience across the country, bringing the content served closer to the user, reducing the distance that data must travel between our servers and the subscriber’s device “, states the communication from Globo.

Much of the operation will already be in the cloud when BBB22 starts, “mainly systems that support the burst phenomenon.”

But it’s worth noting that Globoplay’s nature is different from Netflix and other streaming platforms. Globo’s platform is not just a video on demand (VOD) service, there is also a large portion of content consumed as live streaming.

The difference may not seem great to those who consume it, but from a technical point of view it is a huge challenge. When Italy streamed their Serie A football, the result was “hanging up” on the DAZN platform. Millions of Italians had access to the service at the same time to watch the matches and the service fell.

The incident generated indignation in the nation. The country’s broadband infrastructure, which is poor compared to other European countries, has been identified as the problem. In this case, a good CDN could also alleviate or remedy the problem.

Having a solid distribution network (CDN) can avoid this kind of problem. “What we have seen is that, since the last BBB, all of Globoplay’s consumer experience indices have shown significant improvements, which leads us to believe that the performance of the streaming service in the next season will maintain the best standards of quality “, states the Globo communication.

Globoplay is Globo’s priority

Globo has undergone a severe restructuring in recent years, with major cuts in employees and expenses with the aim of becoming a direct-to-consumer company. Globoplay is a central part of this strategy.

The growth of the platform has given encouraging signs. In the second half of this year, Globoplay’s revenue growth was 68% and its subscriber base increased 42% from the previous year. In the third quarter, the platform’s revenue grew by 70% and the subscriber base by 27% from the previous year. The strong growth in subscribers in the second half is directly related to the BBB.

The problem for Globo was the rapid growth of the platform’s costs, which required high investments in technology and content. Globo’s expectation is that Globoplay will only make a profit in 2024 or 2025. At the 5 × 5 Tec Summit, Globo’s director of technology highlighted that the big advantage of migrating to the cloud is not cost, but efficiency .

On January 17th, when BBB 22 debuts, we will find out how efficient Globoplay has become and whether the last few months of effort and investment will pay off.

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