WEBINAR – TV5MONDEplus

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

Hi. Welcome to the webinar,
everybody.

I’m Ben Schwarz,
and I’m really excited

to be moderating this webinar
on a real-world deployment.

I’m really sure
you’re going to learn a lot

from the pioneering experiences

of the public service
broadcaster TV5MONDEplus.

We will first have
a presentation coming up

from Hélène Zemmour,

who is the project’s
business owner.

That will be followed by
two shorter presentations

from Red Bee Media

and Dotscreen,
who built that project,

and we’ll reserve about half
of our time for interactions,

discussions
and answering your questions.

So please don’t hesitate to
post any questions in the Q&A,

which you can find
on the right of your screen.

And so, without further ado,

I’d like to hand over the floor
to Hélène

to present herself and take us
through the project. Hélène .

Yes, thank you, Ben.
Hello, everyone.

I’m Hélène Zemmour, I’m
head of digital of TV5MONDE,

which is the French-speaking
worldwide channel,

and I’m going to present you
this wonderful project,

TV5MONDEplus.

So let me just share my screen.

OK, so TV5MONDEplus

is the world Francophone
video on-demand platform.

It was launched
in September 2020

with all our partners,
public TV channels.

And first of all, the idea

of creating a multilateral
French-speaking VOD platform

appeared in 2018.

French President Macron
and Canadian President Trudeau

asked TV5MONDE to work on
a French-speaking VOD platform.

So in order to answer
to the challenge,

we had to conduct
a market study,

especially in
our target countries,

such as Democratic Republic
of Congo, Belgium and Nigeria.

And this study showed
the importance

of a free OTT model

versus an SVOD model,
such as Netflix.

So we had to budget
and conceive this offer,

and we worked with

the management consultant
firm Thinkmarket

on that very first part.

Its main objective of this
platform is the discoverability

of Francophone programmes,

so French-speaking people and
people who want to learn French

from around the world
can discover

via one single interface

the very best
of French language programmes.

It’s accessible everywhere
in the world,

with content offered
exclusively

in the French original version

and subtitled in five,
and soon six, languages,

which are French, English,
Spanish, Arabic and German.

It’s a unique offer,
with content coming

from French-speaking
countries’

public service broadcasters.

It’s a worldwide offer

available in 214 countries
and territories,

which means eight different
areas and home pages

that are monthly refreshed
manually.

So every single content and the
home page is selected manually

in order to ensure
our mission of discoverability,

but also to make sure
that all of our partners

are fairly represented.

So it’s a kind of
anti-algorithm approach.

The deadlines we had to
respect were very important

because when usually
the release date is determined,

according to the project here,

the roadmaps and milestones
were built

to respect the release date
due to the budget constraint

from Canada, who was our main
investor in the project.

The budget was fixed
and non-expandable

and it needed to be respected,

so we decided to launch a
minimum viable project, an MVP,

that was built in order to be
able to respect the budget.

And so we had to make choices

in terms of features
and distribution.

And this MVP has since evolved
and changed a lot.

And finally, the international
situation brought by Covid

added some unexpected
challenges,

as suddenly the whole project
had to be developed remotely.

The choice of a partner
was very important too.

They were more than operators.
They were really partners.

We work with Thinkmarket
on the strategy

and distribution part,

with Red Bee and Dotscreen,

and also with Dare.Win,
who is the agency

who worked on the multilingual
digital campaign

on the project.

And we worked on…
We developed more than

30 workshops with internal
and external participants.

We worked on macro projects
such as the digital platform,

of course,

all the different interfaces,

the framework, the catalogue,
the brand awareness,

because we launched
TV5MONDEplus,

which was a new brand.

We also worked on marketing,
web marketing, retention,

and also on partnerships.

as we contractualised

with…museum and institutions.

So the objective was to release
an MVP

that we could then enrich
and complete,

and we worked on all these
workshops simultaneously.

Here is a sum-up of our model
that we choose to respect,

to…

We had to respect
our constraints

and answer our mission
of discoverability.

General content is coming
from our partners,

French-speaking countries,

but also TV5MONDE productions,

as well as acquisitions.

All content is on demand.

It’s available everywhere
at any time.

It’s on every device.
It’s all free.

It’s a multilingual offer

and authentication
is not mandatory.

If you have a look at
the distribution, at the launch

TV5MONDEplus was available
everywhere in the world

but in China,
in the Netherlands,

in Canada and in the USA.

China is for contractual
reasons.

The Netherlands
was to protect

our local commercial deals.

Canada, we had to respect
Canadian producers

we are working with,

so they provide only
a selection of our content

on the website tv5unis.ca.

And talking about the USA,

it was closed at the launch
of the platform,

but then, and now, it’s open
to our channel subscribers

through a dispersal
of TV Everywhere.

We are also available
on smart TVs and boxes,

such as Samsung, LG,
Amazon Fire TV

and, very soon, in Africa,

on Cesar boxes.

Talking about content,

we provide 6,000 hours
of free content,

and after a bit more
than a year of existence,

we see that, without surprises,

it’s TV series

as well as theatrical movies,
cinema,

that are the most watched
on the platform.

Our three main editorial
successes in 2021

are original and exclusive
African productions,

Canadian TV series,

such as the huge Canadian
local success 19-2,

which is a police series
and which is now watched

even in Africa.

The web creation are original,
and exclusive contents as well,

and they are created
and developed especially

for digital use.

And we see that
these short formats

with digital narrative codes

are also targeting
young adult audiences.

So here is a quick video

that presents TV5MONDEplus
and its main features.

Here are just a couple
of examples of features

added since the launch
in September 2020.

We have the downloading feature
that allow users to access

the downloaded video offline.

It was launched
in February 2021

and this feature
is especially important

for the African audience.

For them, data is expensive

and less accessible than
in other areas of the world,

so it’s quite important.
The source countries

are very concerned
by this feature.

And it shows that
our product today is no longer

the MVP launched
in September 2020,

and it will be very different
in a year, as we’re working

with our partners
to continuously improve

and develop the platform
TV5MONDEplus.

The product is continuously
improving.

We are improving
our customised settings,

for instance,
with better filters,

especially important
for the African market.

We are working
on advanced research

adapted to the specificity
of our offer.

For instance, we can filter
contents and programmes

through the language
of subtitles,

through the length
of a content,

through its category.

And also, we can do
a research on keywords.

And we are also constantly
working on improving the UX.

If we have the quick look
on the KPI,

on the number of visits,
we can see

a global increase
over the year.

And on the KPI of
started-video views,

the increase is even more
significant,

which is very encouraging
because this is our main KPI.

And globally
throughout the year,

we had 18 million visits.

The main areas of this KPI
are Maghreb Middle East,

followed by
Sub-Saharan Africa,

and then
the Pacific Asian area.

These visits generated
7.5 million views.

And the main areas
are slightly different.

We still have Maghreb
Middle East, in number one.

But then we have European
non-French-speaking countries,

and South America,

so it’s proved that
the subtitles are working.

And of course, the Spanish
subtitles in South America.

For 2022…

…we are aiming to maintain
and accelerate these trends

throughout the year
by improving the product

and the user experience,

and the development and
consolidation of our data tools

to optimise
our media campaign.

So we’ll try to improve
the quality of our visits

to better target our audiences.

So what’s coming next?

Monaco is now part
of the TV5MONDE board,

and they will
ensure financial stability.

They will take part of
TV5MONDEplus, of course,

and it’s great news
for our worldwide channel.

We are working within
the next weeks

on the advanced search.

We keep developing features
to meet market standards.

We are working on a new
language, as I said, Romanian,

because Romania is a strategic
market to address.

It represents strong audience
base and potential growth.

We are also working
on SEO optimisation,

which is a very strong
pillar of discoverability.

And we are working
on the data warehouse,

which is key to have a better
knowledge of our audience

to better address them.

So that’s it. If you have
some questions,

I’ll be very pleased
to help answer.

(MUTED)

Then we can hear you…

I think you closed
your microphone.

Yep, been two years
of using these tools,

and one still forgets
to unmute, I’m sorry!

Thank you.
That was really interesting,

and I just wanted to ask you
one question

before I hand over to Thanh.
I know that you yourself,

and anybody can see this
on your LinkedIn profile,

have been involved in the web
and OTT for quite a few years.

But this big new project,

it’s a question not so much for
you, but to answer on behalf

of your organisation,
how really disruptive is it

for a traditional broadcaster
to move to OTT?

Well, we had been working
on some applications,

African applications,
before, or some OTT websites,

but this is the first platform,

multicultural platform,
multilateral,

that we are definitely
developing

with our public French-speaking
partners.

So it was really more
than TV5MONDE.

We are definitely working
with our partners

and especially with Canada,

so it was really challenging
and disruptive,

working with data,
with rights

and all that is involved
in a platform.

OK, well, thanks. I’m sure
we’ll get back to that

in the discussion.
Thanks, Hélène.

So let’s move over, then,

to have a look at the back-end
challenges of this project.

Thanh, if you want to not make
the same mistake as me

and unmute yourself,
the floor is yours!

Yeah, thanks. Thanks, Ben.

Thanks for having me today.

Hello, everyone. My name
is Cong-Thanh Nguyen.

I am the customer success
manager

of TV5MONDE at Red Bee Media.

And Red Bee Media is

a leading global media
services company

to some of the biggest
media brands in the world.

We are proposing services
to many broadcasters

and content owners as well.

And we offer today
a global reach

with operations in Europe,

the US, Middle East
and Asia Pacific.

Today, what I’m going to do
is to present you

Red Bee Media Pulse,

which is a fully managed
OTT service.

The OTT platform we are
proposing to our customer

is a result of more than
ten years of investment

from Red Bee Media…

…on this platform,

and this platform
has been built…

…upon industry best-of-breed
solution and equipment

with an in-house
management layer.

It’s a fully
cloud-native platform.

It provides service
for multiclient platform,

where the features
and the innovation

are developed and shared
with all our customers.

We are bringing our technical
and operational expertise

of providing broadcast services
to tier-one broadcasters

for almost 20 years

when we built this platform.

The OTT platform
we are providing

can bring value proposition
for broadcasters, of course,

but also to telco companies,

brands, to be sure,

but also rights holders.

So we have a very broad
scope of services

which can be delivered.

Today for TV5MONDEplus,

we are proposing
a VOD platform,

but we also support live events
or live channel as well.

So we are very flexible
in this way.

And in terms of commercial
model for the customer,

we also support every type
of business model

coming from SVOD,

subscription, AVOD,

pay-per-view and also
FAST channel as well.

And for our customer
point of view,

we are proposing a very simple
commercial model

with a fully pay-as-you-grow
model,

which limits the investment
and the risk

for our customer
and the industry.

Today, if I go more in detail

about what we are proposing
for TV5MONDEplus,

we are providing to TV5
the back-end infrastructure,

including
the whole content preparation,

the packaging,
the protection with DRM

on every platform,

the origin service

and a player SDK for the
front-end apps integration,

which is done by our partner,
Dotscreen.

TV5MONDE and Red Bee Media

are working for
a very long time now.

However, with the OTT platform,

which is new for them,

we have been selected
based on our…

…on the capacity
of our platform.

We are very flexible.

We have a very large…
large feature set.

As I said, it’s a cloud-native
architecture,

with microservices
which are evolving every day.

So we are constantly investing
and adding new features

on the platform,
which is, as I said,

shared among
all our customers

to bring more features.

It’s a cloud base,
so it can scale up and down

very easily,
depending on capacity needs,

which was very useful
when we launched

TV5MONDEplus at the beginning,

to absorb the peak
of registration

when people start to register

at the beginning
of the service.

More specifically,
for TV5MONDEplus,

the main challenges were…

…when we launched
the service globally

is the content rights
management.

TV5MONDE
has different rights

for the same content, depending
on different countries.

So we have to provide
a very flexible data model

which all of TV5MONDE were…
to publish the content

per region and per country.

And of course, it’s with
the geo-blocking features

we are providing as a standard.

They can easily filter
the correct content

for the correct audience.

Again, when we launched
the service,

TV5MONDEplus was available
on web-mobile and desktop,

but also on iOS phone
and Android phone.

But since then, we launched
the app on smart TVs,

such as LG and Samsung,

Android TV as well,
Fire TV.

And now we are working
with our partner Dotscreen

to deploy the application
in Africa

on set-top boxes as well
as in Europe as well.

So, thank you for having me.

And now I hand over to Stan.

Thank you, Thanh.
Good afternoon, everyone.

I won’t share any slides,
but maybe, in a nutshell,

I’d like to introduce you
to Dotscreen,

as some of you
may not know us.

So, Dotscreen is
a UI agency and app developer.

We either license customisable
off-the-shelf solutions

or we develop bespoke front-end
video and audio applications

for any kind of device,

from the small screens
such as mobile, tablet, PC,

to the big screens –
smart TV, game consoles,

set-top box, Roku and others.

Our business footprint
is quite international.

We will span… Our business
spans across Europe,

the Middle East,
North and South America,

and we just signed a client
in Asia.

But something which is quite
important about Dotscreen

is we are very specialised.

We do nothing but
front-end video applications.

There is a lot to do

and I think we are very
well placed to partner

with companies such
as Red Bee Media

that can bring to the solution

one of the best
back-end platforms,

and this is probably why,
as Hélène mentioned,

TV5MONDE selected us –

because they had
the two modules

that allow channels
such as TV5

to release a worldwide
OTT distribution solution.

So this is what Dotscreen
is about, and I’d be happy

to answer any questions.

(MUTED)

You’re mute, Ben, again.

It takes a while. There we go.
Thanks. Thanks, Stan.

That was really very concise
and interesting.

Before I open the floor
to general questions,

I have a quick one for you.

I know that all the marketeers
in OTT space,

they measure engagement.
Engagement is the big thing,

how you get users to interact.

And as you were the ones
who built the interface,

could you address the specific
audience engagement challenge

of this kind of crazy project
in 194 countries?

How do you manage
the engagement?

How do you measure it?

How do you make the UI
that makes people want

to feel engaged
with the TV5MONDE brand?

That’s a good question.

I would say that, before
answering you, if you allow me,

I would probably say a few
words about, you know,

the audience engagement
expectations,

and not so much, you know,
the challenges,

because the expectations
are quite common

for any OTT player.

You know, briefly,
they all want

a kind of Netflix-like UI
and solution,

but they don’t give us
the time nor the budget

to deliver it.

So this is why we need
to have in place, you know,

a robust solution
off the shelf

that both, you know, Red Bee
has on the back-end side

and we have
on the front-end side,

and we need to be agile as well
to customise these solutions,

because that’s the other point,
you know,

about the audience engagement.

The expectation is,
all our customers,

or most of our customers,
not to say all,

they all say at the beginning,

“OK, given the time, given
the budget, I’m happy to go

“for something very generic
and on the shelf.”

And then this is where,
you know, the work is started,

because they all want
something customised,

bespoke to their needs
or to their strategy.

So, probably the way
we develop as well allows us

to be able to adapt
our solution

to the needs,
the audience profiles

of the content provider

and to release on time
a product that could be also

enhanced on a regular basis.

But coming to your question,
which is about the challenges.

First, we knew from
the beginning that TV5

had a strong foothold on
certain areas or countries,

such as Africa, for instance,

where, as Hélène mentioned,
the bandwidth

is not always accessible.

the level of bandwidth
may also be quite low,

and also this bandwidth
is sometimes hardly affordable

for the local population.

So this has led to a few, you
know, things we put in place.

One was the possibility
for the end user to select

the encoding quality as well,
depending upon the bandwidth

and also depending
upon his budget.

We also, you know,
support some…

So it’s not just regular
adaptive bitrate that goes

to the best possible quality?

You’re saying that
you’re letting users

lower that quality

when they have restricted
bandwidth issues

or data issues?

Correct. They can really
select these…

That feature is not available
in Netflix, say?

The Netflix app?

I doubt that this is the case,

but maybe it is.
I don’t remember.

Even though I’m a Netflix user!

Another example – you know,
we had to support

Android 2 or 3
mobile phones in Africa,

which are very low-end
devices,

which are hardly,
you know, available everywhere.

The other thing as well
is, from the beginning,

as it’s been mentioned,

this is a truly
international platform,

multilingual, offering audio
and video, with the subtitles.

And as Hélène said,
TV5MONDEplus didn’t want

to do a kind of Netflix model,
algorithm based,

but they really want
to have the capacity

to make the home page
different

from one language to another,
from one country to another.

So this is why, thanks to
the CMS brought by Red Bee,

we offer five, and soon six,
different home pages

per type of, you know,
language.

So these are, you know,
the different challenges

that we had to implement
in a matter of months.

Because as we said, you know,

the contract was inked
on March 2020

and the service was live early
September of the same year.

So within five months,
in the lockdown situation

and during summer time,

we, together with
Red Bee Media, we managed,

and TV5MONDE as well,

because this is a very
collaborative project,

we managed to release
the first version on time.

OK, well, actually,
that’s a fantastic lead

on to the first question, which
I can field to the whole panel.

Our most courageous audience
member, Marta, asked

the first question. I’ve seen
a second question is there.

So, remember, everybody,
there’s the panel on the right,

and on the front of the
screen there’s the speakers,

but the panel on the right to
ask questions. Don’t hesitate.

The first question is a lead

on from what
you just finished on, Stan.

So maybe start with Hélène.

The specific issues
due to the lockdown…

You said the lockdown
made it complicated,

but give us some examples.
How did you manage that?

How did it change this project
from a normal project,

that it was totally, totally
built during lockdown

and launched during lockdown?

Well, yes, of course, you can
imagine that it was

quite a hard job to create
team building

during this lockdown,

and we also had to hire
people only remotely,

so it was quite a hard part
too.

But, well, yes, I think that
all the team

was very involved
in the project,

and even if we had
some people getting sick

during the project,
I think that we all tried

to respect the delays.

And, yeah, we worked,
as everyone,

only 100% remote,

and we decided
to choose some features

that could be developed later.

They turned up
to…on the global planning.

Thanks, and, Thanh, tell me,
the platform,

is it completely in the cloud

or is there some specialised
hardware

that you had to set up
for TV5MONDE?

How did that happen with
being all locked down

and not being able
to go on site?

Yeah, it’s a very good
question, Ben.

So, for TV5, I mean,
the platform is fully cloud.

I mean, it’s fully hosted
in the cloud, public cloud

and private cloud as well.

So it gives us the opportunity
to launch the service

with very minimum
hardware requirements.

And on this one, we have
no hardware requirements

to put in place,

which was very handy for us

to launch the service
very quickly.

To give you an example, we are
able to start a new service

within 20 minutes.
So it takes more time to define

what we need to do
than doing it.

So it’s really important
to know that.

And, well, for TV5MONDEplus,

I guess we spent a lot of time
doing Teams meeting.

So, it takes a lot of time to
define the UI and UX,

but maybe Stan
can give more detail.

But from our point of view,
it was quite easy.

We have a local presence,

so that we can do low-level
specification in French,

which is very important
for TV5MONDE.

And, yeah, and the deployment
was very, very quick for us.

So, all three of you, when you
hand over to Stan, I get it,

all three of you
were Paris-based,

and that was part of what made
it easier to do it in lockdown.

Well, that doesn’t quite make
sense, because if you think

of it in lockdown,
whether you were in Ontario,

whether you were in Quebec City
or in Paris…

Well, I suppose
there’s time zone issues,

so the time zones
were the same,

but you couldn’t go and meet
for coffee.

– Yeah.
– Yeah. Go ahead, Hélène.

The time zone question
is definitely an issue,

because when you are working
in the morning,

if you are working
with Canadian people,

then you cannot reach them,

so it’s not that easy actually

to work with worldwide partners
sometimes.

So it was important to have
Red Bee and Dotscreen

that were based in Paris and
also talking the same language,

which is really important

while talking about
a French-speaking project!

I would hope that
the TV5MONDE past project

was also managed in French.

Stan, tell us a bit
about your specific take

on the lockdown and how that
can change the project for you.

Right, maybe just to jump
on the fact

that we were all based
in France, but I think also

one of the benefits of both
Red Bee and Dotscreen,

we have, you know,
offices around the world.

I mean, Red Bee Media, they’ve
got offices on every continent.

As far as we’re concerned,
we’ve got offices in the US,

in LatAm, in Spain,
and that helps as well,

because again, the scope
of the project is global.

But as to the lockdown
impacts, we faced one…

One was, as Thanh was saying,

we have a UI solution
on the shelf,

but it needs to be adapted,

so we don’t pretend that the UI
we can bring, you know,

would fit any size.

So we have to make it
very collaborative.

Usually, we hold a workshop

on the premises
of our customers.

In that case,
that was not possible,

so we did it through
Teams sessions.

But this is one thing.
I mean, the UI must be adapted

to the local needs,
the strategy of the customer,

the technical constraint
of each device.

And, secondly, what we had
to face and to organise is

we had more or less to create
a remote testing farm

for each of our developers
as well,

because we do not develop,
you know, using a framework

or using a kind of emulator.
We need, you know,

the actual device to be close
to the developer.

So we had to bring, you know,
TV sets

to the different developers
in each part of the team.

And that’s also the way,
you know,

developing with
the actual device,

not trusting the documentation
from the targeted device,

but testing in real conditions.

Whether the streams work well
or not

needed that we had in different
places, you know,

remote testing farms
with a few reference devices.

OK, well, let’s move on to
another question, then,

which is basically the idea…

You talked, Hélène, that this
was started off as an MVP,

a minimum viable product.

Now it’s a pretty operational
product.

But I get the feeling
that this train is moving

really, really, really fast,

that you did this project
in a record time.

And since then, you’ve been
changing it, changing it,

changing it. Coming from
a traditional broadcaster

where one version
of the set-top box UI

would last five years
or something,

you’ve got to this amazing,
breakneck speed.

My question to you is,
is this just because

you had to do this really fast
to launch and get it right,

and you’ve got it right now,

and are things going
to slow down?

Or is this the new normal?

Are we going to be moving
these…?

Moving goalposts? Is that
our new reality now

for the next couple
of years ahead?

Well, yes, I would say
that it’s a new reality now

that we… All the, I think,
the digital projects,

we have to be very flexible

and adapt to the consumers,

and the uses are
evolving very quickly

and they are very different

from one country
to another one.

So, we editors have to adapt
specificities, interfaces,

with the different data
that we can analyse

and understand,

and answer to different targets
that we have on our markets.

Yes, I think now we’ll have
to work like this

within the next months
and years. Yes.

OK, thanks. And, Thanh or Stan,
if you want to jump in…

This new reality
of everything changing.

a new, completely new version
every few months?

Yeah, I think it’s really
in the nature

of any digital product now,
because, for instance,

on the back end,
we are constantly developing.

As I said, we are
putting new features, new code,

new innovation every day.

I mean, there is no day without
any changes on the platform.

And as I said,
because it’s a shared platform

among all our customers,

we are feeding the roadmap
with all the requests

coming from all our customers.

And when a new feature
is developed,

it is shared with all
our customers instantly,

and we can easily try
new things

with our customers,

because on top of
the coalition platform,

we also provide a test platform
where we can,

with the customer,

try new things in terms of UI,
in terms of…

I mean, UI…
We have Dotscreen…

…but in terms of
different features,

we can bring on the back end.

So, yeah, as I said,
it’s a new feature

and it is going to be like this
on our platform,

on the platform.

I think this, what Hélène
and Thanh are saying

is that this…

The first release of
the service

was the beginning of a long
and successful journey

with a lot of steps
and new features,

and we have to combine
different roadmaps.

There is the roadmap
of Red Bee.

As Thanh said, there will be
new features.

There is the roadmap
of the devices as well.

Every year there will be
some OS updates,

new beta wares

or even new devices that
we have not yet covered,

such as set-top box.

So it’s a permanent progress

and move on to more devices,
more audience.

And also, there is the roadmap
of the customer,

and I think where we,
as one solution,

Red Bee Media and Dotscreen,
must be, you know,

towards TV5 is to be agile,

not only to offer features that
we would have developed

by ourselves, but also taking
into account specific requests

from TV5 that we need to
integrate into the roadmap

without creating frustration,

because we can’t have one
roadmap for all customers.

It has to be a mix of things
that we would do by ourselves

and things coming
from the customers.

(BEN ON MUTE)

You’re mute, Ben, again.

I forgot. I just got a message

saying we have to mute
in between, so it’s a lot!

Thanks, that was good.

I just want to go back
to an audience question

from Neil Thacker. This is
a very precise question.

We’ll start with Hélène.

I don’t know if you got
a chance to read it, Hélène.

It’s about location-based
restrictions, so perhaps

you could address it
in two parts.

What were the specific
location-based restrictions

on the service
and the content

and how the project got around
those issues you had to solve?

Yes. First of all, you have
to know that all the…

Yes, we have 6,000 hours
of programmes available,

but each of them are ruled
by a software,

which is the software
package developed by PCI,

which leads all the broadcast.

So it depends
on the location you are.

You can see a part
of the catalogue

according to the rights
that we’ve cleared or not.

So that’s the first part.

And the second one
is what I said.

We have some countries that
were closed during the launch,

especially the USA.

And after that, we developed
a disposal of TV Everywhere

with Red Bee and Dotscreen

that allowed the subscribers
to accede to the catalogue,

but only through
a specific identification.

– I answered…
– Maybe…

Maybe, to add,
you know, to what Hélène said,

we implemented
the Adobe Pass in the US

so that the service would be
available to subscribers

from the pay-TV operators,
Horizon and others.

So you authenticate yourself
as a subscriber of Horizon

and then you can access
the service and the content.

And this is kind of also
location-based restrictions

that we had to cope with

and for which we had
to make a solution.

OK, so another…
In the specific project,

and maybe that’s not so rare,

but in these kind of projects,
I understand, because of

the political impetus,
you said –

you know, the presidents of
countries launched this thing –

that your launch date
was totally set in stone.

There was no negotiation
about that, because normally

when we do sort of MVPs,

if it’s a few weeks late,
it doesn’t really matter.

So how did that…?
How did that…?

What was the implications
on the project,

that it was so much set
in stone,

the launch date,
when you started the project?

Start with…

Thanh, do you want to say

from the back-end side
of things?

I mean, I think one of the
most important thing we did,

I mean, when…

We were hit very hard
by the Covid-19.

I mean, we didn’t expect
this one

when we did on this project.

When we started this project
with TV5MONDE,

we defined very quickly
that we needed to define MVP

because, I mean, it was clear
for us that launching

the application with all
the requirements we defined

at the beginning of the project
was not achievable.

So we defined very quickly

what can be deployed…

…deployed for
the starting date.

So this is the first thing
we did.

And also on the…

…on the Red Bee Media side,

I would say that we are working
with TV5MONDE

for a very long time now

and we know each other
for a very long time.

And it’s a major partner
for us.

So we put all the resources
needed on this project.

So we have the full support

of the Red Bee Media
leadership team.

So it helps a lot.

I mean, I think the last issue
we had was the publication

of the Android application
on the launch date.

I mean, I think it was
a major issue for us

and we pulled out all
our different resources

to make sure that
the application

was available on the store,
on the Android store,

on time for the launch date,

which is the last hurdle
we have on this project.

Thanks, Thanh.

As… As Thanh said,
the last phase

of any OTT project launch

is the certification with
the app stores,

and the fact that our solution
was already certified

in the past for other customers
brought some comfort as well.

The other thing as well is

having developed
so many different video apps

for mobile, smart TV, etc,
we know quite well

this certification process,
and I think we can manage it,

you know, effectively

by not waiting for the last
version or the released version

of the app before entering
the certification process,

but to start it, you know,
from a kind of alpha stage

where we start collecting,
you know, some feedback

from the app stores.

So that’s limiting the risk
as well not to deliver on time.

I think also what we learned,

and this is good to share
with the audience, is

we are always
in a kind of beta stage.

This is the, let’s say,
the specificity on a OTT…

As we said before,
it’s always changing,

always adding new features.

So we also need to organise
the development in such a way

that we have separate branches
of code,

one for smart TV,
one for set-up box,

one for mobile, etc, so that
when you touch something,

I mean, you don’t, you know,

jeopardise the whole code,
you know,

and make a lot of regressions
within your code.

So this is the, I think,
knowledge and the experience

that we could bring to TV5MONDE
and others.

OK, thanks.

Well, I have a quite
different question, then,

for you, Hélène.

We’ve all talked about
on-demand content,

VOD catalogues and something.

I mean, what about live?

Is live coming to the platform
any time soon?

Well, it might be, yes.

For now, it’s more a question
of budget,

but, yes,
but what kind of live?

Should we go on sports or news
or even special events?

Yes, it could be
a nice evolution

within the next month.

We also have to obey
to time zone

and define a certain strategic
positioning of the platform

on this new feature
of live event.

But, yes, definitely
it could be a great evolution

of TV5MONDEplus.

OK, well, let’s follow on
that same question

to Stan and Thanh,

because my understanding is,
from a platform perspective,

live is like several quantum
leaps more complex to solve

as a challenge
than on-demand content.

So, how would you
address that

in this kind of platform
to bring live?

How would it affect you?
Thanh, let’s go with you.

Well, I think it’s a very good
question, Ben.

The fact is, the strength
of Red Bee Media, it’s…

We are born in
the broadcast industry.

I mean, we are providing,
as I say, tier-one…

We are providing services
to tier-one broadcasters

since more than 20 years.

We are doing playout, we are
doing content distribution.

So we have a full set
of services available

off the shelf,

and for us, supporting
live event or live channel,

it’s really easy because
we have services

who can aggregate
and distribute live content

coming from a TV5MONDE
or even live events –

I mean, I don’t know,
from any major sports event –

and we can easily feed
those events

into the TV5MONDEplus
platform.

This is what we are doing
for some other…

…some other OTT customers
we have at Red Bee Media.

I would say, Thanh,
if you allow me,

Red Bee Media could
also offer metadata,

which is key, you know,
for live and EPG,

because when you say live,
usually you say also EPG.

And also something
that we could offer,

I mean, thanks to
the Red Bee Media mechanism,

also to create
media content channels,

you know, re-linearise
some existing contents

in order to create
new channels.

So these are
new types of live streaming.

But as far as we are concerned,

I think when the customer
wants to add live streaming

the key area
to pay attention to

is whether the streaming will
be supported by the device,

because, again,
it’s all about testing.

You know, it’s not
because you’ve been told

that this is the streaming
protocol and the DRM

that it’s going to work
like this.

It has to have been tested on
the actual device every time,

and this would need
some effort.

And as I said, it’s also
a matter of, you know,

building an EPG,

because the way the end user
would access the live

is different. You know, they
could go to the live directly

by clicking a button, they
could go through the EPG.

So there are many ways
to end up, you know,

into the live streaming,

including the channel line-up,
of course.

So these are the impacts
on the contents side.

OK, so this is the final call
for any questions.

If you type very quickly,
we can address them

because we’ll be wrapping up
in the next five minutes.

Perhaps one…

…one other question
that comes to mind

is the very specifics
of this project.

When you look at the way most
OTT platforms were deployed

throughout the world, whether
it’s the big ones we all know,

like Disney+, like Netflix,
they tend to do one market

or a small group of markets
at a time.

They get the marketing right

and they launch
in those countries.

And then a few months later,

sometimes even a few years
later, they launch elsewhere.

You guys launched globally
in 194, or 84, markets

from day zero.

That must have had some
specific challenges of its own,

I mean, whether
it’s from the technology side

or, Hélène,
from the business side.

Can one of you
address that issue?

– Well…
– I can cover

the technology side,

so from the technology side,

thanks to
our cloud infrastructure,

we can increase and decrease
the capacity on demand.

And of course, when we launched
TV5MONDEplus,

we were well prepared,

so we knew the date in advance.

So what we did, we prepared
ourselves to make sure

that we can absorb
the load at the beginning

in terms of registration,
of course,

but also of people,

because it’s a new platform

and there will be a peak
of loads of people

trying to get access
to the platform

and stream content, so…

So, based on
our cloud infrastructure,

we can scale up
to face the load.

– Hélène.
– Thanks, Thanh.

So, the question is about
the global launch,

all those markets
all in one go.

How…? Was that a challenge
from a marketing perspective?

Did you have to announce it?

All the
different relationships…

Getting it all ready…
Rather than…

What everybody else does
is a phased roll-out.

So you had this huge challenge
of the global roll-out.

How did that affect you?

We had the chance to have
a TV channel

which is broadcasted
throughout the world,

so we could use this lever
to…

…to develop the brand.

And the marketing plan
also had to be developed

throughout the world, and
we had the help of Dare.Win

on the social media also.

So we had to build it.

Yes, quite a huge campaign

within the next weeks
after the launch.

We had to localise
all the campaign

on five languages,

which was quite…
yes, quite an issue.

Quite a challenge. OK.
And so, that launch now,

if you look back at it –

what’s it been?
A year and a bit –

would you…were there things
you would have done otherwise,

or you think
it was globally a success?

Could you have improved it?
What…?

Of course, yes, we needed
more time, for instance.

Yes, we can say that for…

Google needed some time
to validate the app

on the mobile phones

because we had so many hours
to work,

so they would have needed
some more time.

And, yes, of course, it was
really short notice for us,

of course.
But I think, yes, we did well

for this challenge, definitely.

And we did correct
the mistakes we made,

the key five,
commissioned a survey,

in order to assess, you know,

the user experience
and the journey.

And we are just resetting
the registration process,

because the way people had
to log in was not, you know,

considered
as seamless as possible.

So this is a good example.
You release the first version

and then you learn
from your mistakes

and then you adapt yourself,
you correct, you improve,

you add new features.

This is, you know,
the world we’re living in.

But I think also when you say
global from the beginning,

you say multilingual,
you say subtitles.

And this is where
I believe also

bringing together probably
the best of the back end

and the best of the front end
helps, because –

let me give you an example…
When you deliver audio tracks,

we know that some devices
would support, you know,

different manifest
or different files,

different audio tracks,
not a single one,

or the way you build
the manifest

could have an impact on devices
such as PlayStation and others.

This is the kind of knowledge
we have on the front end

that we bring to Red Bee
Media and vice versa.

So I think it’s, you know,
a good joint collaboration

where we learn from each other.

We cross-fertilise as well

to bring the best
possible solution.

Well, that’s an interesting
point to finish up with,

because that will lead to my
concluding question or remark

and then question to Hélène
to wrap this up.

Basically, one of the big
questions that people like you

have to ask when they’re
launching a project like that

is what kind of ecosystem
is the best?

Do I go with just
one big company

that does everything for me?

Do I take lots
of little companies

and stick it all together?

Do I get an integrating
company to do it?

And so you went with,
basically, these two companies.

Could you just tell us a little
bit about that ecosystem,

that choice?
I mean, was it a case of

one plus one equals three,
where they kind of

added to each other’s value?

One small company
for the front end,

a large company
for the back end?

Tell us a little bit about
that ecosystem that you built.

Yeah. First we went on
public tender,

so Dotscreen and Red Bee

definitely were compared
to others

in terms of technical,
references and prices.

So it was really
a public tender.

And yes, of course,
we found that this service,

I’m sure, that Red Bee
could provide,

and the quick development,
the respective budget,

and also the fact that
it’s an international company

that has a lot of experience.

And working with Dotscreen,

which we knew before,

so it’s really a nice…
yes, a nice alliance.

And definitely they showed us
that they would be partners

during this project, so we…

Yes, I can say that it was
the perfect team

for this project, and I’m sure
that we might have…

Other partners maybe
could have been different.

So, yes, I think we definitely

find the good partners
in this kind of project.

OK, thank you, Hélène. Thank
you, Thanh. Thank you, Stan.

Stan, I think we’ve reached
the end of the hour

with about 20 seconds to go,

so I’d like to thank you all,

and to tell the audience
if you missed anything,

you can, if you joined late,

it will be available on demand
on the IABM website at least,

and reach out to any of us if
you want any more information.

– Thanks, everyone.
– Thank you, Ben.

– You too.
– Thank you, Ben. Bye.

Share Twitter Linkedin

How to successfully launch a global streaming service in 194 countries

In a disruptive and competitive global media landscape, distribution strategies are converging as broadcasters go D2C (direct-to-consumer). This webinar details how French public broadcaster TV5MONDE launched a broadcast-grade on-demand video service simultaneously in 194 countries, with support from Red Bee Media and DOTSCREEN.

We explore the complexities of working towards a global launch with an unbreakable deadline during a pandemic, where technology, UI design, and content rights management had to be successfully coordinated remotely.

Share Twitter Linkedin

Reach your audience with Red Bee's OTT

Launch a destination for your fans with your own branded broadcast-quality streaming service. Reach bigger audiences and deliver content from anywhere to anyone using our secure, white-label platform.

Learn More