Zero-cost D2C streaming for media owners, in return for ad share
Details
john Moulding
| 06 October 2023
1 Zero cost D2C streaming for media owners in return for ad share

Brazilian TV network, TV Cultura, is one of the first to benefit from zero-cost deployment of a D2C app, thanks to an innovative white-label ‘FAST’ platform built on top of AWS. An ad share revenue model covers the cost of operations, which are cloud-based.

Boston-based technology startup TVCoins is the company behind the ‘free operations in return for ad share’ model and says it is disrupting the FAST and direct-to-consumer market and helping more media owners get into the video streaming business.

TVCoins declares, “Getting a FAST offering off the ground can be expensive and time-consuming, proving a barrier to entry for most content owners.” To tackle this challenge, the company has built a white-label FAST/D2C service that is free to use and already serves millions of viewers across apps like Cultura Play at TV Cultura and El Financiero Bloomberg+, where daily newspaper El Financiero has diversified into the live and on-demand video business.

The streaming platform solution handles content ingest, viewer management, analytics and monetisation – with the advertising supported by a network of supply- and demand-side ad partnerships.

The FAST platform uses a host of Amazon Web Services technologies designed for the M&E market, including AWS Elemental Media Live for real-time encoding of live channel and live events functionality in DASH and HLS. AWS Elemental MediaConvert supports transcode and conversion of media catalogues for VOD.

The TVCoins platform also uses AWS Elemental MediaTailor (linear channel assembly and personalised ad insertion), AWS Lambda (serverless computing), Amazon CloudFront (secure content delivery), Amazon AppSync (connecting apps to data and events) and Amazon Cognito (scalable customer identity and access management). The white-label streaming platform also harnesses Amazon Personalize for personalised recommendations.

The public TV network TV Cultura is using its D2C service to take more of its live and archived content to market, covering cultural, sports and educational programming. The media owner deployed its Cultura Play app in just two months, at no cost if you discount internal time. The app is available on connected TV devices including Roku, plus Android and iOS. It includes live programming and catch-up.

El Financiero is based out of Mexico and covers business and the financial markets in the region, and wanted to meet the demand for video news and cater to a wider audience. Its free app was released last year after a six-week implementation project using TVCoins. Content is made available live and on-demand, free.

TVCoins says it is well-positioned to expand its offer in North America and Europe, using access to global resources from AWS. It is also focused on achieving AWS ISV Accelerate partner status, which will allow the TVCoins team to collaborate more closely with AWS on sales and marketing initiatives.