Elemental has announced that Brazilian broadcaster Globo has standardized its video processing, opting exclusively for Elemental’s software-based platform for its VoD and Globo Play OTT offering. This is another win for the company, which was recently acquired by Amazon for around $296 million according to an SEC filing dated the month after the purchase.
Globo also announced the launch of its Globo Play OTT service back in October, initially as an ad-supported offering with scope to convert into an SVoD model. For Elemental, Globo’s Brazilian market is one of great opportunity. While Globo Play might have small beginnings, it is pitching it to a potential market of 115 million Brazilians with an internet connection. Rethink’s own research puts the number of Brazilian pay TV customers at 18 million at the end of 2013, and now north of 20 million – which provides plenty of opportunity to sell Globo Play through to existing pay TV subs.
The first Brazilian operator to launch a combined live and on-demand OTT platform, Globo will be offering its popular library of content to customers – including the telenovelas that are pervasive in Latin America, as well as an emerging library of 4K content. For Elemental, Brazil represents a market that will likely drive a large increase in the volume of video it passes through its servers – and a consequent growth in revenue, assuming the contracts are structured correctly.
Elemental’s current process uses specialized software running on general purpose cloud servers, which are a much more scalable option for the company than the dedicated hardware appliances used in the video processing days of old. Cloud computing represents a much lower barrier to entry for companies like Elemental, which are able to spool up capacity when needed, and dial back when it would have a surplus.
Now that it’s part of Amazon, Elemental will almost certainly be running all of its operations on AWS resources. Currently, Globo is using Elemental Server for its file-based video processing, with Elemental Conductor for the actual transcoding which converts the video files into a format that can be viewed on multiscreen devices – whether they are phones, tablets, laptops, or connected TVs.
Elemental Live handles the linear content that needs to be sent to these devices, which the company claims allows Globo to transcode MXF files quickly enough to use in real-time VoD workflows – before pushing the video to the required CDNs to ship the video packets across the networks to the viewer. The usual array of second-screen engagement and personalization options are also provided by Elemental, but the announcement doesn’t really distinguish which components Globo is using.
“As Brazil’s leading broadcaster, video quality is critical to everything we do. For more than four years, Elemental software-based solutions have helped is meet exacting standards,” said Globo’s Director Digital Media Technology, Marcelo Souza. “Our new Globo Play service is a hit with viewers and is the type of success we want to repeat many times. To achieve this, we need a high-quality, scalable video infrastructure that adapts quickly – so we turned to Elemental.”
Globo is the largest TV network in Latin America, and claims a 99.5% broadcasting coverage penetration in Brazil, while producing 3,000 hours of entertainment and the same amount of journalism for the Brazilian market, according to its biography.
“We are excited to take our work with Globo to the next level and support the high level of quality and innovation that have become the hallmark of this media leader,” said Dan Marshall, SVP Worldwide Sales at Elemental. “Our ability to scale and virtualize helps Globo accelerate its technology innovation and delight their viewers.”