Verimatrix > Case Studies > Econet Media Brings Compelling TV Everywhere Service to Africa

Econet Media Brings Compelling TV Everywhere Service to Africa

Customer Company Size

Large Corporate

Region

Africa

Country

Ghana
South Africa

Product

VCAS for DVB Hybrid
AWS Elemental
Roku Powered Kwese Play

Tech Stack

Adaptive Bit Rate Streaming
HTTP Live Streaming (HLS)
DRM
API Integration

Implementation Scale

Enterprise-wide Deployment

Impact Metrics

Customer Satisfaction
Digital Expertise
Revenue Growth

Technology Category

Analytics & Modeling - Predictive Analytics
Application Infrastructure & Middleware - API Integration & Management
Platform as a Service (PaaS) - Connectivity Platforms

Applicable Industries

Telecommunications

Applicable Functions

Business Operation
Sales & Marketing

Services

Cloud Planning, Design & Implementation Services
Software Design & Engineering Services
System Integration

About The Customer

Econet Media, a subsidiary of the globally networked Econet Group, is a dynamic content business driving the development of Kwesé, a fresh new television brand created for Sub-Saharan African audiences. Kwesé offers a range of products on satellite and internet-based platforms, including video-on-demand and mobile options. Focused on providing premium, affordable, exclusive viewing choices, Kwesé products include sports, music, movies, series, kids, lifestyle, faith, news, and other programming. Econet Media leverages the infrastructural strength of its sister companies, Liquid Telecom and Econet Wireless, to establish Kwesé products.

The Challenge

In November 2016, Econet Media selected the Verimatrix VCAS platform to secure its Kwesé TV satellite-delivered DTH service. With an emphasis on premium live sports content, revenue security was a major consideration. In September 2017, Econet launched the Kwesé Play streaming TV service in South Africa, featuring Netflix through an exclusive partnership. The next phase aimed to offer multi-screen TV Everywhere services to its DTH subscribers, requiring adaptive bit rate streaming and content security for various OTT devices.

The Solution

Econet partnered with Roku to bring the Kwese Play box to life, leveraging the Roku streaming platform to deliver Kwese Play to its customers. Roku provides ongoing software updates, hosts the channel store, and offers application development support. Econet also selected AWS Elemental for video processing and delivery and Verimatrix to secure the entire solution. The API integration between Verimatrix and AWS Elemental provides a single coherent solution that combines content security management, encryption, and encoding processes. This integration reduces the processing overhead of supporting multiple streaming formats and DRMs, improving the user experience.

Operational Impact

The API integration between AWS Elemental and Verimatrix means that security and encoding are tightly coupled, allowing Econet to have just one input for each stream.
Unified stream packaging significantly improves the user Quality of Experience (QoE) by saving resources.
The integration reduces the processing overhead of supporting multiple streaming formats and DRMs, ensuring more consistent Quality of Service (QoS) at peak times.
The OTT deployment is well underway with the first Roku Powered Kwese Play boxes rolling out, representing major progress for Econet and the Sub-Saharan African pay-TV market.
Econet Media plans to deploy its TV Everywhere service in at least 17 Sub-Saharan countries, having already launched in four.

Quantitative Benefit

The DTH service is currently available in 21 countries.
The comprehensive offer comprises more than 70 live channels.
Econet Media plans to deploy its TV Everywhere service in at least 17 Sub-Saharan countries.
Econet Media has already launched its TV Everywhere service in four countries: Ghana, Lesotho, Botswana, and Rwanda.