Broadpeak CEO: 15 Years of Streaming at Scale & The Future of Video

Navigating the world of streaming at scale requires a deep understanding of both technology and collaboration. The most critical lesson from fifteen years in the streaming industry is that no single company can succeed alone. Delivering on the promise of seamless video demands continuous cooperation among content creators, telecommunications firms, and the technology partners pushing innovation forward. The defining breakthroughs over this period have consistently stemmed from a shared commitment to innovation and an unwavering focus on enhancing the viewer’s experience. As streaming has evolved from simple desktop players to the dominant form of television, two foundational pillars have emerged: achieving massive scale and unlocking effective monetization. The technology now exists to reach enormous audiences, but the real challenge lies in doing so in a cost-effective, sustainable manner that also drives compelling revenue.

Reflecting on the company’s origins, the founding vision was clear from the start. The year 2010, marked by the launch of the iPad and the rise of connected devices, signaled a fundamental shift in media consumption. Observing Netflix’s early international expansion, the direction was undeniable. Emerging from Technicolor with a team of six, the goal was to assist operators in migrating from traditional broadcast systems to over-the-top streaming. The belief in a future of television available anywhere fueled early research and development and forged lasting partnerships with pioneering pay-TV providers across Europe, Asia, and the Americas. This core conviction remains the driving force today, supporting world-leading streaming platforms and telcos that deliver content to over 250 million viewers globally. The objective is to empower these partners with significant cost savings, secure revenue streams, and new monetization avenues that create tangible impact.

The journey of streaming has been marked by several pivotal innovations championed by forward-thinking customers. Early collaboration with Bouygues Telecom enabled groundbreaking TV everywhere services, including the ability to pause and resume viewing across different devices. A major leap came with the introduction of multicast ABR (m-ABR) in 2012, offering a far more scalable method for delivering video to massive audiences. For years, the industry was warned about the limitations of traditional streaming, particularly for live events, and that reality is now evident. Early adopters such as Orange and TIM have been instrumental in scaling our nanoCDN m-ABR solution across millions of devices. Meanwhile, partners like DAZN and BT Group have showcased how m-ABR can manage enormous network traffic during peak streaming events while ensuring the highest quality of experience for viewers. The launch of our SaaS cloud platform, broadpeak.io, represented another key milestone, accelerating innovation in advertising monetization. Close collaborations, including a landmark project with TF1, have enabled spot-level ad replacement in a live addressable TV service using our server-side ad insertion technology, setting new standards for targeted advertising.

The engine behind these advancements is a team of dedicated video specialists. The company is powered by exceptionally talented engineers and skilled professionals who have devoted their entire careers to video delivery and streaming. Many have been with the organization since its inception, fostering a deeply ingrained culture of transparency and trust. This ethos permeates every aspect of operations, from customer support and analytics to the financial responsibilities of a publicly listed company.

Addressing the immense challenge of streaming at scale is a primary focus for platforms today. Conventional streaming infrastructure often buckles under consumer demand and the massive traffic surges seen during major live events. The recent delays and freezing experienced during high-profile streams highlight these systemic weaknesses. We assist customers in overcoming these hurdles through high-performance caching and streaming optimization, which can slash costs, energy consumption, and network traffic by up to 90 percent, all while significantly improving the viewer’s experience. Our latest solution, EdgePeak, is also pivotal, enabling operators to expand or construct their own content delivery network capacity with superior energy efficiency and integrated security features. With piracy a growing concern, we have embedded real-time anti-piracy tools directly into our CDN, offering protection that goes far beyond basic token validation to safeguard revenues and combat illegal streaming.

In the realm of advertising technology, dynamic ad insertion has become a baseline requirement. The current wave of innovation, however, extends beyond simple ad replacement as content providers seek to increase inventory value and brands demand more sophisticated measurement. Alongside new formats like L-Banners for seamless in-stream monetization, we have introduced a revolutionary solution for interactive, shoppable ads called Click2. This intuitive, push-to-mobile approach allows viewers to click on an advertisement and instantly receive a purchase prompt on their phone, a method far more effective and scalable than QR codes in today’s fragmented device landscape. For streamers aiming to compete for advertising revenue with digital giants like YouTube and Meta, integrating shoppable formats is no longer optional but essential. Many of our partners are already leading the charge by deploying these interactive ad units.

Looking ahead, the streaming industry must prioritize working smarter, not just harder. The explosive growth in live-streamed events presents a tremendous opportunity for rights holders and broadband providers, but it also constitutes their most significant operational challenge and serves as a wake-up call regarding the industry’s carbon footprint. We have committed to reducing our own emissions by 31 percent by 2030 and are helping our customers achieve similar goals. Smarter delivery methods, enhanced streaming performance, and open CDN architectures can already reduce energy usage by as much as 80 percent during live broadcasts. The question is not about building endless, energy-intensive capacity, but rather about adopting proven, affordable, and scalable alternatives that already exist.

Supporting media companies in winning at a local level is crucial for fostering wider economic growth and a diverse content and advertising ecosystem. The battle to capture and retain advertising value close to home is intensifying. If local broadcasters lose viewers and ad revenue to global tech platforms, investment in culturally significant regional programming dwindles, and smaller advertisers struggle to gain traction. This outcome is detrimental to local economic growth, viewer choice, and cultural diversity. This is why our focus is sharply trained on advertising technology that enables brands to target local audiences with relevant experiences, simultaneously driving better margins and establishing a sustainable model for content providers. After fifteen years, the mission remains unchanged: enable streaming at an immense scale and unlock monetization without limits.

(Source: Streaming Media)