Axel Springer
How Bitmovin’s is helping Axel Springer win the video streaming race
Axel Springer SE is one of the biggest media and technology companies in Europe and operates in over 40 countries. Axel Springer is responsible for a portfolio of the top media brands, including BILD, Welt, Insider and Politico, which span across news, automotive, sports, lifestyle and entertainment.
Axel Springer’s heritage is print media, but when the internet began to outpace print as people’s preferred medium for news and entertainment, Axel Springer successfully reinvented itself as a digital media powerhouse. Video and all that it encompasses – from web and video streams to live and on-demand content – is now central to Axel Springer’s business model, and it needs market-leading technologies to underpin it so Axel Springer can retain its position as the premier destination for news, entertainment and culture.
How Bitmovin is powering a media and technology powerhouse
Axel Springer’s decision to use Bitmovin’s solutions is a result of its existing partnership with Microsoft and dedicated integration within Azure. Axel Springer wanted to leverage Microsoft’s Azure to improve its existing encoding workflow, and this required migrating from the previous vendor to Bitmovin. One of the key benefits of Bitmovin’s VOD Encoder for Axel Springer is its Cloud Connect option, which allows customers to use their existing cloud accounts and deploy Bitmovin’s solutions within them so they can run encoding instances on the cloud provider of their choice. The flexibility Bitmovin’s Cloud Connect option provides means Axel Springer can leverage Bitmovin and Microsoft’s respective technologies at the same time. Axel Springer has quick, scalable encoding that’s optimized the time it takes to generate short, VOD news and sports clips that can be easily inserted into live streams.
Axel Springer also deployed the Bitmovin Player, which generates 1 billion impressions each year across its publications. Axel Springer chose the Bitmovin Player because of its renowned ability to ensure reliable and high-quality streams across the most devices and platforms possible, which is a key differentiator due to the huge range of devices consumers are using to stream content coupled with the sheer number of new devices entering the market. The Bitmovin Player guarantees quality playback on most extensive devices available on the market today which was important for Axel Springer to ensure it remains a leader in online experiences. Axel Springer also deployed Bitmovin Analytics for real-time monitoring and insights into stream health to ensure any issues can be spotted and debugged before their impact the viewer.
Key benefits
“Bitmovin’s product suite ensures we have the agility we need to deliver high-quality streams at speed and scale to our global audience.” said Stephan Zech, Executive Director, BILD Video/TV Business, “Speed is especially important to us because news is at the heart of our business model and there’s always a story breaking at any time. Bitmovin’s VOD encoding is the fastest on the market which means we can have VOD assets ready to go in seconds. Additionally, the Bitmovin Player ensures our audience can enjoy streams in the highest-quality while Bitmovin Analytics works tirelessly in the background to pinpoint issues before they impact the viewer. Bitmovin is an invaluable technology partner and their solutions have transformed our video streaming workflows.”