A+E Networks Enhances Streaming Media Delivery with Fastly
Technology Category
- Analytics & Modeling - Real Time Analytics
- Sensors - Camera / Video Systems
Applicable Industries
- Cement
- Equipment & Machinery
Applicable Functions
- Product Research & Development
Use Cases
- Traffic Monitoring
- Transportation Simulation
About The Customer
A+E Networks is a global entertainment company that brings storytelling to 335 million people worldwide through subscriptions, video on demand (VOD), and live streaming. With a portfolio of seven popular video brands, including A&E, HISTORY, and Lifetime, they are present in 70% of American homes and have over 500 million digital users. As more people are staying home and turning to TVs, tablets, and mobile devices for entertainment, the demand for their services is skyrocketing. The company is committed to providing a brilliant and friction-free user experience and is always ready to scale instantly when traffic surges to capitalize on the popularity of high-demand programming.
The Challenge
A+E Networks, a global entertainment company, was facing challenges in managing its streaming media services. With a portfolio of seven popular video brands, the company reaches 335 million people worldwide. However, the increasing demand for more viewers, more bandwidth, and more content was putting pressure on developers to deliver frequently and fast. The company's configuration management was largely manual and became slow and cumbersome as their portfolio grew. A build across each site could take hours, and as they added programming and moved to microservices, the time only expanded. A+E Networks also lacked visibility with their legacy Content Delivery Network (CDN), having to rely on professional services with no view of what was happening behind the scenes. The company wanted to empower developers to implement services and upgrades quickly and manage traffic spikes with a multi-CDN model.
The Solution
A+E Networks turned to Fastly, an edge cloud platform, to transform their configuration workflows. Fastly provided full API access and a highly customizable edge computing language that allowed developers to generate, compile, and implement changes quickly, with no downtime. A configuration that would have taken hours to propagate now takes milliseconds. A+E Networks also used Fastly’s real-time streaming logs through Google Big Query for observability, enabling the dev team to discover potential issues immediately and deliver a consistent, high-quality viewer experience. Fastly’s On-the-Fly Packager (OTFP) was used for managing Dynamic Ad Insertion (DAI) and Digital Rights Management (DRM), saving time on the backend and reducing latency for users. Fastly’s Media Shield was adopted to optimize their multi-CDN strategy, significantly reducing their actual origin traffic and making the experience faster for viewers.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
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