AVROTROS: Enhancing Audience Engagement and Operational Efficiency with Google Cloud

AVROTROS is an independent and socially involved broadcaster based in the Netherlands. It is part of the Netherlands' publicly funded NPO network of channels. AVROTROS focuses on event TV, such as 'Wie is de Mol?' ('Who is the mole?'), a long-running adventure reality game show that gets weekly viewing figures of approximately 3 million people, roughly one-sixth of the total population. The broadcaster aims to foster a deeper connection with its audience by using every channel available, including online media and mobile apps. AVROTROS embarked on an ambitious new technology strategy five years ago, placing online engagement at its core.

AVROTROS, a Dutch radio and television broadcaster, was facing challenges in engaging its audience through online media and mobile apps due to the limitations of its existing infrastructure. The broadcaster's infrastructure was not optimized for the scale that popular mobile apps work at, leading to outages and users being locked out of the app. This was a significant issue as AVROTROS aimed to foster a deeper connection with its audience by using every channel available. Additionally, AVROTROS had outsourced its back-end and was totally dependent on its suppliers, leading to stability issues and outages. The broadcaster needed a next-generation infrastructure to engage and retain its audience with next-generation apps and gain greater control and visibility into its infrastructure management.

AVROTROS turned to Google Cloud to build a cloud-native, scalable, and cost-effective infrastructure for next-level online development. The broadcaster worked with Google Cloud Premier Partner Binx.io to build and implement the new cloud-based solution. The new solution was built primarily around Kubernetes, orchestrated with Google Kubernetes Engine, providing AVROTROS with the ability to automate most of its operations while still having visibility and control of its infrastructure. Google BigQuery provided the broadcaster with a scalable, high-performance data warehouse solution for enhanced analytics. AVROTROS also decided to pilot Google Workspace as a replacement for its office productivity solution, which proved to be a seamless process for the employees when they had to start working from home due to the COVID-19 lockdown.

• The adoption of Google Cloud has not only provided AVROTROS with a technological upgrade but also changed the way it works. The broadcaster has been able to bring the expertise in-house, making it more flexible and enabling it to develop its own online applications and react more quickly to new developments in the media technology landscape. The ability to collaborate live on Google Docs, Google Sheets, and Google Slides was crucial for teams used to working in the same space. Google Meet proved to be the most reliable, with the lowest latency and the highest quality, enabling multiple communications per day with colleagues and superiors. AVROTROS has also started experimenting with Google BigQuery and Looker Studio to build custom reports on how individual episodes of television are affecting social media use and other metrics, providing valuable insights to producers.

• AVROTROS can now handle up to 60,000 requests per second at peak times, triple the limit of its previous infrastructure.

• The broadcaster has saved more than 30% in infrastructure costs with its cloud-native infrastructure.

• Approximately 1 million people use the 'Wie is de mol?' app and log in every episode.