Molotov drives innovative service to rapid growth with AWS Elemental
France’s Molotov TV has quickly positioned itself among the leaders in over-the-top (OTT) video services to be changing the way consumers enjoy TV. Since launching its subscription-based offering less than a year ago, Molotov has attracted more than a million subscribers to its high-quality content and engaging user experience.
Prior to launch, the company accomplished an impressive feat, securing agreements with all major French TV networks (pay and free TV channels) to aggregate and distribute their programming as live and video-on-demand (VOD/catch-up) content through the Molotov.tv app. Well-known for the quality of their programming, French networks invest more than $6 billion dollars annually in fresh content, putting an abundance of first-rate entertainment in the hands of Molotov’s users.
While its content catalogue draws users to Molotov, an innovative, user-friendly viewing experience helps keep them engaged. The app offers users an at-a-glance view of all live, on-demand and upcoming programmes Molotov has to offer at that moment, with an easy-to-navigate menu and search function that invites exploration. Smart design carries through to the viewing experience; users can watch the shows of their choice live, restart from the beginning or catch-up to real-time, and for programmes they’ve already started, viewers can pause and resume from wherever they left off, across any of their devices. Molotov also incorporates cloud-based DVR functionality.
To power its dynamic offering, Molotov depends on high-performance, highly efficient video processing. Since the service launched, its viewership and content offering have grown, and its AWS Elemental deployment has expanded as well. Today, Molotov has multiple AWS Elemental Live encoders in operation, with AWS Elemental Conductor software managing the encoder cluster.
“To deliver the experience our customers demand, we can’t have any downtime,” said Sébastien Faure, Molotov’s head of video and deputy chief technology officer. “At the same time, we want our technical experts focused on driving innovation, not managing infrastructure. We’ve continued to expand our AWS Elemental deployment because their technology is ‘set it and forget it’; we don’t have to fuss with our encoders to keep generating well-formatted, high-quality streams for every viewer we serve.”
The Molotov.tv app is available for computers, smartphones, tablets and connected TVs running iOS, Android, Windows, macOS, and Linux as well Apple TV, Android TV, LG and Samsung Smart TV services. A free version offers 35 channels, while paid subscribers gain access to more than 70 channels for less than €10 per month.