2018 FIFA World Cup: Streamroot powers coverage for nearly 20m viewers

The 2018 FIFA World Cup broke all streaming records as broadcasters around the globe faced unprecedented demand on digital platforms. The bandwidth required to deliver this year’s event surpassed the 2014 edition only ten days into the tournament, and peak online traffic nearly quadrupled (24 Tbps vs. 7 Tbps in 2014) as millions of viewers tuned in on laptops, mobile devices and connected TVs.

To scale to the colossal growth in online audiences and safeguard against outages during this high-profile event, several major national and international broadcasters turned to hybrid delivery solutions based on mesh networks that could fortify their infrastructure against saturation and ensure continued premium quality throughout the entire tournament.

Streamroot , the leading provider of distributed OTT delivery solutions, partnered with premier rights-holding broadcasters to deliver the World Cup via its distributed CDN, Streamroot DNA. These platforms included TF1, the largest French free-to-air broadcaster & leading European media group, as well as other national European channels, and national television networks in Chile and Colombia in partnership with the leading streaming company in LATAM, Mediastream.

“Scaling to TV-size audiences on a digital platform – while maintaining the same quality standards – requires more than simply adding servers. It calls for a groundbreaking solution,” said Nicolas Theraroz, CTO of e-TF1, on the choice to call upon Streamroot for the entire MyTF1 digital platform, including the World Cup live streams. “Streamroot offers the elasticity that we need to scale to hit primetime content and the world’s largest sporting events with ease.”

Mediastream Platform, the streaming infrastructure provider and OVP, also counted on Streamroot to handle peaks in demand. “Thanks to Streamroot, we were able to offer Latin American broadcasters the flexible scale that is so precious during live events,” explained Mediastream OTT business development Javier Cornejo. “We are proud to have combined our technologies to guarantee an excellent streaming service and a perfect experience for our client’s users through this valuable partnership.”

In total, Streamroot ensured reliable, 100% uptime delivery for the entire tournament, offering customers the reliability needed during this historic event. Streamroot powered the World Cup for over 19.7 million viewers, with traffic delivered via its distributed network peaking at over 1.26 Tbps. Streamroot delivered an average of 70% of partner broadcasters’ total World Cup traffic, translating to drastically lower pressure on CDN servers and more consistent, high quality video for football fans. Rebuffering rates on platforms using Streamroot fell 11% in Europe, and up to 33% in Latin America. Many of the games broadcasted in these two regions occurred during work hours, which saw large spikes in traffic from workstation desktops and mobile traffic.

“Streamroot’s worldwide deployments during the World Cup marked the largest use of distributed CDN technology in history,” said Pierre-Louis Théron, CEO and co-founder of Streamroot. “This is a milestone for both our company and the streaming video industry. We couldn’t be more proud ensure the scale necessary for millions of football fans to enjoy an impeccable streaming experience, and to power World Cup content with the official broadcaster in the country that won the championship – in what was both an athletic and a technical feat.”

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