Global Streaming Leader
Key takeaways
- Live events create a rare window to reach eligible users with an offer and move them to activation. The operational setup behind the offer shapes how many of them complete it.
- A custom in-house build adds engineering and incident risk to a fixed deadline. In this team’s judgment, a reseller model would have reduced their control and visibility. A direct partner model kept the offer and commercial terms with the merchant while the partner and platform carried the operational side.
- Our platform processed more than 530K activations, with capacity for up to 540,000 an hour for the event. We created and delivered entitlements, processed activations, and managed lifecycle and reporting, while the telco partner handled billing and fraud, and the streaming brand kept control of the offer and commercial terms.’
- This campaign produced performance data the team could use to shape later offers and support the case for more partner-led acquisition.
A major American streaming service had secured the rights to one of the largest live-streamed events on record, and wanted to turn that moment into subscriber growth. Working through a national telco partner, it put a bundled offer in front of the partner’s eligible customers, with demand concentrated into the broadcast window and a deadline that couldn’t move. Our bundling platform created and delivered the entitlements, processed the activations, and managed the lifecycle and reporting across the event.
More than 530K activations were processed through the campaign, and the offer-to-access journey held throughout.
- 27,6M: viewers for the live-streamed event
- 1M+: eligible users shown the bundled offer
- 530K: activations processed (observed)
- 540K/hr: activation capacity for the event
The challenge
Turning a fixed-deadline broadcast into subscribers.
A major media and entertainment streaming corporation had secured the rights to one of the largest live-streamed events on record. The plan was to work with a national telco partner, put a compelling bundled offer in front of the partner’s eligible customers, and use a rare broadcast moment to acquire subscribers.
The operational challenge was in the offer flow. More than a million eligible users would be shown the bundled offer through the telco partner, and everyone who chose to take it needed to move from offer to access quickly, in time to watch. Activations would concentrate around the broadcast rather than spread across a normal day, and the deadline couldn’t move.
As the broadcast approached, the risk became evident that a disruption during the busiest part of the window could mean lost conversions, a damaged partner relationship, and a poor experience on a highly visible event. The team needed confidence that entitlements would be created and delivered, that activations would complete under load, and that anyone watching the numbers could act on an issue quickly.
The distribution options each carried drawbacks. A custom in-house integration would add engineering load and incident risk to a fixed deadline. A reseller model would put distance between the streaming brand and the partner relationship, the subscriber data, and the post-event insights. What the team wanted was a way to run the offer at scale while keeping the partner relationship and the data close.
A live event runs on a fixed clock. Everything from the offer to the moment someone gets access must line up while demand is packed into a short window. Our job was to keep that flow working as eligible users took up the offer.
The solution
A defined role for each party, backed by capacity and live support.
We supported the live-event offer through a bundling platform built for high transaction volumes, with capacity provisioned for what the broadcast would demand.
For this launch, the telco partner owned the customer billing relationship and the fraud screening. Our platform created and delivered the entitlements, processed the activations, and managed the subscriber lifecycle and reporting across the event. The streaming brand kept full control of the offer structure and commercial terms. The direct benefit for the streaming company was that it didn’t need to own or build the telco’s billing and fraud systems, or our activation and lifecycle infrastructure. Those functions were handled by the partner and by us.
We brought together delivery, product operations, and customer success teams to support the launch. The delivery team guided it. Product operations managed offer and change management across the partner channel. As the event went live, our 24/7 production support team monitored the connection, with specialists ready to investigate and coordinate resolution if an issue arose. Account managers shared performance insight the team could carry into future live-event planning.
The results
Activation at live-event scale.
The offer reached more than one million eligible users through the telco partner. More than 530K activations were processed across the broadcast, and the offer-to-access journey held through the busiest part of it. For the event, the platform had capacity for up to 540K activations an hour.
The pattern of demand is what made this a hard operational problem. Activations didn’t spread evenly across a day; they concentrated into the broadcast window, when a disruption would have been most costly. The entitlement, activation, lifecycle, and reporting work ran through that peak without the streaming team having to operate it, because the partner and our platform carried it between them.
For the streaming brand, the campaign showed that a bundled partner channel could carry a high-visibility, high-volume moment. It also produced performance data the team could use to shape future offers and decide where partner-led acquisition could work next.
FAQs
What bundling platform did the streaming service use for the live event?
The streaming service ran the live-event offer through our bundling platform, working with a national telco partner. We created and delivered the entitlements, processed the activations, and managed the subscriber lifecycle and reporting across the broadcast, with 24/7 production support. For this launch, the telco partner handled billing and fraud screening.
How many activations were processed during the live event?
More than 530,000 activations were processed across the broadcast. For the event, the platform had capacity for up to 540K activations an hour.
Why did the streaming service choose a telco bundling partner over in-house or reseller distribution?
Building a custom in-house integration for a fixed-deadline event would have added engineering load and incident risk. A reseller model would have put distance between the streaming brand and the partner relationship, the subscriber data, and the post-event insights. A direct telco partnership through us kept the brand in control of the offer and commercial terms while the partner and our platform carried the operational side.
How does Boku support activations during high-traffic live events?
Our bundling platform is built for high-volume transaction environments. For this event, we provided 24/7 production support, connection monitoring, and escalation paths to act on issues quickly. Billing and fraud screening sat with the telco partner.
What did the streaming service gain from the bundled live-event offer?
The campaign processed more than 530,000 activations through the partner channel, with the billing, fraud, activation, and lifecycle functions handled by the partner and by us. It also produced performance data the team could use to improve future offers and decide where partner-led acquisition could work next.
