How Magycal Leveraged Wowza & EZDRM to Build an Award-Winning Platform

Each year, the SportsPro OTT Summit Awards recognizes the best in sports broadcasting. At the 2022 awards, SPORT TV’s interactive application earned an award for Best User Experience. Of course, innovation is often a team effort and while SPORT TV’s name grace’s the app, the underlying technology stems from collaborative efforts between Magycal, EZDRM, and Wowza to provide clients with the precise streaming solution for their needs. This case study helps illustrate how innovative techniques, combined with a customer-centric mindset, culminated in a groundbreaking, award-winning app.

Magycal Turns to Wowza for Video Streaming

The story begins with Magycal, a company created to revolutionize the way people connect and interact with television shows and live events. Its interactive apps and OTT products provide a set of social, entertainment, and second-screen interactive experiences for companies to engage their audiences with the help of Wowza Video, Wowza’s cloud-based streaming solution. Magycal initially chose Wowza Video back in September 2020 for its ability to scale seamlessly with their needs and its live to video on demand (VOD) capabilities. Additionally, Wowza Video was quick and easy to set up and start using. With Wowza’s help, Magycal was able to get up and running within 15 days.

Wowza and EZDRM Join Forces for a Stronger Solution

Magycal was also in need of digital rights management (DRM) for added security. Although Wowza, at the time, did not have DRM integrated into the Wowza Video platform, they worked with Magycal to find a solution that would suite Magycal’s specific needs while also bolstering the Wowza Video offering for future customers. The companies turned to EZDRM, which proved easy to integrate with Wowza Video.

“The Wowza Video solution that we were already using on our OTT product went one step further with the new DRMaaS technology,” says Pedro Centieiro, COO of Magycal on the integration with EZDRM. “In a matter of days, we were supporting DRM on live streams, both on HLS and MPEG-DASH, in all major browsers, mobile devices, and TV apps. Protecting premium content is a major concern of our clients, and thanks to Wowza and EZDRM, we are now able to provide an engaging, interactive, and secure environment — whether they are watching live or video on demand (VOD) content.”

Together, Wowza and EZDRM boosted content security in Wowza Video with sophisticated DRM technology with both HLS and MPEG-DASH support. Thanks to these efforts, Magycal and other customers were able to limit playback to only legitimate end users, as well as secure and monetize premium content.

“EZDRM and Wowza are natural partners for cloud deployments,” says Olga Kornienko, COO of EZDRM. “Our robust, scalable, and easy-to-use DRMaaS offering integrates seamlessly with Wowza Video. The combined solution enables a whole new range of customers to rapidly set up and deliver a protected streaming service.”

Magycal Uses Wowza and EZDRM to Serve SPORT TV

Now armed with reliable and secure video streaming, Magycal was prepared to serve yet another customer in need of an OTT solution. SPORT TV, the primary premium paid sports broadcasting company in Portugal, was looking to revamp their digital ecosystem. Combining their award-winning track record in creating groundbreaking user experiences with the tools they built with Wowza and EZDRM, Magycal created SPORT TV website, mobile, and TV apps.

The highly innovative app combined broadcasted content and digital interactivity for a truly unique and dynamic sports viewing experience. Features included smart info, which uses AI and facial recognition technology to provide personalized information about athletes, and smart CTA, which evaluates real-time events and notifies users to take complimentary actions. Interactive features also bring hosts together with their viewers through remote polls and opinion prompts.

“We didn’t build just an OTT with VOD content and live streams,” Centieiro says of the app, “we built an OTT with those features but with traditional sports features, like following the game, adding predictor, adding information regarding competition, etc.”

It’s no wonder why SPORT TV app became one of the top three in Portugal, with 40% of the Portuguese population using the app annually, half of which are registered users. Additionally, between 2019 and 2022 (and with the help of Magycal), SPORT TV app saw a 11,150% growth in registered users and a 96% growth in unique users.

SPORT TV Wins Award for Best User Experience

While the numbers do speak for themselves, SPORT TV app was honored at the 2022 SportsPro OTT Summit Awards with an award for Best User Experience, likely due to its extremely user friendly and responsive interface.

Nuno Ferreira Pires, CEO of SPORT TV speaks to the collaboration that netted them a prestigious award in the highly competitive sports broadcasting industry. “From the first moment, we realized that Magycal would be the ideal partner to develop our ambitious process, and together we could provide a unique experience to our customers.”

Collaboration Inspires Innovation

SPORT TV’s app is the culmination not only of their collaboration with Magycal, but also the technology and industry expertise that Wowza and EZDRM brought to Magycal’s OTT platform. It is illustrative of the spirit of innovation and customer-centric design from Wowza’s initial attempts to adapt to Magycal’s needs to SPORT TV’s own attempts to better serve their sports-obsessed audience.

“It’s always a pleasure to work with partners like Magycal that push us to design unique solutions to better serve our customer needs” says Robert Vacante, Director of Product Management at Wowza, noting the value of evolving solutions with customer needs. “Our partnership is responsible for creating unique live-streaming experiences that only Wowza, EZDRM, and Magycal can deliver.”