SEATTLE—Discovery has turned to Amazon Web Services (AWS) to assist with the global rollout of discovery+, including enabling greater personalization capabilities to assist viewers in finding content that appeals to their interests, AWS said.
This latest engagement extends the existing strategic relationship between the companies. As Discovery’s preferred cloud provider, AWS currently powers the majority of the broadcaster’s infrastructure needs to deliver its discovery+ on-demand streaming video service, its digital services and more than 450 linear TV channels around the globe, AWS said.
“AWS provides the unparalleled portfolio of services, global infrastructure and proven performance we need to reliably deliver our premium content at scale to Discovery viewers all over the world,” said Avi Saxena, chief technology officer of direct-to-consumer at Discovery.
“Running on AWS, we have the agility and elasticity we need to deliver quality viewing experiences for peak events like the Olympics, as well as scalable machine learning capabilities to deliver meaningful personalization to viewers so they can get the most value out of their subscriptions.”
Discovery is the largest media and entertainment user of Amazon Personalize, the company’s machine learning service that enables developers to create real-time, personalized user experiences faster and at scale. Using Amazon Personalize, Discovery offers recommendations for curated content matching the specific interest of viewers.
It also relies on Amazon Transcribe speech-to-text across its linear broadcast channels and streaming services for accurate closed captions as well as Amazon Rekognition automated image and video analysis to extract and tag video content with metadata, AWS said.
Discovery leverages AWS Media & Entertainment Services to deliver over 8,000 hours of original live and on-demand programming each year. AWS Elemental MediaConnect, AWS Elemental MediaLive and AWS Elemental MediaPackage manage Discovery’s video transport, preparation, processing and delivery behind-the-scenes, it said.
In the summer of 2021, as the home of the Olympics in Europe, Discovery scaled its use of AWS Media Services to transmit 1.3 billion minutes of the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 content across its range of digital platforms, AWS said.
AWS is also the official cloud, artificial intelligence, machine learning and deep learning provider of Discovery Sports Events. As part of this strategic relationship, the two companies are building an immersive fan-engagement experience for the new Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) Track Champions League to introduce track cycling to new audiences and expand its global fan base, it said.
Discovery Sports Events and AWS will serve live data, analysis and stats, such as bike speed, race position and pedal cadence, to fans in the velodrome where races take place through live television and streaming and in a new UCI Track Champions League app, it said.
Discovery Sports Events will use Amazon Kinesis for collection, processing and analysis of video and data streams in real time, ingesting and processing live, streaming data from sensors on the track, bikes and riders. It will apply AWS analytics and machine learning capabilities to serve up stats, such as rider power output in watts, time keeping and racer biometrics, the company said.
It will also use AWS Media Services to provide the stats to fans through the app and broadcast in a simple and compelling format, it said.
More information is available on the AWS website.
