How Watch Brasil improved streaming performance and unlocked ad revenue growth with Bitmovin

The Overview:  

Watch Brasil is a streaming platform serving viewers across Brazil and Europe, with international operations managed through Watch Labs Europe. As the platform scaled, its legacy player infrastructure began to create friction, with startup delays, buffering, and error rates undermining both viewer experience and team confidence. At the same time, the business had clear ambitions to grow advertising revenue and lead the programmatic advertising space in streaming across its two key markets.

Watch Brasil partnered with Bitmovin to consolidate its playback architecture and address those challenges. Bitmovin’s Player became its sole provider across Web, Android, iOS, and Smart TVs including Samsung (Tizen), LG (webOS), and Hisense (VIDAA), with the VOD Encoder and Observability solution completing a modern, integrated stack. Together, the solutions gave Watch Brasil the reliability and infrastructure to pursue its growth ambitions across both markets.

The main requests were:

Key Benefits with Bitmovin:

How Bitmovin Delivered:

Consolidating playback across every device with a reliable Player

Watch Brasil replaced its legacy Shaka Player setup with Bitmovin’s Player as its exclusive playback solution across Web, Android, iOS, and Smart TVs including Samsung (Tizen), LG (webOS), and Hisense (VIDAA). The transition gave Watch Brasil a unified architecture delivering consistent, high-quality performance across every screen. Startup times improved by 80%, buffering was significantly reduced, and error rates fell, directly addressing the reliability challenges that had held the platform back. With a single vendor covering all platforms, Watch Brasil also simplified its operations and gained the flexibility to move faster on product improvements.

Building the foundation for programmatic advertising leadership

A core goal for Watch Brasil is to grow advertising revenues across Brazil and Europe by delivering relevant, effective ad experiences for both viewers and advertisers. Bitmovin’s Player provided the infrastructure to support that vision, with native SGAI, SSAI, and CSAI support enabling Watch Brasil to increase ad revenue and opportunities. Bitmovin’s team provided hands-on support during the ad integration phase, keeping the project on track and the platform positioned to keep scaling its advertising capabilities.

Delivering efficient, high-quality video through VOD encoding

Watch Brasil uses Bitmovin’s VOD Encoder to prepare content for delivery across its platform, outputting primarily in H.264 with H.265 being introduced as usage grows. This gives Watch Brasil the flexibility to balance video quality against bandwidth efficiency, ensuring a consistent viewing experience for audiences across Brazil and Europe regardless of network conditions.

Gaining real-time platform visibility through the Observability solution

Bitmovin’s Observability for video playback gives Watch Brasil’s teams real-time visibility into how the platform is performing for viewers, covering playback quality, session behaviour, and ad delivery. Rather than reacting to issues after they affect viewers, the team can now identify and resolve problems significantly faster than before. This directly supports Watch Brasil’s operational goals of maintaining platform stability and reliability, and gives the team the data needed to keep improving the viewer experience across Brazil and Europe.

A partnership grounded in expertise and responsive support

Watch Brasil selected Bitmovin based in part on its reputation within the streaming industry and positive endorsements from well-known companies already using Bitmovin’s solutions. That confidence was reinforced during the deployment process: Bitmovin’s team provided clear documentation, practical implementation guidance, and direct engineering support during the ad integration phase, enabling Watch Brasil to complete its deployment within their target timeline. The collaboration continues to underpin Watch Brasil’s confidence in its platform as it scales across both markets.

About Watch Brasil

Watch Brasil is a streaming platform operating across Brazil and Europe, with international operations managed through Watch Labs Europe. The platform is focused on delivering high-quality streaming experiences while pioneering programmatic advertising innovation in its key markets. Led by an experienced team spanning commercial, innovation, and technology, Watch Brasil is building toward a new standard for both viewer experience and advertising effectiveness in the regions it serves.

Quote:

“Bitmovin has become the backbone of our streaming platform. The Player, VOD Encoder, and Observability solution have given us the reliability we needed to fix the foundational issues we faced, and the capability to pursue our vision of leading programmatic advertising in streaming across Brazil and Europe. The quality of the technology and the responsiveness of the team have made this a true partnership. Together, we are raising the bar for what streaming can deliver in our markets.”

Fhabyo Matesick, CMO, Watch Brasil & General Manager, Watch Labs Europe