kicker boosts its content monetization capabilities with Bitmovinʼs Web Player
Overview
kicker, one of Germany’s leading digital sports publishers, is widely known for its extensive football coverage, including real-time stats and video highlights. To sustain its user growth and enhance monetization of its growing video content, kicker partnered with Bitmovin and adopted the Bitmovin Web Player.
The Problem
kicker faced challenges with ad monetization and seamless playback for its growing content. The platform required a scalable and reliable video player that could handle high viewer traffic, especially during major football events, while ensuring seamless ad integration across target countries. Without a high-performing video player, kicker risked losing viewer engagement, impacting both user satisfaction and ad revenue potential.
The Solution:
Bitmovinʼs Web Player offered kicker a solution with:
- Seamless Ad Integration: Bitmovinʼs Web Player provided robust ad-insertion capabilities such as dedicated and customizable ad modules.
- Customizable Viewer Experience: The Bitmovin playerʼs fully customizable and extensible UI allowed kicker to tailor the viewing experience to align with their branding while enhancing user engagement.
- Broad browser coverage: The Bitmovin Player is compatible with all major Desktop and Mobile Browsers allowing kicker to cover a wide range of features including adaptive bitrate, picture-in-picture, multi-language, subtitles, and more.
Results:
Since implementing Bitmovinʼs Web Player, kicker has reported:
- Increased Viewer Engagement: The high-performance player has led to longer viewing sessions, enabling content consumption.
- Higher Ad Revenue: Seamless ad insertion contributed to an increase in ad impressions, enhancing kickerʼs overall monetization.
- Improved User Experience: Buffer-free streaming and a reliable player interface have improved user satisfaction.
Conclusion
After just a few months, this multi-year partnership with Bitmovin has already helped kicker to
align user experience with revenue growth, demonstrating the critical role of a robust video
player in video content monetization.
“kicker is on an impressive growth trajectory, and itʼs essential that we have robust video streaming infrastructure in place to ensure we fulfill our strategic goals,ˮ said Tobias Buhl, Product Manager at kicker. “Bitmovin is known for its high-performance Player and proven ability to handle high traffic volumes, deliver high-quality streams, and support revenue growth. Since deploying the Bitmovin Player, we have seen improved quality of experience and increased ad revenue. I highly recommend the Bitmovin Player to anyone who wants to deliver an exceptional viewing experience to their audience and grow their brand.”
— kicker