Radio World Buyer’s Guide articles are intended to help readers understand why their colleagues chose particular products to solve various technical situations. This month’s articles focus on products to create, process, monitor or manage online streams, digital subchannels and other “ancillary” distribution platforms.
American audiences have long been familiar with TelevisaUnivision’s channels on their televisions but might be surprised to learn that the broadcaster also operates a growing radio business.
In addition to its 35 radio stations in 11 markets, the company operates 16 digital-only stations. TelevisaUnivision’s streaming footprint continues to grow and branch into new directions.
StreamGuys became an essential piece of that expanding universe last year, assuming CDN and live streaming responsibilities for all 51 stations; its responsibilities will soon expand to include on-demand streams created through SGrecast.
That toolset gives broadcasters like TelevisaUnivision the ability to repurpose live streams in ways that suit different audiences and habits, exposing their content and brand to more listeners.
While creativity is essential to broadcasters such as TelevisaUnivision, radio is also a business; broadcasters need to make money and protect their investments.
Searching for a service provider that could deliver in both areas, TelevisaUnivision chose StreamGuys.
Hector Serpas, director of audio streaming and operations for TelevisaUnvision, said he appreciated the supplier’s ability to deliver solutions that solve problems. “Specifically, they created a tokenization workflow that both protects our content and creates a secure, frictionless experience for our users.”
Tokenization became a priority for Serpas recently when they discovered a sharp rise in unauthorized streams online. StreamGuys’ SGpasskey solves the problem through the presence of encrypted tokens on the listener’s side that offer immediate authentication.
“We can now prevent unauthorized access to our streams,” said Serpas. “That’s a very big deal because we can both protect our IP and more effectively monetize our content.”
Monetization was also on the checklist. “In addition to securing our content and repurposing our content in creative ways through SGrecast, StreamGuys has deployed a geoblocking service that is essential for licensing compliance in sports carriage,” said Serpas.
“It also ensures we deliver a different experience for listeners when they are blocks due to regional restrictions, instead of fading to silence.” He said StreamGuys helps the company deliver a seamless experience to every listener.
