Foxtel Group has adopted Fastly’s content delivery network (CDN) technology to support the delivery of live 4K Ultra HD sports to more than a million concurrent viewers. This move aims to ensure consistent streaming quality and stability for audiences of both its Kayo Sports and Foxtel platforms.
Streaming at scale
Foxtel streams 200 to 400 live sporting events each week to its Australian subscriber base. With rising demand for premium quality streams, particularly during large events, the company identified the need for more robust infrastructure. Stephen Huffadine, Head of OTT Delivery at Foxtel Group, outlined the challenges: “We were a bit worried about how much capacity we were going to have in country, especially during peak events that can attract more than a million concurrent subscribers.”
Performance monitoring
The Foxtel team closely tracks key performance indicators including time to join a stream and buffering ratios. Niklas Hammarstrom, Director of Streaming and Advertising Technology at Foxtel Group, said, “We monitor join time, which is obviously essential, and then buffer ratio and rebuffering ratio.” Huffadine added, “It’s really important for us to maintain that quality. Otherwise, consumers are going to just start walking.”
Multi-CDN strategy
To address risk of bottlenecks and service disruptions, Foxtel operates a multi-CDN strategy. This provides redundancy and the ability to balance demand across several providers. Hammarstrom said, “Today, the majority of our traffic is going over Fastly in Australia.”
According to Hammarstrom, Fastly’s flexible infrastructure has been a differentiator. “The partnership with Fastly has shown that they can very quickly build out capacity when we require more capacity.”
Automation focus
Foxtel supports more than 60 distinct video configurations, making manual changes impractical and error-prone. Automation has therefore become central to day-to-day operations. Huffadine said, “If you can’t automate it, there’s a good chance you’re going to make a mistake on one of those.”
For Hammarstrom, Fastly provided the tools needed. “We have been able to automate the majority of all of our CDN configurations.” He continued, “Fastly has been very developer friendly. Our engineering team likes that Fastly offers a very simplistic approach.”
Real-time diagnostics
Foxtel uses Fastly’s real-time log streaming to access detailed information on platform health and resolve playback problems. Hammarstrom said, “By having access to those logs, we can quickly identify playback problems, which gives us a very quick and clear understanding.” The integration of log streaming also supports collaboration within Foxtel’s teams, as data insights assist in engagement with video player developers.
Monitoring rendition switching rates is another key part of the quality control process. “We started looking a lot at rendition switching as well. That proves how stable the network is. If you’re streaming and you have a very volatile connection, the rendition switching would go up and down a lot due to the ABR [adaptive bit rate] capabilities in the players. And obviously a good CDN keeps the rendition switching low,” said Hammarstrom.
Operational outcomes
By integrating Fastly into its CDN approach, Foxtel has gained the ability to scale for major live events while maintaining a simpler, more automated operational model. Hammarstrom said, “We had a problem to solve, and Fastly helped us solve it. They’ve proven over and over again that it is a good partnership for us.”
