Simplestream: 2021 in review

Another year is entering its final stretch, and it’s time for us to look back at the past 12 months, recognising the achievements that made 2021 an important year for Simplestream.

This year has been one of growth and innovation. We tirelessly worked to evolve our value proposition across our products and services. We grew our staff, adding talent to our development and delivery teams. We faced the challenges brought by the ongoing pandemic and undertook projects for several new clients, enhancing the way we create, deliver, and maintain powerful solutions.

Most importantly, we worked behind the scenes to come back in 2022 – after some well-deserved holidays – with plenty of exciting new stuff to announce. In the meantime, why not investigate the key stats of our 2021? Here is a sneak peek we hope you’ll enjoy!

👉 We grew our portfolio to well over 30 clients across the broadcast, sport, and entertainment spaces, globally, welcoming the likes of GB News, Digital Theatre, and Craftsy.

👉 We were proud to support over 20 million hours of playtime across the entire portfolio of projects including the full range of devices.

👉 Wondering how many subscribers signed up for our clients’ services? We have the answer: over 175,000 users did so in 2021.

👉 We powered the Paralympic Games experience, delivered on Channel 4’s accessible website and OTT platform, a 12-day, unforgettable event. This resulted in over 1,300 hours of video content distributed live – with up to 16 concurrent streams – and 325 sporting events covered. We provided a fully managed, 24/7 support service, as also highlighted in our recent case study, where we tell the story of a very challenging project.

Innovation

Our mission is always to innovate. In 2021 we focused on enhancing our products and services, making our App Platform an unbeatable, online video platform (OVP)-agnostic choice for multi-device streaming and OTT services. Our product was also selected among the winners of the IBC Best of 2021: TVBEurope Awards. We kept simplifying the complexity of managing Live Events and Live2VOD workflows and strengthened our Media Manager with powerful modules and new opportunities for monetisation across different business models.

Media presence and 'Best of 2021' Award

We were proud to read our name on many prestigious publications, covering Simplestream stories such as the announcements for the launch of brand-new OTT services for GB News and Islam Channel. We were also featured on SportsPro Magazine, covering the collaboration with Channel 4 during the 2020 edition of the Paralympic Games.

Later in December, we won the IBC: Best of 2021 TVB Europe Award, celebrating the enhancement to our own App Platform, judged as one of the outstanding products in the world of broadcast this year.

Events

We were back, in-person, for a few events in the last quarter of this year. We attended SportsPro OTT Summit in London, we took part in the lively conversation around broadcast and TV opportunities at the DPP Leaders’ Briefing. We then flew to Paris to wrap up the year with a focus on Hybrid TV and what’s next in the market. Unfortunately, we didn’t get a chance to see clients, partners, and prospects at IBC in Amsterdam. However, we are looking forward to being there next year, stronger than ever!

That’s a wrap, for now. Keep an eye on Simplestream as we we’ll be entering 2022 with some juicy news and announcements. To start with, you might notice something new on our channels, including the website, in the coming weeks. We really can’t wait to unfold what we have, and are, working on.

Happy holidays, from all at Simplestream, and best wishes for a roaring new year.