About NBCUniversal

NBCUniversal is one of the world’s leading media and entertainment companies, known for delivering high-quality content across various platforms. With a diverse portfolio that includes broadcast and cable television, film, and digital platforms, NBCUniversal reaches a global audience with its compelling programming and innovative services. The company is also a major player in the streaming industry, offering popular direct-to-consumer services like hayu, which provides on-demand access to a wide array of reality TV content. NBCUniversal’s commitment to excellence and innovation has established it as a trusted name in the entertainment industry, continuously pushing the boundaries of media and content delivery.

Transforming Hayu’s Technology Platform: Enhancing Performance and Reliability

Challenge: Scaling a Startup-Style Platform for Global Reach

As hayu, a popular direct-to-consumer streaming service, continued its expansion into new platforms and territories, it faced the common challenges associated with organic development. Originally pieced together using a selection of off-the-shelf solutions, the technology platform began to struggle with supporting global scale while maintaining high performance, reliability, and robustness. These issues, characteristic of a ‘startup’ style platform, threatened to impede hayu's growth and the quality of the consumer experience.

To address these challenges, the team at hayu engaged Spicy Mango to conduct a strategic audit, assess the platform’s current state, and provide recommendations to improve and enhance its technology infrastructure.

Solution: A Comprehensive Technology Audit and Enhancement Strategy

Reverse Engineering with a Consumer-First Approach

Spicy Mango’s team of enterprise platform architects undertook a strategic reverse engineering of hayu’s existing technology stack, approaching the task with a consumer-first mindset. Our methodology involved meticulously mapping and charting every consumer interaction against the underlying technology processes, calls, and functions. The goal was to identify areas of technical debt and optimise each point of interaction to enhance the overall consumer experience.

Detailed Evaluation and Tactical Improvements

Our evaluation focused on several critical areas, including request and response times, payloads, and deployment architectures. By thoroughly analysing these components, we were able to identify inefficiencies and areas of technical debt. The results of this analysis were compiled into a detailed report document, complete with resolution recommendations designed to address the identified issues. Additionally, we introduced quick-fix tactical changes aimed at immediately reducing consumer frustration and improving the user experience while longer-term solutions were implemented.

Impact: Improved Consumer Experience and Measurable Success

Transforming Delivery and Enhancing User Satisfaction

Our work with the hayu team and its technical partners resulted in a significant transformation of the platform’s delivery capabilities. The strategic enhancements we implemented led to a measurable improvement in the consumer experience, as evidenced by an increase in App Store ratings and a noticeable uplift in the Net Promoter Score (NPS). These improvements not only enhanced user satisfaction but also positioned hayu to better support its global expansion efforts.

Navigating the Challenges of Scaling Streaming Platforms

Overcoming Organic Development Pitfalls

One of the key challenges in this project was addressing the pitfalls of organic platform development, where disparate solutions were integrated without a cohesive strategy for scalability and performance. By reverse engineering the platform and taking a holistic view of the technology stack, Spicy Mango was able to identify and resolve the inefficiencies that were hindering hayu’s growth.

Ensuring Future-Ready Infrastructure

The recommendations and improvements provided by Spicy Mango have equipped hayu with a more robust and scalable platform, capable of supporting its continued global expansion. This future-ready infrastructure ensures that hayu can continue to deliver high-quality content to its growing audience without the performance issues that previously plagued the platform.

Hayu’s Digital Success Story

Through strategic analysis, innovative solutions, and seamless execution, Spicy Mango has helped hayu overcome the challenges of scaling a rapidly growing streaming platform. The collaboration between hayu and Spicy Mango not only addressed the immediate issues but also laid the groundwork for long-term success and continued global expansion. This project exemplifies the importance of a consumer-first approach in technology development, ensuring that platforms can scale effectively while maintaining a high level of user satisfaction and performance.