Skip to content

Renewal of the Katsomo service

Challenge

MTV Katsomo is the shared online TV service of MTV3, Sub and AVA. In the Katsomo service, viewers can watch paid programs of MTV3, Sub, AVA and MTV online. The offered programs include both live sports and newscasts, as well as content already shown on TV. Some of the programs are free and some are pay-per-view.

MTV had a need to renew the service throughout, from appearance and user experience to the technical implementation. Its payment activity problems, evident during peak usage, were something that needed to be resolved. The client also wanted to modernise the service, also from the viewpoint of continued development.

The service usage level was defined at 7,000,000 page views and 500,000 different visitors per week, with 40,000 payments during peak usage.

The central requirements for the new solution were:

  • Stability
  • A stable payment path for mobile payments
  • Queuing for payments, asynchronous payment events
  • A renewal of the visual appearance and responsiveness
  • A change of the content management system
  • A replacement of the old ruby solution with a new, modern web framework
  • Taking advantage of Api interfaces
  • Functionality and reliability, even during peak loads

Solution

Loihde and Nitor Creations were responsible for the delivery of the package. The project team performed their work with the Pragmatic Agile® operational model and the supporting CAPO® model*. With the help of the model, Loihde and Nitor Creations led a project team that implemented a solution to meet the business demands.

In the project, a renewed webTV service was implemented, which operates in a stable and reliable way, also during usage peaks. The project package included compiling requirements, specifying user roles and work processes, as well as a detailed functional specification of the service at page level.

With the CoreMedia content management tool, already previously introduced by MTV and integrated in Katsomo, several integral content packages were added to the service.

Technologies

The core technical elements to the project were:

  • The SPA (Single Page Application) architecture
  • HTML5 / CSS3 (SASS)
  • AngularJS / JavaScript
  • A responsive user interface
  • Unit and E2E (End to End) testing: Jasmine, REST services built on the Protractor Dropwizard framework

Results

The renewed service was published on schedule. The most important criteria of reliability and load endurance, as well as easy payment, were achieved as expected.

The user experience of the service was updated by renewing its appearance and by making it responsive. This enabled the abandoning of a separate mobile browser version. In addition, the update made maintenance easier, taking future device development and changes in viewer behaviour into account.

Last spring, the renewed service was launched in phases, in a manner where the first new functions were useable in mid-March, with the remainder introduced incrementally until mid-April.

*) Loihdes' nimble CAPO® planning model and the Nitor Creations’ Pragmatic Agile® development model are compatible, based on best practice, and their expanded, agile development work methods.

Read more