Scalable Media Streaming Software Development for a News Platform
Explore how the developed media streaming app helps deliver live and on-demand content at scale with web, mobile, and Smart TV apps.
OUR СUSTOMER
National Television Channel
News 24 is a Ukrainian digital news brand that operates as a 24-hour TV channel and popular online news portal (24tv.ua). The brand belongs to a national media group that operates several TV and radio channels, as well as online platforms reaching audiences across the country.
THE CHALLENGE
Outdated Platform for Streaming News
At the start of our collaboration, the channel’s existing online presence was focused primarily on text articles and embedded videos, which could not meet the growing demand for live streaming, video-on-demand, and multimedia content consumption on the Internet and mobile devices. News 24 faced several pressing challenges:
- Unavailability of a dedicated streaming platform. The company had no live streaming capabilities or on-demand video delivery. This limitation prevented them from offering a complete digital experience, reducing viewer engagement and competitiveness in the media market.
- Lack of streaming-ready infrastructure. The existing configuration only supported text and basic media embedding, making it unsuitable for scalable, adaptive real-time video delivery.
- Inconsistent web performance impacting brand. Breaking news events caused unpredictable spikes in online traffic. Service interruptions or poor performance during these moments directly undermined user trust and damaged the brand’s reputation.
- Quality and scalability limitations. The lack of CDN integration, conversion pipelines, and adaptive bitrate streaming led to delays, buffering, and inconsistent video quality across devices. On-premises and hybrid systems also lacked the elasticity to scale instantly during peak loads.
- IT Operational inefficiency. Manual infrastructure management and fragmented processes increased costs, slowed development cycles, and slowed down digital modernization.
THE SOLUTION
Media Streaming Web and Mobile App Development
To solve these challenges, we delivered a broadcast software engineering solution for web, mobile, and Smart TV applications. It included the next activities:
- Scalable cloud infrastructure. We built a resilient backend that supported live and on-demand streaming. Adaptive bitrate streaming and CDN integration ensured low-latency playback and consistent quality under heavy loads.
- Cross-platform redevelopment for real-time news delivery. We redeveloped the 24TV.ua web portal, built mobile apps (“News 24”) for iOS and Android, and launched Smart TV apps for Samsung, LG, and Dune HD. These platforms delivered real-time news, live broadcasts, video archives, podcasts, and interactive features such as polls, blogs, and user comments.
- Advanced content and search capabilities. We implemented tools for managing and releasing news and videos, Solr API–based content search, Google search integration, and access to news and TV program archives, ensuring fast discovery and usability improvements.
- Engagement and identity management. The solution included live podcasts, user-generated interaction (blogs, comments, polls), and a single user database across related portals, creating unified access and stronger audience loyalty.
THE RESULTS
Market Growth Through Streaming Innovation
News 24 successfully evolved into a multi-platform streaming ecosystem, which directly strengthened its business position in the Ukrainian media market:
- Boosted digital presence as News 24 became one of the top-4 online news contributors in Ukraine, reaching up to 1 million unique daily users during major events and covering 14.4% of the national online audience. The mobile app became a top-3 App Store News app in Ukraine and later ranked in the top-10 in both App Store and Google Play.
- Web, mobile, and Smart TV apps as main access points expanded the customer’s reach, enabling content consumption across diverse devices and opening new monetization opportunities through advertising and partnerships.
- Interactive features that boosted user engagement and time-on-site increased audience loyalty, improved ad performance, and created stronger relationships with viewers.
- Unified user identity management and advanced search capabilities improved usability, simplified access across portals, and enhanced discoverability, which in turn drove higher traffic from recurring visits.
WHY ROMEXSOFT
Multi-Platform Media Apps Development Vendor
Romexsoft’s experts can build multi-platform media applications integrated with scalable cloud infrastructures, ensuring stable delivery of live streaming and high-traffic content. This approach allows media companies to launch modern digital services faster and reduce operational overhead, strengthening their competitiveness in the media and entertainment market.
Our customers choose us as we deliver:
- Modernization of multi-platform applications for national-scale media broadcasting.
- Integrations with Google search and Solr API for advanced content discovery.
- Data-driven personalization algorithms to improve content relevance.
- Unified user databases which improve access and boost engagement across platforms.
Streaming Platform Development FAQ
Key metrics for streaming platform performance include latency, buffering rate, video start time, and bitrate stability – all of which affect viewing quality. It’s also important to track concurrent viewers, uptime, and error rate to ensure smooth delivery and reliable scaling during peak traffic.
Content security and data protection in media streaming applications are ensured through encrypted data transmission (HTTPS, DRM), secure user authentication, and access control mechanisms. Platforms often use AWS services like CloudFront, IAM, and KMS to safeguard content, manage permissions, and prevent unauthorized distribution.
Ready-made tools are pre-built streaming solutions that offer quick setup but limited flexibility and scalability. In contrast, custom media streaming platforms let you choose the technology stack, design unique features, and scale resources as your audience and business needs grow.
DevOps helps keep large-scale streaming systems stable, scalable, and continuously available. Through automation, CI/CD pipelines, and infrastructure as code, updates can be deployed faster without downtime. DevOps teams also monitor performance, resolve issues proactively, and optimize resource usage to ensure seamless streaming during peak loads.
