From Plus7 to 7plus: Seven West Media Launches Australia’s First 24/7 Live Streaming Network

As one of Australia’s leading integrated media companies, Seven West Media (SWM) offers top quality, story-driven content to millions of consumers across the country. Whether it’s in the form of broadcast programming, magazines, newspapers, or digital media, SWM operates from the standpoint of creating engagement and value from powerful storytelling.

SWM decided to pivot its business strategy and become a total video enterprise, putting consumers in control of the viewing experience. In order to do that successfully, the company identified two major goals: (1) incrementally monetize all of its live stream content, and (2) measure each asset independently. Says Clive Dickens, Chief Digital Officer for SWM: “If we could incrementally monetize and independently measure, then we’d be able to take our total video experience to all devices, better known as TV Everywhere.”

Seven West Media launched its TV Everywhere strategy with Australia’s first-ever, 24/7 live stream television operation, giving viewers live access to big events like the Wimbledon Championships. From there, SWM built a network using the power of Brightcove technology, most notably its transcoding and encoding features, ensuring its consumers can access content anytime, anywhere. The company implemented Brightcove’s server side ad insertion (SSAI) solution to mitigate ad blockers, optimize ad delivery, and boost monetization. Further maximizing the advantages of the Brightcove platform, SWM then launched its own OTT streaming service, 7plus, blending the excitement of live stream content with catch-up programming via on-demand video, allowing consumers to decide how and when they want to enjoy SWM media. With the Brightcove platform, SWM was able to quickly power the service and send to market, all in a cost-effective, efficient manner.  Within twelve weeks following the launch, the service had already recorded nearly three million unique visitors per month. 

Standout events fueled a year of stunning growth for SWM in 2018. The Summer of 7Tennis campaign reached 50% of the Australian population through its duration, as 3.3 million viewers tuned in simultaneously at the peak of the Australian Open men’s final. The Winter Olympics reached even more Australians, with 16 million viewers tuning in throughout the event, logging  27.4 million social video views. Finally, the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games racked up a total of 189 million live streaming minutes at final count. Throughout the year, their service handled these extreme traffic loads without viewability issues, thanks to the robust capabilities of the Brightcove platform.