Broadpeak: The future of streaming efficiency and sustainability

For the last 15 years, the company has led the global streaming ecosystem with its high-performance and sustainable solutions.

Back in 2010, streaming was plagued by unreliable feeds and mass crashes during live events. This limitation prompted a group of six people in Rennes, France, to form Broadpeak and work toward making streaming at broadcast scale and quality. 

Fifteen years later, the company has grown into a 300-strong global team operating in 23 countries and with a technology that powers the viewing experiences of over 250 million people in 50 countries and that drives €40m in annual revenue.

Breakthrough technologies

Broadpeak started when streaming barely worked. But thanks to its founding partners’ background in network-grade engineering, as recalled by CEO Jacques Le Mancq, they were able to present solutions to the reliability and scalability issues that plagued the industry.

During its early days, the company focused on helping pay-TV and telecom operators transition from traditional IPTV and broadcast systems to streaming on their own terms. And as the industry evolved from on-premise infrastructure to cloud-based SaaS, Broadpeak expanded its portfolio to serve not only operators but also content providers and OTT platforms.

One of Broadpeak’s first big breakthroughs came in 2012 with the launch of multicast adaptive bitrate (mABR) streaming and the company’s nanoCDN® solution.
This innovation turned home broadband gateways into mini-CDNs, proving its strength during high-demand sports and live events.

The company’s momentum continued with Eutelsat’s investment in 2019, followed by its IPO in 2022. In the same year, Broadpeak launched broadpeak.io ®, a SaaS platform for ad insertion and CDN-as-a-service, which addressed the shift in streaming business models from SVOD to AVOD and direct-to-consumer (D2C).

Moreover, Broadpeak partnered with BT Group to pioneer hybrid delivery models like MAUD (multicast-assisted unicast delivery). Just this year, the company introduced EdgePeak™ to offer caching and edge computing software with open APIs. 

Streaming challenges

Today’s streaming success has also posed challenges of scalability, monetisation, and energy efficiency.  To address scalability, Broadpeak’s CDN software achieves one terabit per second throughput using only two units. Its mABR technology can reduce network traffic by up to 90%, allowing millions of simultaneous viewers without requiring extra infrastructure.

Regarding energy efficiency as a business necessity, Broadpeak also designs all its solutions to minimise energy consumption per gigabit delivered.

When it comes to monetisation, the company uses broadpeak.io to transform video monetisation through addressable, interactive, and performance-driven advertising. Its server-side ad insertion (SSAI) powers targeted ad delivery for broadcasters like TF1+ in France and major players across Asia-Pacific, such as StarHub, MediaPrima, Chunghwa Telecom, and iCable.

Broadpeak’s Click2® technology further enhances viewer engagement by allowing users to interact with ads directly without leaving the stream.

Furthermore, to ensure security, Broadpeak uses its CDN security and anti-piracy suite to safeguard streams against token abuse and DDoS attacks.

Smarter, greener, more adaptive streaming

“Innovation and agility have been core from day one — the company was founded by engineers who wanted to solve real problems,” Le Mancq said of how they have consistently observed innovation and excellence within the company. 

Customer closeness also remains central to their approach; hence, they build long-term relationships with operators and platforms. Additionally, the company’s global workforce is united by a shared commitment to making streaming more efficient and sustainable.

Looking ahead, Broadpeak sees a future shaped by intelligence where hybrid delivery models combining multicast, unicast, and edge computing will become the standard.

Advertising is set to undergo its own transformation, with AI-driven personalisation and generative AI democratising ad creation.

Furthermore, AI will play a growing role inside Broadpeak by accelerating R&D, optimising delivery performance, and providing real-time insights into viewer quality of experience.

Amidst being one of the most influential technology companies in the global streaming ecosystem, Broadpeak’s mission has remained unchanged in the last 15 years, although its scope has dramatically expanded and continues to do so.

As Le Mancq underscored, “The streaming journey is far from over — we’re just getting started.”