Thinking Media has announced its partnership with Bitmovin to power its newly acquired service, STIRR. This collaboration will support Thinking Media’s goal of delivering hyper-personalized streaming experiences for audiences, including hyper-local news using AI, Server-Guided Ad Insertion (SGAI), and Multiview capabilities.
With the acquisition of STIRR from Sinclair Broadcast Group in January 2024, Thinking Media is committed to pushing the boundaries of video streaming and providing audiences with unique, AI-generated content. Thinking Media is re-platforming STIRR and developing AI-generated elemental feeds for news, weather, and traffic as part of its strategic plan. Additionally, it is creating a multi-player setup with AI-generated feeds and a generative advertising portal integrated with SGAI. By integrating Bitmovin’s solutions, Thinking Media is positioned to scale STIRR and revolutionize the traditional one-size-fits-all approach to streaming experiences.
“We see a real opportunity to bring a fresh and much-needed approach to video streaming with hyper-personalized experiences encompassing everything from local news to advertising. We aim to turn STIRR into an AI-native Streaming Service. Our partnership with Bitmovin is instrumental in making that a reality,” said Todd Carter, Co-Founder and CEO of Thinking Media. “Integrating Bitmovin’s Player, VOD Encoder, and Analytics means we are best positioned to deliver exceptional experiences for viewers with high-quality playback to the most devices, with ultra-fast encoding and analytics to help us track and fix real-time issues. We’re incredibly excited to announce our partnership with Bitmovin, and we’re already exploring more ways to work together.”
Thinking Media is leveraging Bitmovin’s Player to guarantee playback quality on any screen through modular architecture, including low latency and configurable adaptive bitrate streaming. This ensures a smooth and seamless viewing experience for audiences, regardless of location. The Player also provides pre-integrations for Server-Side Ad and Server-Guided Ad Insertion, which allows for a more targeted and efficient advertising experience. Additionally, Bitmovin’s Analytics will provide Thinking Media with deep user metrics, enabling real-time insights into stream performance to proactively fix any issues that may arise. Thinking Media also utilizes Bitmovin’s VOD Encoder, which supports multi-codec streaming, 8K, and multi-HDR, and utilizes Per-Title Encoding to efficiently encode video assets while maintaining the highest visual quality and reducing costs.
In addition to Bitmovin’s solutions, Thinking Media has also integrated Bunny CDN, a next-generation content delivery network, for its cost-effectiveness and fast, reliable performance. This integration is essential in Thinking Media’s expansion into markets across North America, Latin America, and Europe, ensuring seamless, fast-loading Bitmovin players and buffer-free experiences in these key regions.
“Thinking Media is forward-thinking and plans to create a viewing experience for STIRR’s audience that transcends what’s being done today. We’re super excited about its plans to implement Bitmovin’s Multiview and also support for SGAI; both are new features we just announced for the Player,” said Stefan Lederer, CEO and co-founder of Bitmovin. “Thinking Media is embarking on a huge growth trajectory, and we’re proud that Bitmovin will be a part of its exciting future.”
