More sovereignty, more innovation: freenet TV relies on Google Cloud and cloud-native development
The future of the freenet.tv portal
For hundreds of thousands of users, the freenet TV portal is the central point of contact for receiving and managing their private television experience in HD quality. In order to continue to meet the high demands for reliability, scalability and performance in the future and to be able to implement innovations more quickly, Media Broadcast GmbH was faced with the challenge of modernising its historically grown platform. In the Public Cloud Group (PCG), it found the strategic partner not only to revamp the portal technologically, but also to operate and further develop it in a future-proof manner.
freenet TV X PCG
freenet.tv is a brand of Cologne-based Media Broadcast GmbH and the leading provider of digital terrestrial television in Germany. The freenet.tv paid service enables viewers to receive private television channels via DVB-T2 HD in high-definition Full HD quality. The service, which is a flexible alternative to cable and satellite, comprises over 40 channels and is aimed at a broad user base.
The central platform for contract management, activation and customer service is the web portal of the same name. It not only serves as a shop and self-service channel, but is also a crucial tool for supporting comprehensive customer service and reducing the workload of the company’s own call centre.
The challenge at one glance
Like many successful digital products, the freenet.tv customer portal had grown organically over the years and developed into a robust but complex platform. Such structures are often the sign of an established business model, but they bring with them industry-standard challenges when it comes to reaching the next level of agility and innovation.
Vendor Lock-in
Governance
Legacy burdens
Time-to-market
Service level
Mastering complexity, accelerating innovation
In order to set the course for future growth, it was strategically crucial for freenet.tv to gain full technological sovereignty over its own infrastructure and development processes. The existing system landscape, which was based in part on the infrastructure of an external partner and associated processes, offered a high degree of reliability in ongoing operations, but reached its natural limits in terms of flexibility.
The introduction of new features, the optimisation of the user experience and the rapid integration of additional payment methods required increasingly more planning and coordination. The central challenge was to further develop the existing platform in a targeted manner. The aim was to reduce dependencies, exploit the full potential for digital innovation and significantly shorten the time-to-market for new customer functions.
In the past, we have seen how over-engineered solutions do not always align with business objectives and the desired pace of development. In PCG, we have found a partner who shares our focus on pragmatic, value-adding results. The right team setup and understanding of our business model are the keys to success.
The double lever: synergy from cloud infrastructure and agile development
To make the platform future-proof, PCG pursued a holistic approach that encompassed both infrastructure and application development.
- Migration and autonomy in Google Cloud: The decisive step was to migrate the entire application to a new, dedicated Google Cloud project, which is wholly owned by freenet.tv. This gave the company full technological control – an important factor that also meets the Freenet Group’s internal governance requirements. Manual configuration was replaced by a clean infrastructure-as-code solution with Terraform. This enables automated and transparent adjustments to the entire environment.
- Modernisation and continuous development: Building on this solid technological foundation, the PCG development team is continuously modernising the platform. In close cooperation with freenet.tv, requirements are analysed and new features are implemented in an agile manner.
These have included, among other things:
- UI/UX optimisations for intuitive user guidance during activation and contract management.
- Revision of the checkout process, implementation of an express checkout and connection of payment service providers to increase the conversion rate.
- Development of an AI-supported chatbot to relieve customer service and improve the user experience.
- Continuous architectural consulting to ensure the longevity of the software and reduce technical debt.
As part of its Managed Cloud Operations (MCO) agreement, PCG is also responsible for full 24/7 operation, including on-call support, monitoring, incident management and monthly security updates for the staging and production clusters.
Integrated partnership as a success factor
The collaboration between freenet.tv and PCG has been established as a long-term partnership since October 2022. With a dedicated team, PCG covers the entire spectrum from strategic requirements analysis to UI/UX design and development to stable operation and testing. Comprehensive automated testing ensures high-quality releases and gives the freenet.tv team the confidence to focus on accepting the most important use cases. Regular coordination and agile project management ensure maximum transparency. PCG acts not only as an executing service provider, but also as a proactive consultant who plays a key role in shaping the technological vision of freenet.tv.
The relaunch of the checkout process was a huge added value for us and our customers. By migrating to our own Google Cloud environment, we have regained technological control. This stable foundation and our confidence in PCG’s reliable quality assurance give us the security to now tackle strategic issues such as AI and optimising the mobile customer journey.
From project to competitive advantage: The path to an innovative future
Today, freenet.tv has a modern, agile and highly available cloud-native platform. The stable architecture has significantly reduced the time-to-market for new features and increased release reliability. This foundation is a real driver of innovation.
The focus for the future is on strategic optimisations:
- A completely new customer account setup, especially for mobile use
- Further UI/UX optimisations for even more intuitive customer interactions
- Integration of AI technologies for support and process optimisation
- Expansion of automated quality assurance for maximum stability
The partnership not only ensures stable operations, but also creates the capacity to continue generating sustainable business impact through technological excellence by proactively exchanging information about new technological possibilities.
About PCG
Public Cloud Group (PCG) supports companies in their digital transformation through the use of public cloud solutions.
With a product portfolio designed to accompany organizations of all sizes in their cloud journey and competence that is a synonym for highly qualified staff that clients and partners like to work with, PCG is positioned as a reliable and trustworthy partner for the hyperscalers, relevant and with repeatedly validated competence and credibility.
We have the highest partnership status with the three relevant hyperscalers: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google, and Microsoft. As experienced providers, we advise our customers independently with cloud implementation, application development, and managed services.
Services Used
Software Development
PCG X Software Development – Whether modernization, development, or cloud migration – we translate your requirements into future-proof, customized software solutions and accompany you on your cloud journey on AWS, Google, or Microsoft Azure.
Software Modernization
Successfully bring legacy systems up to date – Modernize your applications for more performance, security and scalability.
Google Cloud Migration
Strategic Cloud Migration with PCG: Process-driven. Efficient. Future-oriented.
