How Benesse Corporation Reduced Costs and Doubled Efficiency
The Benesse Corporation is an education company dedicated to providing learning materials for young children as well as students in elementary, middle, and high schools. After many years of success, especially with their popular “Kodomo Challenge” program, they needed to adapt their distribution model to the needs of their customers.
Reducing Costs with a Stable Streaming Environment
“Kodomo Challenge” is a correspondence course for children up to age 6, featuring animated segments as well as videos that show how to use the educational materials. Although some videos were previously distributed through a members-only website, the content was generally distributed through DVDs. However, as the number of households with DVD players declined, the Benesse Corporation began exploring ways to distribute their materials online.
“The first option we considered was streaming our videos on a mobile app,” said Mr. Hiroki Kubota of the Business Development Promotion Office. However, despite the obvious benefits and convenience streaming offered parents and guardians, they also anticipated some concerns. “Unlike watching DVDs on large TV screens, watching on mobile devices with small screens could cause eyestrain.”
Since the streaming provider they used on their website didn’t support TV distribution, the Benesse Corporation decided to pursue another provider. After researching multiple companies, they chose Brightcove for its broad delivery capabilities and stable streaming environment.
“We knew that Brightcove offered all-in-one packages for video streaming services,” said Mr. Yuuki Shibata of the Infrastructure Strategy Promotion Office. “And since we had already used it to distribute ‘Kodomo Challenge,’ we also knew it could provide a stable service.”
In addition, video streaming enabled the Benesse Corporation to significantly cut costs compared to their DVD distribution model.
For example, “Kodomo Challenge” videos are offered in six different courses based on the viewer’s age, with about 10 videos produced for each course per month. By switching to streaming, Mr. Kubota notes that they’re able to distribute twice as many videos as they did before. “We could deliver DVDs only once a month, but we can stream planned content every week, which is a major positive for us.”
Making Videos Available on Mobile Devices
The most difficult task after migrating to Brightcove was transcoding. While bigger data files allow higher-quality streams, limited mobile bandwidth and large numbers of concurrent viewers can affect performance, as Mr. Kubota recalls.
“Animated programs are put together frame by frame, so these videos can be compressed relatively easily, even for smaller screens. But compressing live-action programs can result in visual distortion or dropped frames. When we were adjusting the file sizes, we watched the actual videos so that we could get a sense for the perfect file-size-to-image ratio.”
Once properly transcoded, the “Kodomo Challenge” videos were made available on a mobile app in their originally intended specifications. Mr. Kubota remarked how they often hear people say, “Before, we could only watch these shows on TV at home or on DVD players in the car. But now, our kids can watch them at restaurants or during shopping trips. It’s very helpful.”
Streaming also made viewing less tedious for viewers, since they can easily switch videos at home without swapping DVDs. Furthermore, customers liked that the app didn’t play unrelated videos or ads like free streaming platforms do. “They can play videos for their children free of worry,” said Mr. Kubota.
Collecting Video Data to Guide Production
Video data also changed the way the Benesse Corporation produced videos. Mr. Shoji Ueda, General Manager of the Infrastructure Technology Promotion Department, points out that DVDs relied on qualitative feedback from questionnaires. “But with streaming, we can learn which images children enjoy and which age groups those children belong to in real time. Now we can use this data to help make videos.”
The Benesse Corporation produces many other programs beyond “Kodomo Challenge,” and they’re beginning to consolidate all of their video distribution operations onto Brightcove. Mr. Ueda concludes, “Even with limited video needs right now, we’re still seeing cost benefits. But now that we know we can stably stream ‘Kodomo Challenge,’ we will continue to grow our use of Brightcove.”