Acorn TV — Microservices Platform, Unified APIs & Multi-Device Scaling
Acorn TV (RLJ Entertainment’s Entertainment’s streaming portfolio) needed a microservices-based video subscription backbone built from scratch. With multiple brands and devices to connect, they needed a unified approach that could scale globally.
- Combine multiple niche streaming brands (AcornTV, Urban Movie Channel, Athena, etc.)
- Unified billing, subscriptions, accounts, and content delivery
- Support playback across Roka, Samsung TVs, AppleTV, mobile, browsers, and more
Our Solution
- Build a custom multi-brand, multi-channel, modular system
- Unify brands while keeping internal complexity manageable
RLJ operates several specialized streaming media services and catalog interests in North America, UK, and Australia. Its brands include AcornTV, Urban Movie Channel, AcaciaTV, Athena, and several others.
Result
- Achieved ~800,000 subscribers in 5 years across their brands
- Supported a broad device footprint: Roku, Samsung SmartTV, AppleTV, all major browsers, tablets, smartphones
- Reduced overhead: centralized operations rather than creating separate stacks per brand
- Created an adaptable foundation: Easily work with new devices, channels, and business expansions
How we did it
- Designed and built a multi-tenant microservices platform to serve multiple brands under a shared infrastructure
- Developed custom APIs for unified billing, subscription logic, and account management across devices and brands
- Enabled seamless content management across channels (mobile, Roku, Smart TVs, browsers)
- Used our Simplicis platform + AWS for a hybrid cloud setup: scalable, secure, cost-efficient
- Built the system to be extensible — new brands, devices, or business models can be onboarded with minimal friction