Product engineering and modernization
Comedy Central
Comedy streaming platform engineering for ViacomCBS
Project overview
The Comedy Central applications gave viewers access to full episodes, original series, stand-up specials, clips, and live programming across mobile and TV devices.
We maintained and extended the iOS, Android, and Apple TV applications as part of the ViacomCBS engineering organization. The work covered platform updates, new product capabilities, content integration, release quality, and production support.
Engineering focused on DRM-protected playback, adaptive streaming, content discovery, TV-provider authentication, analytics, and consistent viewing behavior across supported devices.
10M+
Global Downloads
3
Platforms
24/7
Content Access
Our role
Technical contributions and key deliverables
Native Mobile Development
- Maintained and evolved existing iOS codebase using Swift and Objective-C with MVVM architecture for scalable, testable application structure with reactive programming patterns
- Maintained and evolved existing Android codebase using Kotlin and Java with modern architecture components, ExoPlayer integration, and coroutine-based async operations
- Updated and optimized video player components to meet evolving DRM requirements including FairPlay (iOS), Widevine (Android), and FairPlay Streaming (Apple TV) compliance
- Ensured continuous compatibility with latest iOS and Android OS versions through proactive testing, adaptive code modifications, and beta OS participation programs
Enterprise Collaboration
- Coordinated directly with ViacomCBS internal engineering teams across product, platform, content, and marketing divisions for synchronized feature releases and content launches
- Participated in bi-weekly agile sprint cycles, daily standups, sprint planning, and retrospectives within the client's scaled agile framework (SAFe)
- Collaborated comprehensively with QA organization on test strategy development, regression testing automation, and production verification across extensive device matrices
- Partnered with content operations and programming teams on new show launches, promotional campaigns, featured content curation, and editorial calendar execution
Technical Implementation
- Integrated comprehensive analytics SDKs including Braze for user engagement tracking, audience segmentation, and NewRelic for performance monitoring and crash reporting with custom instrumentation
- Implemented sophisticated push notification campaigns with audience segmentation, A/B testing, deep linking, and scheduled delivery for new episode alerts and content promotion
- Managed beta testing programs through TestFlight (iOS) and AppCenter (Android) with phased rollouts, crash-free release monitoring, and user feedback collection
- Optimized application performance including app size reduction through asset optimization, launch time improvement, memory footprint optimization, and network request efficiency enhancements
Engineering challenges
Complex problems we solved during development
DRM & Content Protection
- Challenge: Premium comedy content required strict DRM compliance across multiple platforms and content licensing agreements
- Solution: Implemented FairPlay Streaming (iOS/tvOS) and Widevine Modular (Android) with secure license acquisition, key management, and secure media path
- Result: 100% content provider compliance with zero security incidents during production operation
TV Provider Authentication
- Challenge: Complex authentication flow with 50+ cable/satellite providers each with different OAuth implementations and token formats
- Solution: Built unified authentication abstraction layer with provider detection, token exchange, refresh logic, and graceful fallback mechanisms
- Result: 99.2% authentication success rate across all supported TV providers, with a consistent sign-in experience
Video Performance
- Challenge: Video startup latency and buffering impacting user engagement and retention metrics during peak traffic periods
- Solution: Implemented adaptive bitrate streaming with intelligent buffer management, CDN optimization, and pre-fetching strategies for content previews
- Result: 45% reduction in video start time and 60% improvement in buffering ratio during high-traffic premiere events
Legacy Code Modernization
- Challenge: Inheriting large legacy codebases with mixed Swift/Objective-C and Java/Kotlin requiring careful modernization without disrupting active development
- Solution: Implemented incremental refactoring strategy with comprehensive unit test coverage, feature flagging for safe deployment, and automated regression testing
- Result: 50% reduction in technical debt while maintaining 99.8% crash-free session rate throughout modernization process
App Screenshots
Explore the user interface and key features
iOS Home Screen
Show Details
Video Player
Development Environment
Technical Stack
Technologies, frameworks, and tools
iOS & tvOS
Android
Backend & DevOps
Integrations
Project Outcomes
Measurable results and achievements
Market Performance
- 10M+ downloads across iOS, Android, and tvOS platforms
- Top 10 Entertainment app in multiple markets during key content launches
- 4.2+ star average rating across App Store and Google Play
Streaming Performance
- 99.0% playback success rate across all supported devices and platforms
- <3 second video start time on standard broadband connections
- HD streaming support with adaptive bitrate optimization
Technical Excellence
- 99.8% crash-free session rate in production environment
- 45% reduction in video start time through optimization
- 50% reduction in technical debt through systematic modernization
Content Launches
- Successfully supported major original series launches and seasonal premieres
- Delivered reliable streaming during high-traffic Comedy Central Roast events
- Maintained 99.5% uptime during peak viewing periods and live events
Project Links
Current brand destination; standalone app listings are no longer available
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