Eric Elia

We’re excited to announce the debut of the Mux Partner Program to accelerate the next generation of great video products. There was a quaint time when a single software suite could meet the needs of a business trying to stream video for the first time. But today, every company is a media company, and there is no one-size-fits-all product to meet all their video needs. In the words of our partner Contentful: today people want stacks, not suites.

We know that great products are not built from single tools or one great technology; it takes many platforms and many different components to create something outstanding. Philosophically, we built Mux to complement other tools.

Our goal with this partner program is to simplify and speed time to market for our customers.

We’ve been delighted by the ecosystem that’s grown organically thus far, and we look forward to supporting many more partners.

There are three pillars of the new program:

Cloud alliances: Tight integrations with cloud technologies streamline workflows and save valuable time, and we're excited to work with major cloud vendors to bring Mux Video and Mux Data to a larger audience. We’re expanding Mux’s capabilities with service-level integrations such as data warehousing and machine learning. To simplify purchase and procurement, AWS and Google Cloud customers can now make Mux part of a larger cloud solution by buying Mux directly through their existing partners.


Platform partnerships: Combine Mux with complementary platforms such as captions services, content management, moderation, community and chat tools, video editing, and live encoding hardware. We’ve developed tight integrations with products and platforms like Agnoplay, Contentful, Sanity, and Strapi. And we've been delighted to find new products emerge that use Mux creatively, including the high-quality live audio product Gramrphone and the Videon broadcast-quality compute platform. 


Solutions partnerships: Build your 1.0 with OTT rockstars like Accedo, A Different Engine, Deltatre, or Diagnal. Design your video product with specialized design and development shops like 2Coders, Metal Toad, Qualabs, Rocket Insights, or SweatWorks.


Ensure video looks great at the source with the Mux integration on Videon.


Stream high-quality audio directly from core music apps with Gramrphone.


Mux customers and developers--reach out through your main point of contact and we’ll help facilitate introductions to the right partner.

Prospective partners--how can we combine efforts to help developers build better products and get to market quicker? As a Mux partner, you’ll get all this and much, much, more…

Free credits! Start building today with Mux

Early access and input to our roadmap

Co-marketing and promotion

Batphone-level access to support and senior tech resources

Collaborate with Mux sales and customer success teams to support mutual customers

The best swag

Visit Mux.com/partners to find a great partner or connect about joining our partner program.

 to accelerate the next generation of great video products. There was a quaint time when a single software suite could meet the needs of a business trying to stream video for the first time. But today, every company is a media company, and there is no one-size-fits-all product to meet all their video needs. In the words of our partner Contentful: today people want stacks, not suites.

We know that great products are not built from single tools or one great technology; it takes many platforms and many different components to create something outstanding. Philosophically, we built Mux to complement other tools.

Our goal with this partner program is to simplify and speed time to market for our customers.

We’ve been delighted by the ecosystem that’s grown organically thus far, and we look forward to supporting many more partners.

There are three pillars of the new program:

 Tight integrations with cloud technologies streamline workflows and save valuable time, and we're excited to work with major cloud vendors to bring Mux Video and Mux Data to a larger audience. We’re expanding Mux’s capabilities with service-level integrations such as data warehousing and machine learning. To simplify purchase and procurement, 

 customers can now make Mux part of a larger cloud solution by buying Mux directly through their existing partners.


 Combine Mux with complementary platforms such as captions services, content management, moderation, community and chat tools, video editing, and live encoding hardware. We’ve developed tight integrations with products and platforms like 

. And we've been delighted to find new products emerge that use Mux creatively, including the high-quality live audio product 

. Design your video product with specialized design and development shops like 

Ensure video looks great at the source with the Mux integration on Videon.

Stream high-quality audio directly from core music apps with Gramrphone.

Mux customers and developers--reach out through your main point of contact and we’ll help facilitate introductions to the right partner.

Prospective partners--how can we combine efforts to help developers build better products and get to market quicker? As a Mux partner, you’ll get all this and much, much, more…

Free credits! Start building today with Mux

Batphone-level access to support and senior tech resources

Collaborate with Mux sales and customer success teams to support mutual customers

 to find a great partner or connect about joining our partner program.

Introducing the Mux Partner Program. With our cloud alliances, platform, and solution partners, our goal is to simplify and speed time to market for our customers.

Partnership powers, activate

The Biden administration has already shown that it will be proactive about its own digital strategy across agencies and departments. As innovators in the streaming video industry, and as (mostly) American citizens, we’d like to see a robust video strategy that puts control not only of stories, but also of their distribution, in the administration's hands. The original Voice of America mission makes for a great template:

Voice of America TV.gov

President Gerald Ford Joe Biden signed the TV.gov Charter (Public Law) into law in 1976 2021. It protects the independence and integrity of VOA TV.gov programming.

The long-range interests of the United States are served by communicating directly with the peoples of the world by radio with video. To be effective, the Voice of America TV.gov must win the attention and respect of listeners. These principles will therefore govern Voice of America (VOA) broadcasts TV.gov programming.

VOA TV.gov will serve as a consistently reliable and authoritative source of news. VOA TV.gov news will be accurate, objective, and comprehensive.

VOA TV.gov will represent America, not any single segment of American society, and will therefore present a balanced and comprehensive projection of significant American thought and institutions.

VOA TV.gov will present the policies of the United States clearly and effectively, and will also present responsible discussions and opinion on these policies.

No matter your politics, current events have shown how important it is for organizations to maintain and build direct reciprocal relationships with their communities, independent of social media or third-party distributors. For any company, a modern, sustainable video strategy should start with a video community on their own site and perhaps dedicated apps across mobile and TV. Social media is an integral part of the mix, but a professional organization shouldn't have its video strategy constrained by the TOS of an ad-supported third party.

Here’s how it could work:

1. TV.gov portal 

Start by developing a central hub that surfaces content from the White House and other agencies, departments, and NGOs. Give each one a “channel.” Include the basic video portal functionality: search, browsing by popularity or chronology, subscribing to channels. Every video should live on its own permanent page and have a bookmarkable/shareable URL. 

2. Curated user-generated content (UGC)

While this won’t be open to the general public, make the publishing tools as easy to use as consumer software. Provide upload and creation tools to the channel publishers, and maintain an internal editorial staff to approve, curate, and promote content from across the channels. To preserve the content’s credibility and reduce its propaganda-ness, creators should strive for transparency and frequency. A central editorial team should showcase and promote the most newsworthy content.

3. Hybrid Live and Video-on-Demand (VOD)

Combine live and on-demand in the same user interface. Make TV.gov the destination to tune in for official briefings while they’re happening, and turn those streams into on-demand assets that are available in perpetuity.

4. Consumer-grade publishing tools

Create live broadcast and upload apps that are just like the ones on social. These tools are simpler to build than you might think. Make it easy for someone at (say) the CDC to broadcast live from their phone, to immediately push to TV.gov, and to simulcast to social.

5. Embrace social, but don’t depend on it

Use simulcast capability to push all live streams out to social, when they happen. If I can just do a little product placement here, Mux has built-in simulcasting to all the major social outlets. Allow for screen grabs, (maybe) GIF grabs, and sharing of on-demand clips out to social. But don’t get beholden to third-party distributors. This will help with reach, and will also enable modern new curators like TheRecount. 

6. Accessibility and SEO

Design the product with accessibility in mind from day one, including a robust captions program. As a bonus, use those captions to enhance search and support discovery via SEO. Put the full captions for each video in plain text on every page.

7. Stacks not suites for technology

This is perhaps the only self-serving part of the plan, but build TV.gov in a modern fashion. Pick and choose lightweight, developer-friendly tools to future-proof the platform and make it easy for current and future teams to update. Mux integrates with super content management platforms such as Contentful, DatoCMS, Sanity, the leading captioning services, and novel curation/asset management tools like Nomad. 

8. Distribution and promotion

Embrace the venues people use to find news. Provide aggregated distribution feeds to first-party news sources such as The New York Times, Fox News, CNN, wire services, and aggregators such as Apple News and Google News. 

9. Find a great agency partner to put this together

This isn’t rocket science. Find a mid-sized agency partner to design and assemble the  platform, and hand off the keys to an internal team to manage. This could be a 90-day project or less. 

10. Be considerate about community

It should be obvious that comments could ruin a product like this. But citizens can get involved in other ways. The publishing tools would make it easy to accept citizen uploads for selected campaigns; the content could then be curated as used as part of a channel's own programming. Imagine the Library of Congress accepting and showcasing independent student films, or storm chasers streaming through the National Weather Service.

The Biden administration has already shown that it will be proactive about its own digital strategy across agencies and departments. As innovators in the streaming video industry, and as (mostly) American citizens, we’d like to see a robust video strategy that puts control not only of stories, but also of their distribution, in the administration's hands. The original 

 2021. It protects the independence and integrity of 

The long-range interests of the United States are served by communicating directly with the peoples of the world 

 TV.gov must win the attention and respect of listeners. These principles will therefore govern 

 TV.gov will serve as a consistently reliable and authoritative source of news. VOA TV.gov news will be accurate, objective, and comprehensive.

 TV.gov will represent America, not any single segment of American society, and will therefore present a balanced and comprehensive projection of significant American thought and institutions.

 TV.gov will present the policies of the United States clearly and effectively, and will also present responsible discussions and opinion on these policies.

No matter your politics, current events have shown how important it is for organizations to maintain and build direct reciprocal relationships with their communities, independent of social media or third-party distributors. For any company, a modern, sustainable video strategy should start with a video community on their own site and perhaps dedicated apps across mobile and TV. Social media is an integral part of the mix, but a professional organization shouldn't have its video strategy constrained by the TOS of an ad-supported third party.

Start by developing a central hub that surfaces content from the White House and other agencies, departments, and NGOs. Give each one a “channel.” Include the basic video portal functionality: search, browsing by popularity or chronology, subscribing to channels. Every video should live on its own permanent page and have a bookmarkable/shareable URL. 

While this won’t be open to the general public, make the publishing tools as easy to use as consumer software. Provide upload and creation tools to the channel publishers, and maintain an internal editorial staff to approve, curate, and promote content from across the channels. To preserve the content’s credibility and reduce its propaganda-ness, creators should strive for transparency and frequency. A central editorial team should showcase and promote the most newsworthy content.

Combine live and on-demand in the same user interface. Make TV.gov the destination to tune in for official briefings while they’re happening, and turn those streams into on-demand assets that are available in perpetuity.

Create live broadcast and upload apps that are just like the ones on social. These tools are simpler to build than you might think. Make it easy for someone at (say) the CDC to broadcast live from their phone, to immediately push to 

5. Embrace social, but don’t depend on it

Use simulcast capability to push all live streams out to social, when they happen. If I can just do a little product placement here, Mux has built-in simulcasting to all the major social outlets. Allow for screen grabs, (maybe) GIF grabs, and sharing of on-demand clips out to social. But don’t get beholden to third-party distributors. This will help with reach, and will also enable modern new curators like TheRecount. 

Design the product with accessibility in mind from day one, including a robust captions program. As a bonus, use those captions to enhance search and support discovery via SEO. Put the full captions for each video in plain text on every page.

This is perhaps the only self-serving part of the plan, but build TV.gov in a modern fashion. Pick and choose lightweight, developer-friendly tools to future-proof the platform and make it easy for current and future teams to update. Mux integrates with super content management platforms such as Contentful, DatoCMS, Sanity, the leading captioning services, and novel curation/asset management tools like Nomad. 

Embrace the venues people use to find news. Provide aggregated distribution feeds to first-party news sources such as The New York Times, Fox News, CNN, wire services, and aggregators such as Apple News and Google News. 

9. Find a great agency partner to put this together

This isn’t rocket science. Find a mid-sized agency partner to design and assemble the  platform, and hand off the keys to an internal team to manage. This could be a 90-day project or less. 

It should be obvious that comments could ruin a product like this. But citizens can get involved in other ways. The publishing tools would make it easy to accept citizen uploads for selected campaigns; the content could then be curated as used as part of a channel's own programming. Imagine the Library of Congress accepting and showcasing independent student films, or storm chasers streaming through the National Weather Service.

As innovators in the streaming video industry, we’d like to see a robust video strategy that gives the new administration control not only of stories, but also of the distribution.

TV.gov: A 10-point plan for how to build a direct, two-way streaming community

Today, Mux announced a new connected fitness stack of technology in partnership with asensei, Feed.fm, and WEEL. These three companies are leaders in smart coaching, music and wearable sensors, respectively. You can read the full press release here. The platform is built to power the next wave of connected fitness experiences from instructors, startups, and brick-and-mortar fitness companies.

Why fitness?

Consumers are taking control of their own wellness experience. Much like we’ve seen in other media, our expectations are changing. Twenty years ago, 75M viewers regularly tuned in to watch NBC’s Must See TV lineup. Due to audience fragmentation, the most popular show on TV last year brought in just 12.5M viewers. Similarly, wellness/fitness consumer expectations have changed dramatically in the last 10 years. Choice, control, flexibility, and convenience are driving innovation in wellness, leading to a dramatic rise in boutique venue-based fitness businesses like SoulCycle and Barry’s. They cater to more diverse needs - not just through the type of workout, but they also offer a unique and specific vibe that’s driven by both the instructors and aesthetics from the decor and music. Companies like Peloton take this further by seamlessly combining hardware and software products to bring a high-quality experience into the home or on the go. Video, music, and coaching are pillars of these new fitness experiences.

The connected fitness boom

There are at least 100 interesting direct-to-consumer fitness apps and products designed for an experience at home, on the road, or the trail. Some of these, like Peloton, are vertically integrated combinations of hardware and service. The entire experience is controlled from top to bottom - not unlike iOS before the app store. Others, like the Concept2 rower, are completely open platforms that are easy to integrate with third-party apps and hardware. In such a crowded market, companies will differentiate with unique hardware, great customer service, gorgeous content and sensor-driven augmentation such as wellness nudges, calorie tracking, and smart coaching.

MYX app using Mux Video for streaming video

Two recent product launches show where the industry is heading. Both utilize Mux to deliver a superb streaming experience, no matter where you work out.

First, MYX is a vertically integrated product combining hardware and software, but targeted at a much different audience (and pricepoint) than Peloton. It combines an on-bike cycling experience with a diverse set of off-bike exercises including yoga, HIIT, weights and more. It’s a more affordable product than much of the competition and is aimed at holistic wellness. Think calorie and heartrate tracking, rather than competitive leaderboards.

Second, CycleMasters, is a new "BYO-Bike" streaming service that follows the open model I described above. You can pair a subscription to the service with the bike of their choice. This gives the consumer more flexibility in pairing the right combination of hardware to this service.

“The Netflix effect”

We’re spoiled by the largest streaming providers. Viewers now expect video to look great and play flawlessly on any device in any location. Delivering a Netflix-like experience to a mix of devices across wifi and mobile is, frankly, hard. Combine that with where people are working out at home, such as basements and guestrooms far from the wifi signal, and it’s even more complicated. Live streaming is even more challenging.

Mux transcodes and delivers the appropriate video stream based on the attributes of the content itself and the audience. A video of a cycling instructor with lots of motion on a Roku is going to be delivered differently than a talking head coach to a small mobile device over cellular. Mux handles all of the optimization decisioning automatically. Instead of worrying about bitrate ladders and workflow, our partners focus on creating the most impactful content that will differentiate their experience.

Unlike a TV app, video is just one part of a great fitness experience. Coaching and music are essential. Together with asensei, Feed.fm and WEEL, we’ve aligned a great group of partners that can remove months of effort from a product timeline and free up teams to focus on what is going to make their products truly unique. Check us out at CES in January and the Fitness and Active Brands Summit in LA this week.

Lego photo by Flickr user chrish_99

 a new connected fitness stack of technology in partnership with 

. These three companies are leaders in smart coaching, music and wearable sensors, respectively. You can read the full press release 

. The platform is built to power the next wave of connected fitness experiences from instructors, startups, and brick-and-mortar fitness companies.

Consumers are taking control of their own wellness experience. Much like we’ve seen in other media, our expectations are changing. Twenty years ago, 

 regularly tuned in to watch NBC’s Must See TV lineup. Due to audience fragmentation, the most popular show on TV last year brought in 

. Similarly, wellness/fitness consumer expectations have changed dramatically in the last 10 years. Choice, control, flexibility, and convenience are driving innovation in wellness, leading to a dramatic rise in boutique venue-based fitness businesses like SoulCycle and Barry’s. They cater to more diverse needs - not just through the type of workout, but they also offer a unique and specific vibe that’s driven by both the instructors and aesthetics from the decor and music. Companies like Peloton take this further by seamlessly combining hardware and software products to bring a high-quality experience into the home or on the go. Video, music, and coaching are pillars of these new fitness experiences.

There are at least 100 interesting direct-to-consumer fitness apps and products designed for an experience at home, on the road, or the trail. Some of these, like 

, are vertically integrated combinations of hardware and service. The entire experience is controlled from top to bottom - not unlike iOS before the app store. Others, like the 

 rower, are completely open platforms that are easy to integrate with third-party apps and hardware. In such a crowded market, companies will differentiate with unique hardware, great customer service, gorgeous content and sensor-driven augmentation such as wellness nudges, calorie tracking, and smart coaching.

MYX app using Mux Video for streaming video

Two recent product launches show where the industry is heading. Both utilize Mux to deliver a superb streaming experience, no matter where you work out.

 is a vertically integrated product combining hardware and software, but targeted at a much different audience (and pricepoint) than Peloton. It combines an on-bike cycling experience with a diverse set of off-bike exercises including yoga, HIIT, weights and more. It’s a more affordable product than much of the competition and is aimed at holistic wellness. Think calorie and heartrate tracking, rather than competitive leaderboards.

, is a new "BYO-Bike" streaming service that follows the open model I described above. You can pair a subscription to the service with the bike of their choice. This gives the consumer more flexibility in pairing the right combination of hardware to this service.

We’re spoiled by the largest streaming providers. Viewers now expect video to look great and play flawlessly on any device in any location. Delivering a Netflix-like experience to a mix of devices across wifi and mobile is, frankly, hard. Combine that with where people are working out at home, such as basements and guestrooms far from the wifi signal, and it’s even more complicated. Live streaming is even more challenging.

Mux transcodes and delivers the appropriate video stream based on the attributes of the content itself 

. A video of a cycling instructor with lots of motion on a Roku is going to be delivered differently than a talking head coach to a small mobile device over cellular. Mux handles all of the optimization decisioning automatically. Instead of worrying about bitrate ladders and workflow, our partners focus on creating the most impactful content that will differentiate their experience.

Unlike a TV app, video is just one part of a great fitness experience. Coaching and music are essential. Together with asensei, Feed.fm and WEEL, we’ve aligned a great group of partners that can remove months of effort from a product timeline and free up teams to focus on what is going to make their products truly unique. Check us out at CES in January and the 

Mux announces partnerships with coaching and music platforms to power the next generation of fitness products.

Eric Elia

Partnership powers, activate

TV.gov: A 10-point plan for how to build a direct, two-way streaming community

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