Scener and Agora Partner to Scale Watch Party Platform After Seeing 100x Growth

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Aug 06, 2020, 09:04 ET

Enables Scener "virtual movie theaters" to support up to one million synchronous participants while they watch Netflix, Disney+ and more in real time

SANTA CLARA, Calif. and SEATTLE, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Agora, Inc. (API), a Real-Time Engagement platform provider, announced it is powering Scener's new Watch Party Platform, enabling millions of participants to simultaneously enjoy streaming TV content together over immersive live video chat.

Scener's partnership with Agora creates a novel, shared experience that allows unparalleled engagement between viewers watching entertainment content on the major streaming services. Up to one million participants can now simultaneously enjoy streaming content from Netflix, Prime Video, HBO Max, Disney+, Hulu, Vimeo or Funimation in a synchronized video chat environment. Users can host either public or private co-watching sessions, where content is synchronized with participants in real time, paired with video, audio and text chat.

"Live, interactive streaming is the next frontier in entertainment, and our partnership with Scener puts both our companies at the forefront of that," said Reggie Yativ, Chief Operations Officer and Chief Revenue Officer at Agora Lab, Inc. "People viewing content want more authentic ways to engage, whether they're holding a virtual movie night with close friends or streaming an entertainment panel with their favorite stars. Real-Time Engagement allows viewers to use messaging, voice and video chats during a screening, and that brings more human interaction into these virtual entertainment experiences and helps viewers connect anytime, anywhere."

Scener -- a service that has seen 100x growth since March -- is using Agora's Software Defined Real-Time Network™ infrastructure to power the group video chat and synchronization features of its watch parties. Agora's global network guarantees video-chat streaming quality across borders, regardless of audience size. Scener's proprietary technology synchronizes underlying video entertainment content on each viewer's client, ensuring all viewing is properly licensed and respectful of IP rights.

"Agora's engagement platform sets the stage for massive scale at Scener as we roll out our Watch Party Platform," said Joe Braidwood, Scener co-founder and COO. "This partnership marks a watershed moment for both the entertainment industry and TV lovers globally, where more viewers than ever before can now come together in the same virtual theater to interact while enjoying their favorite shows and movies."

In late July, Scener launched its public co-watching features by hosting watch parties for San Diego Comic-Con and Rifftrax, setting a new daily engagement record with 2.3 million viewer minutes on July 25.

Agora's platform with flexible and powerful APIs provides developers and organizations with a seamless way to deliver Real-Time Engagement experiences including embedded voice and video chat and in-app messaging. Agora's dedicated network and device-optimized SDKs make it a leading Real-Time Engagement platform designed to connect people globally, even on low-bandwidth networks and on lower-powered devices.

For more information about Agora's partners or its live interactive video and voice SDKs for mobile, web or desktop apps, visit www.agora.io.

To learn more about Scener, visit scener.com. Scener watch parties are available to join from any device, and can be hosted from Mac, Windows PC, and Chromebook.

About Agora

Agora's mission is to make real-time engagement ubiquitous, allowing everyone to interact with anyone, in any application, anytime and anywhere. Agora's platform provides developers simple, flexible and powerful application programming interfaces, or APIs, to embed real-time video and voice engagement experiences into their applications.

About Scener

Scener is a watch party platform that enables anyone to connect and interact while synchronizing playback of streaming entertainment. Up to 10 people can co-host a public theater for an audience of up to a million over video chat, a new way to hold screenings of the world's best streaming entertainment content. Scener supports Netflix, HBO Max, Disney+, Hulu, Prime Video, Funimation and Vimeo; an account is required for each participant. Based in Seattle, WA, Scener launched in 2018 and was incubated by media streaming pioneer RealNetworks Inc. To join the community and host your own watch party in seconds visit www.scener.com.

Contact: Alexandria Plew, [email protected]

SOURCE Agora