Crackle: a dedicated team bringing streaming to every screen.
For more than a decade, Paginar supported Crackle, Sony Pictures Entertainment’s ad-supported streaming service, and later Crackle Plus with a dedicated managed team that developed and evolved their connected TV, mobile, web, and console applications.
Crackle screens showing how the catalog and navigation were adapted to different streaming platforms.
Crackle, Sony Pictures Entertainment’s ad-supported streaming service, needed to evolve its applications across connected TV, mobile, web and consoles. For more than a decade, Paginar provided a managed development and quality-assurance team that supported the product and maintained continuity through the transition to Crackle Plus.
Services
We organise and coordinate a dedicated team that works within the product’s day-to-day operation. We provide continuity, specialist knowledge and delivery capacity to support changing business priorities.
We develop applications for connected TVs and streaming devices. We adapt remote-control navigation, content access and playback to the requirements of each platform.
We develop mobile applications, adapting functionality and interactions to each platform’s capabilities and conventions. We connect the experience with the product’s services and data.
We turn designs and user journeys into functional interfaces. We build components and applications for each environment, with attention to performance, accessibility and continuity between design and implementation.
We assess product behaviour through functional tests and checks of key user journeys. We identify issues, compare results with requirements and support the validation of each delivery.
We support the operation and evolution of digital products. We resolve issues and make technical and functional adjustments to maintain service continuity.
Work process
Crackle was Sony Pictures Entertainment’s (SPE) ad-supported video-on-demand platform. With movies, series, and original programming from Sony’s library and other studios, it offered a free, on-demand entertainment experience at a pivotal moment in streaming’s expansion. Its later transition to Crackle Plus carried forward the need for a robust service experience across every device.
The product brought Sony’s catalog to the environments where audiences were already consuming content: connected TVs, mobile devices, web, and consoles. This multi-screen focus made each application an essential part of the service experience, from content discovery through playback.
SPE is Sony’s global entertainment company, with operations spanning the production, acquisition, and distribution of film and television; television networks; and digital content creation and distribution. Working on Crackle meant contributing to a streaming product embedded in that content and distribution ecosystem.
The product’s reach called for a recognizable, seamless Crackle experience across very different usage contexts. Navigating with a remote control on a connected TV, a console controller, or a touch interface comes with its own expectations, interaction patterns, and technical requirements.
Paginar developed and evolved Crackle applications for Samsung, LG, Vizio, Xbox, PlayStation, iOS, Android, and web. This work expanded the service’s reach without sacrificing cross-platform consistency, adapting each version to the capabilities and conventions of its environment.
For more than ten years, Crackle relied on a dedicated team managed by Paginar that became part of its product operating model as a stable development and quality capability. This continuity preserved knowledge of the platform, the nuances of each device, and the way the streaming business operated.
The team worked from Latin America, in a time zone close to Los Angeles, communicating in English to enable direct, day-to-day coordination with the Sony Pictures Entertainment team. This model gave Crackle flexible capacity to support new priorities without growing its internal organization.
With sustained focus on the product, the team could anticipate cross-platform implications, accelerate its understanding of each initiative, and uphold consistent technical criteria across versions. Specialization and accumulated knowledge became practical advantages for the service’s ongoing evolution.
Paginar took responsibility for the team’s composition, coordination, and continuity, bringing together application development, quality assurance, and a proactive approach to Crackle’s needs. The service went beyond staffing individual profiles: it organized a complete capability to turn product priorities into implementable technical solutions.
This collaboration allowed SPE to stay focused on its catalog, audience, and distribution strategy, while Paginar handled day-to-day resource management and the evolution of the applications. The result was an efficient, specialized relationship built to respond to the pace of a digital product in constant change.
The result
The collaboration extended for more than a decade and continued with Crackle Plus after the ownership transition. In 2019, Sony Pictures Television transferred majority ownership of Crackle to Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment, followed by the launch of Crackle Plus. Paginar continued to provide the engineering capacity needed to evolve the product and its cross-platform applications.
This case shows the value of a dedicated managed team when a digital product must evolve continuously across multiple platforms and through business change. The combination of continuity, specialization, close communication, and end-to-end management gave Crackle and Crackle Plus an engineering capability aligned with the needs of a global entertainment service.
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