Ludovic Bostral — the sole author behind Streaming Lens.
Twenty-five years in video tech and streaming, five platforms operated from the inside, a letter, every week, that has tracked the market without a gap for two years. Lens is what's left when you stop consulting and only publish the thesis.
En bref
- Ex-R&D Manager M6 Web (M6 Replay), co-founder Afrostream (YC S15, 2014), first hire and CTO at Majelan (2018), CTO Kessel Media (2021), Chief Platform Officer, TRACE (2025-2026).
- Operator before observer. The figures Lens publishes pass through a filter built from a decade of African paywalls, broken ad tech, and end-of-month decisions about cutting the CDN.
- Streaming Lens is single-author by choice — not by default. No junior analyst recycling Omdia reports; no committee copy; no "according to market estimates."
- Positioning: where Omdia, Gartner, and Ampere sell broad coverage, Lens sells an operational point of view on two markets (vertical drama + African OTT) and their intersection with payment rails.
- Direct contact: ludovic@streaming-radar.com. Calls booked at bostral.com/call.
What I did before writing Lens.
M6 Web, 2007. I join the R&D team at M6 Web when "streaming" still meant "buffering." We build the catch-up broadcast for one of France's largest TV channels. I learn that catch-up economics have nothing in common with TV economics — cost-per-view comes to the surface, video advertising learns to sell by impression, rights-holders relearn negotiation.
Afrostream, 2014. Y Combinator Summer 2015. Co-founding a streaming platform for African and diaspora cinema — four years selling subscriptions to a market whose payment rails didn't exist. Experimental mobile-money, prepaid cards, telco partnerships, each method failing in its own way. That's where I learn that the real competitor to African SVOD isn't Netflix — it's the telco operator that collects the cash.
Majelan, 2018. First hire and CTO of a French premium audio platform founded by Mathieu Gallet (former CEO of Radio France). Two years building the app and back-office, negotiating with podcast publishers, understanding that an audio market doesn't follow the same rules as a video market — different retention, different pricing, different engagement curve.
Kessel Media, 2021. CTO of the independent publishing platform founded by Adrien Labastire and Laure Goudiard du Mesnil. The question shifts: how do you build editorial infrastructure that lets a solo journalist monetize without going through a publisher? Technical answer. Business answer. Human answer.
TRACE, 2025-2026. Chief Platform Officer at the pan-African media group, now in 180 countries. Return to the continent I had left operationally — but never really — in 2018. The same tension as ten years ago, but at industrial scale — and with mobile-money that's starting to work.
Why Lens is single-author.
Because a thesis belongs to someone. When Omdia publishes a figure, it's a committee. When a McKinsey report concludes, it's three partners, eight managers, fifteen juniors. Nobody puts their name on the line — the document is a consensus, not a point of view.
Lens publishes what I observe, what I verify, what I believe — and I sign it. If I'm wrong, you can call me out by name. If I'm right, you cite me by name. That asymmetry is the product.
There's also an economic constraint: producing Omdia-grade intelligence as a solo author forces you to go deep rather than wide. I don't cover twenty-seven markets; I cover two (vertical drama and African OTT) and their intersection, more precisely than any firm will have time to do.
What Lens is actually for.
Three recurring uses, by order of frequency in commercial conversations:
- Framing an investment decision
- Funds, family offices, corp dev. People read Lens to understand if a market thesis holds before writing a check. The reports are designed to be read in 90 minutes and produce three precise questions to ask in due diligence.
- C-level strategic brief
- CEO, CPO, Chief Content Officer. Lens doesn't replace the internal team; it completes it on two terrains the team doesn't have time to cover itself (Chinese micro-drama, African OTT) — where the wrong call costs millions.
- Positioning an M&A, a raise
- Investment banks, operators in consolidation, VCs updating their LPs. Lens provides a sourced and dated point of view you can cite in a deck, a memo, or a press release — without paying a firm $300K.
How to work with me.
Four ways in, the same as on /pricing, all priced. No hidden grid, no mandatory call before you get a ballpark.
- Read
- Free: the Streaming Radar newsletter every week, the report teasers, the vertical drama booklet.
- License a report
- Vertical Invasion 2026 (527 pages, micro-drama: $14B in 2026 per Omdia) or Africa Streaming 2026 (469 pages, OTT: $4.63B in 2026). 5,000€ excl. VAT for a single-user license. Enterprise license, single-user license, multi-seat license. Prices published at /pricing.
- Query the data (MCP)
- API access to the live datapoints behind Lens, opened on request — 20,097 metrics, continuous refresh, direct integration in Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, or any MCP client. Same data that feeds my reports, but live.
- Strategic briefing — 1,500€ excl. VAT
- Preparation from your documents, 90 minutes on video, then a written memo with next steps. Most common: an executive who needs to settle a specific question within 30 days and wants a sourced outside view. If I can't be useful, I say so on the free scoping call. Details.
What I don't do.
No long-haul consulting. No engagements over three months. No commissioned reports — nobody buys the right to be cited favorably in Lens. No paid interviews. No "thought leader" speaking gigs on LinkedIn; the medium doesn't interest me.
No generalist coverage either. If you're looking for a take on Netflix US or the Disney-WBD consolidation, there are twenty firms more at ease on those topics than me. I cover what I know from the inside.
Direct contact.
A question about a Lens figure? Data to propose? A call to book? Write to ludovic@streaming-radar.com. I read. I reply within 72 business hours. If you want a call directly, book at bostral.com/call.