Deikhlo
OTT streaming platform built for Telenor Pakistan, integrating with telecom-native consent management, OTP-based authentication, live TV with CDN fallback, and a full editorial CMS spanning 7+ content categories.
Project Showcase
Full-page screenshots of the live application
The Challenge
Telecom-native subscription and consent flow
Unlike consumer OTT platforms that handle payments independently, Deikhlo needed to integrate with Telenor's consent management system, the mechanism by which Pakistani telecom operators obtain regulatory-compliant user consent before activating paid subscriptions. This had to be tightly coupled with an OTP-based authentication system, creating a multi-step onboarding flow that was both legally compliant and low-friction for users.
Content architecture across 7+ categories
The homepage needed to surface content across Travel, Fashion, Food, Art, Infotainment, Live TV, and Shopping, each with independent editorial logic, featured content slots, and thumbnail hierarchies. Without careful query design, this becomes an N+1 problem that degrades at scale.
Series and episode complexity
Serialized content required season/episode relationship management, exclusive show flags, and priority-based page loading. The series detail page needed above-the-fold content to render immediately while secondary content loaded deferred, a rendering prioritization challenge that sits at the intersection of UX and backend design.
Live TV reliability
The live TV module required stable stream delivery with fallback CDN logic to ensure viewers were never dropped into a broken player state when no active channel was selected.
Full ownership without DevOps overlap
All application-layer development (REST APIs, backend logic, frontend templates, CMS, auth flows, content delivery) was handled solely, with infrastructure and deployment managed separately by a DevOps engineer. This meant clean API contracts and deployment-ready code had to be maintained without direct server access.
The Solution
Consent-driven subscription system
Built the full subscription flow integrating Telenor's consent management system with OTP-based authentication. The flow handles user identity verification, consent capture, and subscription activation as a single coherent pipeline, compliant with Pakistani telecom regulations while remaining streamlined for end users.
Content pipeline optimization
Designed the homepage content query architecture using DISTINCT queries via category-content pivot tables with an exclude_ids pattern to prevent duplicate content surfacing across sections. This kept query count flat regardless of content library size and eliminated redundant database calls on every page load.
Prioritized series page loading
Implemented a P0/P1/P2 content loading priority system on the series detail page. Critical above-the-fold data loads in the initial request while secondary panels load asynchronously, improving perceived performance without requiring infrastructure changes.
Dual-service API architecture
FastAPI handled all REST API endpoints consumed by the Blade frontend, while Laravel managed core business logic, authentication, subscription state, and the CMS. This separation kept the API layer performant and independently scalable from the application logic.
Live TV CDN fallback
Implemented conditional fallback logic in the live TV module. When no active channel is selected, the player defaults to a trailer CDN source, eliminating dead-end player states and keeping the viewing experience intact at all times.
Admin CMS
Built the full content management system allowing editorial teams to manage shows, series, episodes, categories, and featured content slots without engineering intervention.
Tech Stack
Tags
The Results
Full integration with Telenor's consent management system for subscription compliance. OTP-based authentication with telecom-native identity verification. Flat query architecture ensuring homepage performance regardless of content library growth. Above-the-fold content isolated to a single prioritized request on series pages. Zero dead-end player states via CDN fallback logic on live TV. Full CMS enabling editorial self-service across all content categories. Single engineer owned the entire application layer end-to-end.
The engineering complexity was in the integration layer, specifically fitting a modern streaming platform into Telenor's telecom billing and consent infrastructure, which has requirements and constraints that no off-the-shelf OTT solution accounts for. Building the compliance-aware subscription flow, while simultaneously owning every other layer of the application solo, is what distinguishes this from a standard content platform build.