Key Ingredients To Building A Successful OTT Platform

OTT(Over-The-Top) platform providers are content providers growing rapidly as people increasingly switch online mediums for entertainment.

FREMONT, CA: OTT platform providers, also known as Over-The-Top platforms, are content providers growing rapidly as increasingly people are switching online mediums for entertainment.

A report by ComScore expressed that 50 million households worldwide access OTT video, which they use in the same time-of-day pattern as customary TV viewers. Inspecting the current scenario, it can be readily said that the video content medium has been remodeled and evolved by OTT video streaming providers.

OTT Platform, over the years, has enabled customers by providing them with various choices for their entertainment requirements. Users are no more tied down to traditional mediums like satellite cable. Surfing using channels is now a thing of the past, and one can make informed decisions about what to watch. An extremely high level of personalization allows these platforms to predict what a user will most likely watch.

1. Delivery of video

Delivering your video will be your bread and butter and will be critical in delivering an unforgettable experience for your consumers. Unfortunately, 80% of users leave if a video does not load too quickly, and only 11% watch another episode.

Most OTT providers concentrate on creating content and work with Video hosting services and Content Delivery Networks for delivery. Selecting a video hosting service relies on your requirements, such as locations, bandwidth, storage, encryption etc.

2. Access across all devices

How to guarantee that content is accessible across all devices? Viewers with a broadcast-quality experience across all devices at all times of the day. To be able to proffer a seamless experience, the platform must be able to recognize which device is requesting and stream content consequently. This would include keeping a copy of every video in distinct formats for different devices and screen sizes.

3. Reporting and analytics

To make conscious decisions about your business, you must track metrics like what your customers are watching, from where, and from which devices. Many video hosting services and CDNs would provide analytics and insights into user behavior.

Once you gather data about how your customers are watching your content, the next step would be to map the user behavior to the user demographics. This would allow you to create user segments with well-defined likes and dislikes. Then, using this data, you could personalize the experience for each user by trying to predict what they may like or dislike.

Netflix uses a recommendation engine with over 2000 taste groups, with each video mapped to those groups. Users on its recommendation system discover over 80% of content consumed on Netflix. A strong recommendation algorithm is essential to the stickiness of any OTT Platform.

4. Monetization

How will you make money? You must answer this question at some point in your entrepreneurial journey. There are mainly three ways to monetize your videos Transaction Video on Demand (TVOD), Subscriber Video on Demand (SVOD), and Advertiser Video on Demand (AVOD).

5. Security and anti-piracy

Many options are available, including Digital Rights Management, encrypted video streaming, dynamic watermarking, password protection and IP/Geo-Lock. Securing your videos from online video downloaders can be the most important task once you start proprietary content.

6. User engagement and video interface

How will viewers undertake with you and your platform? This is a significant aspect of controlling the user experience.

While consuming media, one of the most crucial rules in interface design is ‘don’t make the customer think.’

OTT platforms should allow consuming what they want when they wish, wherever they wish, and they do not enforce any form of penalties such as advertisement or time restrictions.

7. Customer Support

Building the platform would just be the first step of the journey. Next, your team needs to be able to ensure that any viewers facing technical difficulties should easily able to reach you and resolve their problem. That means being accessible 24/7 to solve any issues your viewers may have.

Building an OTT platform is no walk in the park, but it doesn’t need to be unnecessarily complicated. Instead, choosing the right partners can reduce your workload and give you the time to focus on what you do best.