10 things to consider before launching OTT Video Service

What is OTT?

• OTT (over-the-top content) is referred to as the delivery of audio, video and other multimedia content over the Internet.
• Refers to the ability to deliver the content across various devices like smartphones, smart TVs and connected devices, etc.
• OTT platform delivers in such a way that it brings up to the next generation TV i.e providing the ability to watch the content anytime, anywhere.

What is OTT Video platform?

Over-the-top (OTT) content is the audio, video, and other media content delivered over the Internet without the involvement of a multiple-system operator

Some of the best examples of OTT Video Platform are :
1. Hulu

2. Netflix

3. HBO Go

Here are 10 things to consider before launching OTT Platform

1. Content Discovery

“Content is King“

• Discovering new and personalized content is an important feature that improves client/customer loyalty.
• A successful OTT Video platform works on a powerful recommendation engine and offers rich functionalities that enable users to find the right content as per need.
• With so much content being consistently produced and pushed by various media sources and content suppliers, it is necessary to have original content.
• With traditional TV, the audience paid a fixed amount for a choice of 200+ channels across different languages, and domains. As the pattern shifts to ‘pay-for-what-you-watch,’ generating relevant content that will grab the audience attention and continue to get them hooked is a challenge, many often complain that after their favorite shows are over, not much content is left to watch.
• Moreover, with a variety of content to choose from, OTT providers are challenged to provide a personalized experience to the audience. Services should improve content discovery and mapping functionalities to suggest content based on the viewer’s preference.

2.Video Monetization

It’s not really hard to monetize your video content as long as you have great content.OTT platforms will offer versatile choices for monetizing content.

There are 3 well-known models for video monetization:

• Subscription Video on Demand (SVOD) — with SVOD the viewer has unlimited access to all the programs for a monthly flat rate. The users can have full control over the subscription and can decide when to start or end the program.
• Advertising Video on Demand (AVOD) — These are free to watch content with monetization happening through video advertising. Advertisers are the ones who pay, not the viewers.
• Transactional Video on Demand (TVOD) — with TVOD content is purchased by the consumer on a pay per view basis. TVOD services offer more recent released content, which is beneficial to rights holders for higher revenues and for consumers for getting timely access to new content.

Trying each of these monetization models to see what works best for your business and your content strategy is probably the best option.

Challenges are :

• Monetization issues have affected the Indian OTT providers more than any others in 2018. The Financial Express reported in April (2018)that online videos shal be able to secure ads amounting to 1200 crore in 2018–22.
• Present OTT players in India have recently revealed a 40% reduction in ad revenue. The task for OTT players is to maintain that balance between uninterrupted quality content, and meaningful ads to the consumers.

3.Customized User Experience

• As the above picture depicts: The 3 most important factor for good user experience they are :
• Look
• Feel
• Usability
• In this digital world, users expect personalized user experience in all their digital interactions. OTT apps are no exception to this rule.
• User management is essential for any organization. The platform should guide the user to most sought after content and also let them discover content they like.
• From a user point of view, the key things to consider are — uncluttered UI, easy navigation, recommendations, search options, streaming quality, and availability on a large number of devices

Notifications

Push Notifications are an essential part of user experience and can ensure continuous engagement with viewers. However, badly done push notifications can also cause users to abandon the app. According to a survey, 71% of all app uninstalls are triggered by a push notification. Here are a few factors to get push notifications right:

• Make notifications personalized and relevant to the user.
• Send actionable notifications to drive engagement.
• Don’t send too many notifications in a short duration.
• Try not to send a large number of warnings in a brief time frame

4. Security and content protection

• How are you going to protect your content from Pirates? Distributors in the US alone lost $9 billion dollars in revenue in 2017 because of piracy. The piracy rate is expected to go up by almost 30% by 2022.
• For protecting your content from pirates there are many options available, such as Digital Rights Management, encrypted video streaming, dynamic watermarking, password protection, and IP/Geo Lock.

Challenges in security and anti-piracy:

• Streaming of live TV channels contributes to the bulk of traffic for the Indian OTT players. Live streaming also exposes them to privacy issues. With the expansion of broadband, it is increasingly difficult for OTT players to track piracy and illegal streaming.
• Moreover, complex IP protocols, royalty definition, content rights, geographical restrictions, and platform diversity are not only impacting their revenue but also exposing them to copyright infringement risks.

5. Delivery of video

• How are you going to deliver your video? This is going to be your bread and butter and it will be critical in delivering an unforgettable experience for your consumers. 80% of users leave if a video doesn’t load too quickly, and only 11% actually watch another episode.
• Creating content and working with Video hosting services and Content Delivery Networks for delivery is the main focus of most of the OTT providers.

One of the important challenges OTT providers face is delivering the video hosting service i.e.

Video quality

• OTT service providers need to provide optimal viewing experience to the consumers without jitters or buffers with good visual quality. With the average Internet speed, buffering does cost the OTT players almost a quarter of their audience.
• OTT players are collaborating with telcos to bundle their entertainment offerings with 4G/5G services to address this challenge.

6. Reporting and analytics

• To make informed decisions about your business, it is important that you track metrics such as:
• What your customers are watching?
• From where they are watching?
• From which device they are watching?
• What is their demographics — gender, age etc?

Most video hosting services and CDNs would offer some level of analytics and insights into user behavior.

• Once you begin to gather the data about how your customers are watching your content, the next step would be to map the user behavior to the user demographics.
• Using the reporting and analytics OTT platform providers would be able to personalize the experience for each and every user by trying to predict what they may like or dislike. Providing personalized recommendations is essential to sticky user experience.

7. Simple Payment Portal

• As it says, users should have a flexible payment method it should not cause any havoc during the payment process.

8.Multi-device viewing experience

• Today viewers are consuming content on multiple devices.
• Although the online video industry is slowly moving towards just a couple of major formats, different devices may still require different versions — Smooth Streaming, HLS, HDS, MPEG-dash, and even Flash.
• Casting is another opportunity that can enhance the user experience and help in driving the value for viewers.

Offline Mode

• Another important aspect of adding value to users’ on viewing experience is by giving control to them of watching content at their convenience without the limitation of internet speed.
• In that case, the option for downloading the video for watching later enables the user to engage with the app and the content they like whenever they want.

9. Customization

• Evolving and adapting quickly as your priorities change requires a SaaS platform with flexibility. The ability to seamlessly customize & quickly build extensions and features is needed.
• Choose a platform that offers you the flexibility to add & customize the features with ease.

10. Support

• As your business develops, you need client support from your side and this support should be in all aspects like taking and acting on user feedback, Updating features, any technical issues, UX/UI issues, etc.
• Customer communication has to be quick and direct and resolution effective. When some customer calls, one needs to ask for the problem and solve it as soon as possible and try connecting with them through all means like telephone, visit or mail.
• It’s important to train service personnel to give steady help and standard updates to customers using an issue database.

The Bottom Line:

Launching your OTT platform is a wise decision during these times where viewership is moving online. This article is meant to help you out ensure personnel to give steady the best OTT platform that meets your needs.

Check out Mobiotics. We can help you launch your own OTT platform within a few hours to a few weeks depending on your scale and UI/UX requirements.

We provide fully managed, scalable end-end OTT platforms and client apps so that you can focus on what you are looking to do — OTT content creation, distribution and monetization.