Now, are you looking to start your own OTT platform? Here’s a brief guide on how to build your own OTT platform solutions and become one of the best streaming services using cutting-edge technologies and OTT strategies to efficiently manage and deliver your video content across mobile devices, smart TVs, and the web. If you are planning to build OTT platforms, there are several things you need to consider before diving into the market.
OTT platform solutions have revolutionized the way we consume media content. Audiences now have access to movies, TV shows, games, and more from anywhere in today’s world. This has changed the way we view and experience entertainment.
The entertainment industry is experiencing an incredible boom in revenue, expected to reach a whopping $2.6 trillion by over-the-top(OTT) technology in 2024.
Therefore, for content creators, media broadcasters, or streaming businesses like you who are looking to build your own OTT platform solution, there are great opportunities out there to increase your growth and monetize your content across web, mobile & smart TV.
That is not the end.
Since 2019, market trends have been showing a gradual increase in global shelling each year. The latest report on OTT statistics suggests they expect it to reach 1.039 trillion by the end of 2027.
Can you believe that?
Introduction
Are you considering developing a top-notch OTT video streaming platform to enter and capitalize on the rapidly growing market? Beyond thinking of how to create something like Netflix, there is much more to think about. We will see some other factors here:
- Why is there a demand for an OTT video platform in the entertainment industry?
- Key elements that contribute to the growth of an OTT business?
- How do business owners start with an OTT platform?
- How to build a corporate OTT IPTV platform?
Related: Build the best OTT Video Apps: The Ultimate OTT Features
Why Create a Best OTT Platform for Entertainment?
OTT is becoming increasingly popular as more people access streaming media by “OTT subscription” within the comfort of their own homes. Their success, because of their incredibly popular big players such as Netflix, HBO, Hotstar, and Amazon content owners and publishers, has inspired many businesses to create more video streaming platforms – with the right OTT content strategy including CBS All Access, Hulu, Fubo TV, and Peacock. This growth in the sector is a great win for both consumers and big game streaming companies.
News OTT Surpasses 100K+ Active Daily Users
- During the pandemic period, the use of OTT live video streaming services increased by over 50% in the number of new installations of its mobile application in Italy and over 30% in Spain.
- By 2022, they expect the revenue per user generated by video streaming services to reach $1.636 million, demonstrating the popularity of the live-streaming industry.
- Netflix has experienced immense growth in recent years, with the company reporting an impressive 222 million global subscribers.
- Netflix is one of the biggest live-streaming services in the world, with a whopping 75 million subscribers across the United States and Canada combined. That means it has the largest share of the regional subscriber count out of all its rivals.
How To Start OTT Platform in 2024
If you are planning to create an OTT platform, there are several things you need to consider before diving into the market. OTT apps subscription have become increasingly popular in recent years, and there are many players in the market. So, to make your platform stand out, you need to do proper research, plan well, and execute your plans effectively. Here are steps on how to start a platform:
Define your niche: The first step to stream your OTT platform is to define your niche. Decide on the type of content you want to offer and who your target audience is. Some popular niches are movies, TV shows, documentaries, sports, news, music, and kids’ content. Your niche will determine the kind of content you need to acquire and produce.
Research the market: Once you have identified your niche, research the market to understand your competitors, their strengths, and weaknesses. Analyze their business models, OTT subscription plans, content offerings, and user experience. This research will help you understand the gaps in the market that you can fill with your platform.
Create a content strategy: Based on your niche and market research, create a content strategy. Determine the type of content you want to produce and acquire, the frequency of releases, and the content formats. Identify the production and distribution partners you need to work with to execute your content strategy.
Build the Best OTT platforms: Once you have a content strategy, it’s time to build your platform. Identify the technology stack you need to used to build your own OTT platform. Choose a platform that is scalable, flexible, and offers a seamless user experience. You may also need to hire a team of developers and designers to build OTT platforms.
Acquire and produce content: With your platform in place, it’s time to acquire and produce content. Acquire the rights to popular movies, TV shows, documentaries, and other content that fits your niche. Produce original content that resonates with your target audience. Ensure that your content library is regularly updated to keep your users engaged.
Launch and market your platform: Once you have a sizeable content library,it’s time for the OTT channel launch. Create a buzz around your launch with marketing campaigns across social media, email, and other channels. Offer attractive subscription plans and discounts to early adopters. Once launched, continue marketing your platform to attract new users.
Monitor and improve: With your platform launched, monitor user behavior, engagement, and feedback with OTT planning software. Use this data to enhance your platform’s Live user experience, content offerings, and subscription plans. Continuously innovate and stay ahead of your competitors to keep your users loyal.
Maintenance: Ensuring periodical OTT platform maintenance will assist in seamless usage and deliver ideal operational efficiency. Vulnerabilities towards security issues can be rectified ensuring adherence to data privacy policies. It also provides the scope for investigating various aspects so that the platform can be made future-proof to integrate technologies to meet growing demands of the market.
Starting an OTT platform is not a simple task, but with the righ strategy and execution, it can be a lucrative business. Follow this guide, and you’ll be on your way to creating a successful OTT platform solutions.
4 Key Features that Help To Create Successful OTT Platform
Monetization in your App
Video monetization of apps involves adding different payment models, such as subscription-based ones, that allow users to choose variable plans. You may provide free trial versions for a certain period and create specific plans for your users. You should also ensure seamless automated payments and deliver updates about discounts or add videos for ads. With these strategies implemented thoughtfully in your mobile app, you can maximize revenue and user engagement.
Multi-Currency Support
To make your own Netflix a success, multi-currency support is essential to accommodate users from all over the world. This means offering them different payment preferences and options, so they can pay according to their own currency and preferences. By providing this kind of flexibility, you can ensure that your service is available to as many people as possible across the globe.
Quality-Driven Content
Quality-driven content is the most important factor in launching your own OTT streaming channel like Netflix. The best OTT channels focus on content quality and enhancing the user experience. They have attracted a large user base due to their significant expenditure on content—$14 billion last year. Therefore, the resulting growth rate of subscribers increases with better-quality content investments.
Video Sharing And Distribution
Video sharing and distribution have gone through an incredible transformation in the digital era. OTT Platforms like Netflix, Amazon, and Hotstar enable users to watch content across multiple devices with a seamless experience. In addition, these services also allow users to share videos easily anytime and anywhere, with just an internet connection on a computer or other devices.
How Can Webnexs Help To Build Your Own OTT Platform?
Our experienced OTT integration consultants can help you achieve your digital streaming goals with a seamless and consistent operation strategy, including the perfect monetization model for your business.
Development Phase:
Webnexs provides custom OTT app development solutions. Our experienced team of developers creates platforms that give businesses complete control over user accounts, interfaces, and content, allowing for powerful and engaging live video streaming experiences.
Here, all components decided during setup are compiled into a downloadable OTT platform.
Server setting up phase:
Storage :
OTT system needs unlimited storage, so you have to use a cloud storage service like
- Frontend and Backend Development– JavaScript-based frameworks like Laravel, PHP
- Databases– MySQL
Encoding of the video:
While making an efficient OTT platform server, you need to ensure protocols that will handle audio/video portions within the player. FFMPEG supports encoding, transcoding, & packaging the media files.
Streaming solution:
You can use the CDN to stream the files either over HTTP or using RTMP. Amazon CloudFront services can be utilized for a secure streaming solution.
Security:
You can apply the security of the videos to prevent the “hot-linking ” of the videos. AWS provides such a kind of security.
Technology stack to develop the application- Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Front-end and Back-end Development– JavaScript-based frameworks like Laravel, PHP
Databases– MySQL
Video Transcoding Tools: FFMPEG supports encoding, transcoding, & packaging the media files.
Read More: How to Create HLS Files: A Beginner’s Guide
Domain Mapping:
The next step will be domain mapping. Here you can set up a custom domain rather than the default address that Cloud Run provides for a deployed service.
Testing the Initial Upload:
This is the step where you review your functionality and customer experience. Testing services, including unit testing and system testing, have been done.
Evaluating the Design:
The testing team must perform the UAT Test Strategy to ensure layout consistency and seamless navigation. They can do this mainly to ensure the user interface is stable and straightforward.
Essential Features for Launching a Successful OTT Platform
Here are some features that help to build OTT platforms:
Live streaming
Live streaming is a must-have feature for any OTT platform. It enables you to provide user-centric content in real-time and monetize it accordingly. It also allows you to schedule content for multiple platforms, allowing users access to your streaming service anytime and anywhere, be it on their computer, phone, tablet, smart TV, or gaming console. Automated uploading of various video formats from multiple sources and smooth streaming are essential aspects to consider when setting up your platform.
Video on demand
This feature allows users to watch content at their own convenience. It enables subscribers to access a library of TV shows, movies, and other videos available for rent or purchase. The platform should provide multiple payment options for users to choose from, such as SVOD, AVOD, and TVOD. Users should be able to easily search for videos and access content quickly. The platform should have an advertising engine that can monetize the service.
Series and Episodes
It allows viewers to access a show’s entire season or series of episodes in one go. This feature helps to keep viewers engaged and makes it easier for them to find the content they are looking for. Users can also benefit from the convenience of scheduling the contents of their favorite shows so that they can watch them whenever they want.
M3U8 Streaming _ Linear Channels
M3U8 streaming is a great way to create linear channels, offering viewers the ability to watch content in real time. It’s also an effective way to restream your content to multiple platforms. You can easily create an M3U8 media connection and stream your content to a third-party player, mobile app, or OTT platform. Channels are easy to create and manage, making them a great option for those just getting started with OTT platforms.
Scheduling contents
Scheduling content is an important part of creating an OTT platform for your video streaming service. It allows you to plan and make sure that your viewers can always access the content they need. They can do manual scheduling, or you can set up automated systems to ensure that all your content is available at the right time. With the right OTT platform, you can also easily customize schedules for different platforms and devices, ensuring maximum reach for your content.
Restreaming to multiple platforms
Once you’ve set up your streaming platform, the next step is to get your content out to multiple platforms. With Restream, you can easily Restream your videos on YouTube, Twitch, and other platforms with ease. With all your content streaming to multiple platforms, you’ll reach more viewers and keep them engaged with your content.
Video CMS
The Video CMS feature is essential for organizing, managing, and streaming content on the go. It allows users to establish business rules such as scheduling video content and its availability in different regions. It creates an excellent user experience by offering a user-friendly interface to navigate through the video library with ease.
Business models of OTT platform:
1. Subscription Video on Demand (SVOD)
Subscribers pay for the online content periodically on demand. The benefits include ad-free viewing and flexibility to cancel subscriptions at any time.
2. Advertising-based Video on Demand (AVOD)
Content can be accessed for free in return for watching advertisements. This is an ideal model for those wishing to take trial to assess user experience and convenience.
3. Pay-Per-View (PPV)
Allows for complete flexibility in choosing individual pieces of content as per preference, rather than subscribing to the whole lot.
Are you thinking that this will incur a huge cost?
It’s a commonly held notion that anything that has to do with software needs a huge investment, but that is not completely true. Software products can be procured on value for money while still upholding reliability, scalability, performance and security which are the core factors that need to be considered while seeking to purchase a software. A promising OTT media platform can be built in a cost-effective way.
Here are ways in which you can trim spending excessively in the initial phase:
Scope of the software
Start with incorporating features that are necessary to utilize the software with ease and as you scale up, advanced level features can be integrated.
Technology stack
White Label service providers offer pre-built platforms which can be completely customized to reflect your brand values and this is a great way to penetrate into the market initially!
Infrastructural cost
With a web host, upfront investment can be drastically cut, freeing us from huge financial burden.
Upgrades
These service providers update the software from time-to-time which are usually done for a minimal cost. Thus, sparing you from major expenditure for your OTTs.
How long does it take for OTT platform development?
Identifying Server specs:
Timeframe: 4 days maximum
Business model, content bank, scalability and other factors determine the physical infrastructural requirements.
Code Deployment and Beta Testing:
Timeframe: 4 days maximum for Code Deployment and 10-15 days maximum for Beta Testing
Moving back-end developments and making them available to end-users in a usable format, and this includes both websites and mobile applications. Testing is done to identify bugs, crashes and other types of errors before launching them in the market.
In totality it may take around 20 – 25 days for a fully developed software platform to become completely operational.
Conclusion:
Finally, your OTT business plan takes its physical shape by setting up the platform in practical ways, framing marketing tactics & focusing all your attempts on branding & promotions. Pivoting on a simple record of monthly turnovers relevant to the customer’s subscriptions, and your efforts are reciprocated in terms of profits.These are the five significant and essential steps to starting the OTT Platform in 2024. For further queries, contact our team. For starting your own streaming services, hire our OTT developers.
Webnexs Solution conveys a specialized way of launching your OTT platforms and monetizes your Content with the best ROI Technology.
Frequently Asked Question(FAQ)
1. Why should I Make my own OTT platform?
Starting your own OTT platform can offer numerous benefits and opportunities for content creators, businesses, and organizations.
2. How much does it cost to start an OTT platform?
The cost of starting an OTT platform can vary widely depending on factors such as the scale of the platform, the technology used, and the content you plan to offer. However, it’s important to budget for the cost of setting up an ott platform development, licensing, hosting, and marketing.
3. What kind of content can I offer on my OTT platform?
You can offer a variety of content on your OTT platform, including movies, TV shows, documentaries, sports, news, and more. It’s important to understand your target audience and what type of content they are most interested in.
4. Do I need to have the technical expertise to create an OTT platform?
While technical expertise can be helpful, it’s not always necessary. You can hire a team of developers and technical experts to build and maintain your platform. However, it’s important to have a basic understanding of the technology and infrastructure needed to run an OTT platform.
5. How can I monetize my OTT platform?
There are several ways to monetize an OTT platform, including subscription-based models, pay-per-view, and advertising. It’s important to consider which model will work best for your content and target audience.
6. What Are The Benefits Of create your own ott platform?
Because people who use OTT (Over-the-Top) can easily watch shows and movies whenever they want, advertising can help businesses connect with potential customers no matter where or when. More and more people are using OTT services instead of traditional cable TV, which means you can set your own prices for content and use different ways to make money, like ads.
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