How To Start a Successful OTT platform in 2022

Everyone is very much aware of the craze for OTT content such as movies and series. People have opted for OTT platforms to start and grow their video streaming business because of their broader audience reach and easier video monetization steps. OTT market is expected to reach around 157 billion by 2024. Some popular OTT platforms are Netflix, Disney+ Hotstar, Amazon Prime Video, and Hulu.

More and more businesses are opting for the OTT platforms as OTT video content is replacing Traditional TV networks. There has been a steep rise in demand for OTT video content, and this OTT market is set to grow bigger in all aspects including video views, revenue, and the number of users.

To stay with the trend, this is the right time to start the OTT platform to grab this moment to attract more users to your platform and generate revenue. Here is the blog that guides you through how to start a Successful OTT platform in 2022.

Advantages of the OTT platform 

1. It gives the flexibility for users to watch any video content at any time. 
2. Live-streamed video content is recorded and stored in a video library where a user who missed live streaming can view the video later as on-demand content. 
3. Users can view video content on the OTT platform on various devices like mobile, desktops, and Smart TVs. 
4. Video creators, businesses, and publishers can easily upload video content to the OTT platform with the video recorded with the mobile camera. 
5. With less investment, you introduce your business brand to a global audience.
6. OTT platforms allow businesses to monetize video content as per the revenue and enable the businesses to distribute video content to the user at the right price.
7. Businesses can choose a monetization model as per their needs. Different monetization models available are the Subscription-based model, transactional-based model, and advertisement-based model. Even businesses can combine any of the two models to form a hybrid monetization model.
8. Through analytics, businesses can track their revenue generation, engagement, and content performance through numbers of views, watch time, subscriptions, and user details like names, email addresses, and geographical locations.
9. By evaluating the performance of OTT content, businesses can effectively redevelop their marketing plan for future needs to retarget the audience. 

Guide on how to start a Successful OTT platform in 2022 

1. Make a plan and choose your offering. 

You need to have business ideas and do research accordingly. Choose what type of video content you are going to offer, like movies, short films, series, or television shows. You need to make a clear-cut plan as market competition is high.

• Do complete market research on where you are going to operate may be based on country or states like market growth factors, key players in the market, and demand. 
• Do a competitor analysis to better understand the OTT market and video streaming business.
•  Know about strategies and performance of present players in the market. Try to know better about your audiences, like demographic data and user behavioral patterns in OTT video consumption. 
• Setting up USP (Unique selling point) for your business will make your platform stand apart from others. 
• Check out the business models and pricing plans set by the competitors so that you can get an idea when setting a pricing plan for your OTT platform. 

2. Start creating your content.

Always create quality and engaging content so that you can attract the audience to your OTT platform. If your video is not good, you will lose your potential customers despite all the hard work and investments. 

• Always try to create video content of different types, genres, and languages. It will help in reaching a broader range of audience groups. 
• Start creating exclusive video content like movies and series that will be available only on your platform as it will retain more users. 
• Keep showing personalized content to users based on watch history and liked videos. 
• Also, give importance to creating regional content of various languages to attract audiences from different groups.

3. Consider choosing an OTT platform provider. 

Coming to the crucial part of choosing an OTT platform provider will determine how well your OTT business is going to perform. Well built OTT platform is everything for an OTT business. Here is the important feature to look at when building an OTT platform: 

• OTT platform builds you a branded website and app
• Allows White-label video streaming where the business’s brand name and logo are placed forward.
• Video player with customizable option 
• Social media integration option
• Analytics dashboard to know about user behavior
• Video CMS to easily manage and organize video content.
• Allows users to create separate playlists.
• Different monetization options include SVOD, AVOD, TVOD, and Hybrid.
• Multi DRM to prevent copyrights issues and other security options must include AES encryption, password protection, and dynamic watermarking. 
• It must include other options like giving coupon codes and promotional offers to attract users to the platform. 

Consider choosing an OTT platform provider that builds you an ott platform where you can launch on the go without needing any technical assistance and offers you complete support at the back end. Always ensure that there is no need for the developer as maintenance can be done easily without much technical knowledge. 

4. Marketing your OTT platform

Market ott platform to help create brand awareness and increase people’s reach. Consider writing blogs, sending newsletters, and publishing press releases. Share images and small video snippets of the OTT platform on social media to reach people. 

5. Check analytics

Once after launching an OTT platform, consider checking detailed analytics reports regarding viewers and revenue. It is important to look out for user data like the number of users, average engagement time, bounce rate, other demographic data, and recurring revenue, etc. With these data in hand, OTT platform owners can easily sketch out a better marketing plan in the future to attract more users and generate better revenue. 

Conclusion

Choose an OTT platform provider that builds an OTT platform with the requirement you need. OTT platform needs to be equipped with a list of features mentioned above and allows you to launch your own-branded OTT platform easily.