Making the move to OTT is a significant transition, but it’s also the next logical step for pretty much any video content owner who wants to ensure flexibility, autonomous business ownership, cross platform reach, access to valuable data and analytics, and the opportunity to streamline workflow for business management.
Why Go OTT?
The OTT industry isn’t new but it’s growing fast. Audiences everywhere are paying premium prices for access to niche content OTT services. There’s still plenty of room for your offering.
Going OTT lets you capitalize on opportunities that aren’t really available with cable, such as:
OTT enables creators and content owners to reach their audiences directly and start a conversation with viewers.
It’s your business, and there are no middlemen. This means that you own the data AND all revenue goes directly to your bank account.
You have the flexibility to customize your apps and brand your content the way you see fit.
You have the ability to distribute your content to the destinations of your choice while maximizing revenue with your monetization model of choice
Once You Go OTT…
The second big decision on the docket is how you will manage your OTT video content. You can either go with a free service like YouTube, construct your own DIY solution, or go with a video platform like Zype.
Though each solution has its own set of advantages and disadvantages, a video platform will provide all of the tools required to run an OTT service. A video platform is not as costly and complicated as going with a DIY solution, and unlike free services, a video platform lets you retain full creative and monetary control.
Let’s take a deeper dive into how a video platform can enhance the advantages of going OTT.
Make Your Own Business Decisions
Perhaps one of the biggest reasons to go OTT is the flexibility it offers. As a content owner, it’s important that you have the ability to change your business as your audience evolves.
With the Zype video platform, you can expand your content library, change your monetization policy, add new features or even create a new app with the click of just a few buttons.
Control Your Assets with Cross-Platform Functionality
With a video distribution platform for OTT, all your video assets are under your control on your own branded site and apps. They are stored on a cloud-based system where only you have access to them. You can organize, distribute, and promote them however you want and monetize however you wish.
Zype customers like Kin Community, The Film Detective and StarTalk All-Access distribute to three or more destinations, while some other customers choose to publish only to their website or a single streaming destination. You decide where you publish your content.
However, distributing your content to multiple endpoints ( an OTT endpoint can be a mobile device, website, smart TV or streaming device) means that each endpoint needs to be kept up to date and they all need to function simultaneously at any given time. And that’s precisely the advantage of why you want to use a video platform. With Zype, your video platform is a central hub from which you can synchronize the distribution of multiple video assets to multiple destinations from a single centralized dashboard.
Customize Your Viewer Experience
Another advantage to using a single video platform for OTT is that there are tools available to create a similar experience on any device with your own customized design and user interface. This allows you to create a unified brand experience across OTT that your audience will find familiar and recognizable anywhere they go to watch your content. You can customize the look and feel of your app to truly create your brand with a “signature look.”
Havoc TV puts out content rooted in skate, surf, and music culture, and has a clean but fun look to highlight their content. Havoc TV also has a consistent look and feel across all of their destinations.
Monetize How You Choose
One of your major reasons for going OTT is likely because you want to maximize revenue. OTT services can be monetized by advertising, subscription or transactional models. Zype’s video platform has easy built-in ways for you to implement the best monetization policy for you and your audience. We also support mixed monetization models, so you can use any combination of SVOD, AVOD and TVOD.
Access to Information: Analytics & Data
Analytics and data are pivotal to a video business. Though most OTT solutions provide you with some sort of data, your video platform will likely provide you with the most detailed and accessible analytics dashboard. Data is required to build and retain audiences, take note of viewer trends/ content performance, so it should be one of the more important features you consider when choosing your OTT solution. Zype offers over 20 different metrics so you can make effective business decisions. For a more detailed look into the Zype analytics dashboard, check out this blog post.
Analytics are especially important for content that’s streamed live and streamed frequently. For Zype customers like Texan Live, data is pivotal for deciding when to stream, who to target, how to optimize subscription plans and how to market their content.
The Bottom Line
The video platform you choose can create an OTT advantage. In the fast-paced world where new OTT services are coming online daily, making smart business decisions will be crucial to your long-term success. If you want to create engaging new content, maximize your revenue, and have access to important data, an OTT solution should be the first thing you look at.
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