Getting Started With Your First OTT App
People became more familiar with OTT apps during the Covid-19 pandemic. When forced to hunker down during complete lockdowns, users across the globe resorted to online content consumption to pass their time and OTT apps saw more downloads than ever.
What Is an OTT App?
You might have experienced the traditional methods of viewing content, ie through broadcasting and satellite television. But when an application streams content on your digital devices, it's called an 'Over The Top', or OTT application.
Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime are some of the biggest examples of OTT apps that bring to you a myriad of content choices, that you can watch wherever and whenever you want to.
According to research by Zemoga, consumers in the US spend over 100 minutes on OTT apps on a daily basis and pay an $8.53 average fee per month per service.
Why Should You Build Your Own OTT App?
There are various reasons why you should build your own OTT app.
Greater Control
By having your own OTT app, you can customize content recommendations for your users and mine data collected across viewers. From UI to UX, everything is under your control when you have your own app vs when you showcase your content on an aggregator app, where you have to comply with the terms and conditions of the platform you're using.
Exclusivity
By providing exclusive and original content on your OTT app, you'll bind your customers to your platform as they will not get access to such content anywhere else. This will not only bring in new users but will also increase the lifetime value of each customer.
Subscription Cost Flexibility
It could take a while before you find the sweet spot where most customers would be willing to pay for your app. Until then, you can lower your subscription fees or raise them, as per the performance of your app. A little bit of trial and error and you'll soon be able to arrive at the optimum subscription fee.
What Are the Major Considerations While Launching an OTT App?
When launching an OTT app, you must take into consideration the following factors:
Security
When users subscribe to your platform, they're placing their faith in you and sharing personal information, including credit card and other payment methods' details. If your app is not secure enough to protect user data, you'll soon be looking at a sinking business and possible lawsuits.
Content Licenses
If you're streaming copyrighted content on your OTT app, make sure to secure the appropriate licenses so as to avoid legal trouble and bad publicity.
Payment Gateway Integration
It's money you're trying to make with the app and this is the most important step that'll get you what you desire. The payment gateway should include all the popular payment method integrations and security and compliance checks in place, else you could experience payment frauds, affecting your business as well as your users.
How To Build Your OTT App?
With MAZ, it's extremely easy and hassle-free to build your OTT app. You can create apps and distribute them to multiple channels, including Apple TV, Android TV, Amazon Fire TV, Roku, as well as various mobile apps stores like Android Playstore and Apple app store.
There's no singular method to be used to build your app. You can outsource it or develop it in-house. If you decide to build your app yourself, you retain control and eliminate all external dependencies. Help us help you and get in touch with us today.
