5 Compelling Features Of An OTT Platform That Content Owners Should Know
OTT or Over-The-Top (OTT) global market is growing at a rapid pace and has become a turning point in the TV and broadcasting industry. OTT has given a significant competition to the traditional cable providers. The digital disruption brought about by OTT has changed the dynamics of the television business, making it completely consumer-driven from a provider-driven model.
Leveraging the internet-connectivity of Smart TVs, many TV broadcasters, content owners and advertisers are gearing to provide high-quality content to delight their viewers.
Today, consumers have a variety of content to choose from than ever before. Viewers expect access to content anytime, anywhere and from any device which has opened up opportunities for various OTT video platform providers to generate revenue and deliver high-quality content. There is a significant traction among the broadcasters and content owners who are leveraging the OTT platforms to distribute content to reach their audiences and provide personalized and seamless user experience.
While the potential of OTT is at its peak, content producers and owners must carefully evaluate the OTT platform while distributing their content across multiple channels. It is imperative for all the players to understand the capabilities and features before selecting the platform to make their OTT investment worthwhile.
Let’s look at a few compelling features of an OTT platform which content owners must know:
1) Easy Interface
A user-friendly interface that is easy to navigate and accessible to anyone makes an ideal OTT platform. The platform should enable users to quickly find the desired content and perform various functionalities and tasks swiftly. A simple, well-structured platform provides a great experience for customers allowing them to perform tasks anytime, anywhere, on any device and any network thereby increasing reachability.
2) Content Discovery
Discovering new and personalized content is the key feature that improves customer loyalty. A successful OTT 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 of content being consistently produced and pushed by various media sources and content suppliers, it is the degree of personalization offered that differentiates a platform from one another. The media owners should also evaluate other aspects of the platform such as organic content discoverability; paid promotion opportunities and so on.
3) Monetization Capabilities
A versatile OTT platform unlocks multiple monetization ways for content or media owners such as Subscription Video on Demand (SVOD), Advertisement-supported Video on Demand (AVOD), Pay Per View (PPV) or Transactional Video on Demand (TVOD) and other combinations such as hybrid model, rental, etc.
4) Analytics
It is highly crucial for content owners to have a holistic view of content distribution to build an effective revenue strategy. A dashboard in the OTT platform provides complete visibility and in-depth information such as the user journey and engagement, demographics, content engagement, viewership, content distribution across devices and platforms and its impact in different markets.
5) Adaptable to Business Needs
To sustain in this highly competitive digital world it becomes pivotal for content owners to ensure if the OTT platform is flexible. A successful OTT platform must remain flexible for marketers and advertisers to customize the marketing campaigns to respond to customer and business needs.
In the booming OTT market, it is important for any content owner or broadcaster to continuously inspire, involve and keep the viewer engaged through the content. To maintain a better recognition with the viewers, content owners must also look out for an OTT platform that provides white labeling opportunities.
Today, every player either big or small is witnessing the digital disruption in the TV industry and has started investing heavily on digital front to deliver the most engaging experience to their viewers. Companies valuing content are seeing significant traction from digital audiences across geographies. When content owners decide to push original content they must evaluate an OTT platform that enables them to publish content seamlessly without much re-work. With markets flooded with OTT service providers and platforms, it is definitely a necessity for the media owners and broadcasters to wisely decide on a right OTT platform for a better ROI.
