One of the industries that benefitted from the COVID-19 pandemic is the OTT industry (Over-The-Top). Yes, OTT platforms saw tremendous growth, and they became a major source of entertainment for users.
As per Statista, OTT media revenue is predicted to reach over 167 billion U.S. dollars by 2025, more than twice the 83.3 billion earned in 2019.
What Is OTT?
OTT platform is an online video streaming app that delivers video content through the internet and doesn’t require a user subscription to access it.
Gone are the days where people put up ideas such as “appointment television.” Today, if people want content, they can have it – no matter their location, time, or device.
Undoubtedly, OTT has agitated the entertainment industry. It has made watching and stream videos convenient. The paid subscription on online video streaming app grew to 29 million in July 2020, a rise of 31% in just four months after the pandemic, according to Live Mint.
What Are The Types Of OTT Platforms?
OTT does not only refer to video-on-demand platforms, but also refers to audio streaming, message services, or internet-based voice calling solutions. OTT can refer to any of the following four types:
- OTT Television: Apple TV, Xbox, PS4, PS5, etc.
- OTT Video: Netflix, Amazon Prime, etc.
- OTT Messaging: WhatsApp, Facebook messenger, etc.
- OTT Voice Calling: Skype, WhatsApp, Zoom, etc.
Among these types, the one that outshines is the video OTT segment. In 2021 and beyond, online video streaming businesses must leverage the power of an online video streaming app, as it is high in demand.
Through OTT, you can provide customers with access to an infinite stream of content and communicate with a large group of users at any given time.
OTT Market Share
Undoubtedly, video content is on the rise in today’s world. Customers want access to video content from providers at their pace. Once they’ve experienced this flexibility, they won’t return to using content on someone else’s program.
In January 2018, 84% of users in the US stream video content on their devices daily, and 95% of people in Turkey and Saudi Arabia. This drastic change in how users consume video content stimulates the OTT market’s growth.
Business success is all about constant growth. OTT app development for mobile and TV devices can help you grow your audience and boost revenue by as much as 31% in the short term. With OTT apps and services, you can reap the benefits of this new trend.
Features Of OTT Platforms
As the demand for OTT is at its height, content creators and owners must accurately assess the OTT platform while sharing their content across multiple channels.
Let’s look at a few features of an OTT platform that content owners must know.
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Easy Interface
An interface that is easy to operate and convenient to anyone makes an excellent OTT platform. The platform should enable viewers to quickly find the relevant content and perform others tasks efficiently.
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Content Discovery
Finding new and personalized content is the essential feature that enhances customer loyalty. A successful OTT platform works on a strong recommendation engine and offers rich functionalities that allow users to find the right content as per demand.
The media owners should also assess others aspects of the platform, such as organic content discoverability, paid promotion opportunities, etc.
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Analytics
Content owners must have an overall view of content distribution to build an adequate revenue strategy. A dashboard in the OTT platform provides complete clarity and in-depth information, such as the user journey and engagement, demographics, content engagement, content distribution across devices and platforms, and its result in different markets.
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Adaptable to Business Needs
To survive in this highly competitive digital world, it becomes crucial for content owners to ensure if the OTT platform is adaptable. A successful OTT platform must remain compliant for marketers to customize the marketing campaigns to respond to customer and business needs.
Benefits Of OTT Apps
OTT apps are profitable to businesses and consumers alike. For example, OTT apps typically offer many more alternatives for payment structures and advertising strategies compared to old business models.
Let’s have a look at the benefits of an OTT platform for businesses.
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Highly Targeted Advertising
Demand-side platforms (DSP) changed the programmatic advertising world by allowing a way to compare ads with the right users more efficiently. OTT brings these tools to more channels and platforms that could not target or track engagement. OTT services also offer advertisers the sense to target ads and track the response from various segments more effectively.
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Customer Segmentation
OTT apps offer marketers the ability to segment customers more accurately, including live user segmentation. For example – podcasts. In the past, radio towers were used without an understanding of who was listening. But today, an online video streaming app can offer audience insights including locations, device types, episode retention, and more.
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Increased Efficiency
Apps built to avoid the incumbents usually do so because they are able to leverage the authority of modern technologies at a cheap price. From a consumer’s point of view, paying for TV channels that are mostly unwatched is ineffective. Alternatively, pay for the channels you want to watch.
How Much Does OTT Platforms Cost?
An OTT app development app may cost you between USD 150k and USD 200k. However, it varies based on a number of factors, including the features you want to add, the platforms it would be compatible with, and the mobile app development company that you choose to build the app with. You can benefit from experienced mobile app development companies like Quytech that holds 10+ years of expertise and offers services at competitive prices.
Is It Worth Developing OTT Platforms?
The short answer is – YES! As a business owner, you need to understand that your industry is continually changing. The strategies that worked last year, may not work in the upcoming years. So, you need to modify your marketing strategies based on the upcoming trends.
Summing Up
OTT is the future of media content delivery and a replacement for the TV cable. Investing in OTT is worth an investment. Today, many big and small industry players are continually spending on digital platforms to deliver the most appealing experience to their viewers.
To reap the benefits of this new trend, hire a mobile app development company today where an in-house team of developers with a significant amount of expertise develops an app to help you meet your business needs and make your brand stand out.
