In the era where the notion “Netflix and Chill” is in vogue, who would think of opting for traditional broadcasting? The trend of binge watching is climbing the charts and has succeeded in pleasing the public. The traditional broadcasting and cable subscriptions have been overtaken by the mighty giants i-e the OTT platforms. Netflix, Amazon prime and the likes have become the household names.
OTT platforms have not only benefitted the consumers but the providers also. It is convenient in terms of control over the shows as compared against the traditional satellite tv and pricing as it is much affordable than cable subscription. On the provider’s part it is popular because of the functionalities it offers and the revenue it generates.
With the skyrocketed trend of chord cutting, the investors and content creators have turned the canons of their interests towards OTT. It not only allows the content creators to reach their audience directly but also enhance brand awareness, scalability , monetization and reduce time and cost .
Launching an OTT platform requires no rocket science. But given the competition one must come up with a creative business model to grab the attention of the customers. If you have the quality content, building an OTT platform for it is not a bad idea. All you have to do is follow some basic steps.

Here is a step-by-step guide to launching your OTT service.

1. Opting for the profitable niche:
Choosing the desirable niche is one of the factor that determines the success of an OTT plateform. Besides entertainment, the audience is interested in streaming niches like eSports, fitness, lifestyle, eLearning, etc. An OTT platform specifically catering to one of these niches can help earning a good number of paid subscribers.
2. Selecting a smart business model:
There are four business models in the realm of OTT platforms i-e transactional model, subscription model, hybrid model and advertisement business model. The viewers are categorized on the basis of these models as some want to have free access to the videos while the others want to gain unlimited access to your video library. Yet there is another category that wants to pay for the content they watch .This is the hybrid model which targets the wider user base and generates more revenue.
3. The content:
Once the viewers are determined then it’s time to determine what content you want to build to involve your viewers in your niche.
4. Licensing the content:
Creating your own content might become time consuming at times effecting the product and supply cycle. In this situation acquiring content from production houses, movie makers, or independent content creators is the only solution which comes with cost of licensing the content. There are two way of acquisition of the license i-e contacting the copyright owner or renting a show from the authorized distributer.
5. The features:
The important features and functionalities are the crucial part of an OTT platform. Such as registration and sign-in, user profile, admin profile, search, watch list, screen mirroring, discount coupons, multilingual support system and notification system etc.
6. The development method:
To launch your OTT service, you have the choice to develop it from scratch or leverage a white label solution which is an affordable and convenient approach.
An OTT platform helps the provider to improve the trust with potential users, rank in search engines, collect email information and grow a mailing list and accept payment. It also gives your users a website to access if they don’t have access to apps on a different device.
So once you are done with all the steps you are all set to launch your OTT platform.
After the launch, the next step to consider is effective marketing strategy and putting more effort in promoting and branding your business. With the right strategies in place, you gain the potential to reach a larger audience who actively searches for OTT services like yours. Hence providing you with the chance to generate hefty amount of revenue.