Business Plan for Your New Streaming Platform

Do you find the success of Hulu, HBO, and Netflix inspiring? It’s no surprise that more and more individuals or businesses are looking for OTT solutions to start streaming services by looking at the results of Netflix and other platforms’ work.

What are the Different Types of Video Streaming Platforms?

Before we move on and reveal the business plan for your new streaming platform, let’s first take a look at different types of video streaming platforms.

• OTT Platform 

Over-the-Top (OTT) is a productized practice allowing customers to stream content over the internet. Online content providers can offer streaming media as their standalone product with the OTT platform. The platform circumvents the traditional media distribution channels like cable TV providers or telecommunications networks. While most OTT services are monetized through paid subscriptions, some platforms may offer in-app purchases and ads.

• IPTV Platform 

Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) platform provides media content, live television, or videos over an IP network. IPTV platform can either utilize the wide-area network (WAN), a private local area network (LAN), or the public internet. IPTV services can be delivered to an IP-enabled television, PC, laptop, tablet, and mobile phone.

• Video Monetization Platform 

A video monetization platform allows a video content creator to generate revenue from video content. Content creators can monetize videos in different ways, such as transactional video-on-demand, subscription video-on-demand, and advertising video-on-demand.

• VOD Streaming Platform 

Video on Demand (VOD) streaming platform enables content creators to offer videos, movies, and television for viewers’ convenience. With the VOD streaming platform, viewers can select what they want to watch and when to watch it. Content creators can consistently generate revenue and take advantage of more monetization options.

What to do After You Decide to Launch a Streaming Platform?

Now that you have already made up your mind to launch a streaming platform, here are what you need to do:

Step 1: Find a Niche and Create USP

Before starting the video creation, ensure to define your niche and unique selling proposition (USP). It is a bad idea to imitate an already famous solution like Hulu or Netflix. Then, you need to create several USPs, like affordable prices, behavior-based recommendations, on-demand streaming of unique content, etc.

Step 2: Look for Content Creators 

Ensure that you understand what content type you want to use – content created by a third-party creator or the one you create yourself.

Step 3: Select the Best Monetization Model

There are different monetization models to choose from: subscription, pay-per-view, advertising, and freemium. The subscription model requires a monthly or yearly service subscription, while the pay-per-view model implies paying for each view of a series, movie, or other content.

If you choose the advertising model, ads placements by other companies help cover the expenses while generating revenue. For a freemium model, some content pieces are available to all users, while others require the purchase of a subscription or payment for each view.

Step 4: Legal Registration and Content Licensing 

Aside from technical preparation, you also need to consider making your business streaming legal. Legal registration and content licensing are critical parts of streaming services creation. You can find some licensing companies that sell a license not for the entire series but only for an episode or first season. Ensure to know and negotiate the terms before signing any agreements.

Step 5: Search for a Professional and Experienced Streaming Platform Developer 

Creating a video streaming service with a chance for success requires finding a company to help you with the whole app development process. When choosing an experienced app development company, you need to study their services to understand if it matches your goals. You also need to analyze the company’s tech specialization and capabilities.

Step 6: Decide on the Live Streaming Platform Functionality 

The streaming solution comes with several user roles: video consumer, video creator, and content admin. Depending on the type you want to utilize, you may need a platform for each user role. The platform can have different features, such as onboarding, user registration, social sign-on, search, user subscription management, payment gateways, push notifications, reviews and ratings, download features, etc.

Step 7: Create UX/UI Design 

The majority of users are looking for a streaming platform that offers a user-friendly interface. Copying other platforms’ visual representations is a bad idea when creating a streaming service. Instead, you should opt for a unique style to ensure that your streaming service is different from the competitive streaming service providers.

Step 8: Use the Right Technologies 

Understanding which technologies will go into creating your streaming business is critical during the preparation. You can be sure of the service’s proper functionality by doing so. Here are some examples of technologies necessary for creating a streaming service:

Step 9: Marketing and Promotion 

If you want to attract more customers, you need to work meticulously on your marketing strategy as it is critical for a streaming service. Your marketing strategy may include different stages and activities, such as paid ads, SMM, influencer marketing, SEO, events, and partnerships.

Step 10: Gather Customer Feedback and Plan for Improvements 

Once you release your streaming service, gathering feedback from your first users is recommended. You can use that feedback to plan for improvements to your service. Analytics data, user interviews, and surveys enable you to determine the advantages and points for improvements. You can also use that data to plan for the features and other content you wish to release in the future.

Conclusion 

If you decide to have a streaming service, you must oversee the development process. You need to build business relationships with content creators and content licensing companies. Plus, you also need to work on marketing and promotion and plan for future growth.