With the number of Coronavirus cases on the rise across the globe, churches are increasingly relying on live streaming to broadcast their worship services. There is probably not a single ministry right now that is not feeling the effects of COVID-19, everyone is learning to do ministry differently to keep the church communication with their congregation running. One area that has felt the most impact is church communication and there is a huge amount of pressure for the church to communicate more effectively with their congregation than ever before. And live streaming is an excellent way for churches to reach out to people due to the church closures and attend the service live from the comfort of their homes as it happens.
Impact of Coronavirus on church functioning
The COVID-19 has posed significant challenges for the global communion of churches due to sudden church closures. According toFaithlive’s new survey data, the majority of churches across the globe, while the majority of churches are returning to in-person gatherings imposing significant challenges for leaders to maintain church unity within their congregations.
Hence, churches need to re-evaluate the way they worship, gather, and disciple their congregation. Even after the church has opened, many pastors find it challenging to bring their congregation together as the pandemic has imposed strict restrictions and regulations on the number of attendees.
For this reason, church leaders are turning to the best live streaming software for churches that features a set of comprehensive tools to help them ensure that they are well equipped for digital worship and setting up a vibrant online congregation. Churches need efficient live streaming solutions for conducting live Sunday worship, organizing online giving, community outreach, online discipleship, and more.
Why use a church live streaming software to broadcast your services?
To broadcast your church services live without any restrictions, you have to consider building your own online video platform. A live streaming platform will give your team full control over your church broadcast as well as additional features and functionalities to engage your online audience.
With a church service streaming platform, you can perform the following.
Publish sermon and testimony videos
Using the best live streaming software for church, you can create a video library with your Sunday services, sermon videos, and testimony videos. Considering the fact that most churchgoers lookup for a church website first, it is probably a good idea to have a platform for hosting your church services.
Engage online worshippers
If you are brainstorming about how to stream church service, it is important to have a live video platform so that you can make your congregation feel like they are actually attending your services. This is a great opportunity for pastors to connect with their congregation after the sermon to interact with the audience and to establish a connection with the members.
You can incorporate other media
With a live video platform for your church in place, you can add additional media content like sermons, special teachings, a specific style of worship, gospel music, etc. besides the normal Sunday service.
Receive donations and tithe
In a church, over half of the people would like to give to their church online. While social media live streaming platforms don’t provide secure ways to receive online donations and tithing, church live streaming platforms do. So, if you want to accept tithing from your church community online, having your own live video platform will help you to set up a secure way to receive offerings from your congregation.
Privacy and security
When you are looking for how to stream church service, one important thing to consider is the security of your live streaming platform. When making your church service available to a worldwide audience, you don’t want any intervention from any third-party with ill intentions. By using a church live streaming software, you can ensure your church live streaming platform with the best security features like password protection, geo-restrictions, AES encryptions, etc.
Getting started with church live streaming
Though the live video is spontaneous, you need to spend significant time preparing and organizing your content to get the most out of the live church streaming experience.
Here is a short guide that helps you to get familiar with the steps you need to follow to meet your goals.
Research and planning
To start with, you must brainstorm about how and what you are going to live steam and what strategies you can adapt to drive the messages you want to share. Live videos are spontaneous, but to ensure success, quality it is important to do some planning and preparation to make sure everything goes well.
Choose which programs in your church are best suited for live streaming. The easiest way to start is to live stream your Sunday service. However, you can offer more value to your congregation if you consider adapting more programs for live streaming. For example, the pastor can consider offering a series of sermons directly to the camera to interact with the congregation in real-time. Or you can consider live streaming special programs in the church like baptism, marriages, special occasions, etc.
Set your expectations and goals
Before even buying essential live streaming equipment, set your expectations and goals regarding how you want your church live streaming and what you want to achieve with it. By setting your goals, you can also measure how well church broadcast services are working in favor of your church.
For example, are you aiming to expand your reach from 100 viewers to 1000 online viewers every week? Or do you want to increase your church membership or online tithing? Or you just want to increase engagement with your current congregation. Whatever your goals are, set them before getting started with live streaming. By setting the goals and using analytics, you can determine how valuable live streaming actually is for your church’s needs.
Choose the right church live streaming equipment
The first step for a church live stream is to have the best live stream setup for church, for successfully broadcasting your church services live. There are a plethora of options to choose from and it all depends on how much you are ready to spend. For example, you can stream your services with just a smartphone or with an HD camera if the budget allows.
To get the sermon across in a professional set up, you basically require church video equipment like a camera that has recording capabilities with an HDMI output. This is enough if you have a restrictive budget. Additionally, if your budget allows and you want to experiment with high-end video production, you can consider one of the top camcorders that capture video in ultra HD 4k quality. The next essential gear is a microphone that is necessary for a better sound recording. You may need an external microphone to connect to your camera along with a small mixer designed specifically for streaming live videos. This comes in handy in case you want to add multiple audio sources so that you can monitor the tones and volumes.
Other essential church live streaming equipment are:
Good lighting setup
Tripod
HDMI cable
HDMI extender (If your camera is apart from the camera or encoder)
Encoder to compress the raw video content so that it can be transported quickly over the web.
Video Switcher (If you are using multiple cameras)
Choose the best live streaming platform
You need a powerful live streaming platform to host your online church services. To begin with, you can always choose social media platforms like Facebook, YouTube or Instagram if you already have an active presence on these social platforms.
This makes sense not only because these platforms are free but because so many people are actively using it. For example, in the second quarter of 2020, Facebook reported over 2.45 billion monthly active users, according to Statista.
With over 2 billion monthly active users, YouTube live streaming is also another option that many churches take advantage of already. However, all of these free social live streaming platforms won’t replace the immense advantages of streaming your church service on your own live streaming platform.
If you want to build your live church streaming platform, that too on an affordable budget, the most viable option is to consider using a readymade script that is easily available in the market. These readymade live streaming solutions come with all essential features to stream your services to your congregation, monetization options, access to source code, and lifetime support. You can easily conduct Sunday services, bible studies, host prayer meetings, sermons, live stream gospel, conduct Sunday school, and offer all church-related services in your church live streaming platform.
Start slow and grow
When it comes to church live streaming, it is recommended to start slow and grow with time. Do your research to gain insights on best practices when you are just getting started with live streaming. You can decide to stream the entire Sunday services or just choose to broadcast our preaching or special sermons alone. Or if there are announcements you would like to give to your church members or specific issues you want to address if any, you can consider broadcasting your church programs live to potentially reach a global audience.
Test it out
Before you actually go live practice what you are planning to deliver, especially if you are live streaming your church service for the first time, that too to an exclusive live audience. Make it a practice to test the quality of your live streaming set up by checking the audio and video quality and other aspects to make sure everything is functioning well. Unless you test it out, you would never know how the audio, video, light, and background noise works. Check different camera angles and adjust the lighting to understand what works and what doesn’t.
Spread the word through social media
If a church service is broadcasted live on the internet and there is no one to watch it, it won’t make any impact. Your congregation can tune in to your online church services only if they know when and where to find it. So make sure to put in some work to spread the word through social media to increase the exposure. Share the information about your church live broadcast on your website, social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.
Make your online audience an integral part of your broadcast
As you have chosen the right gear, live streaming services, announced the live stream on your website and social platforms, now you are ready for action. The faces in front of you are the top priority. When you are streaming your church services, make sure you address your online audience and make them an active part of your service. An occasional nod to the camera and acknowledgment of your online congregation can go a long way.
Conclusion
The COVID-19 pandemic has really challenged many churches but it isn’t stopping them from preaching the word. While it is a learning curve for all churches, they are getting started with live streamingto minister to the people and connect with the church community. Live streaming comes in handy when it comes to spreading the word about your church services online and encouraging more people to join your community. Many churches have tried church live streaming and in turn, have experienced a decreased number of leaving members.
Live streaming not just engages the congregation who cannot physically attend the sermons, but they also bring the church straight peoples heart and inspire them to join your live services. To start with live streaming your church services, it is not mandatory to invest in a high quality set up. Just make sure you use a professional quality live streaming solution that comes with feature-rich functionalities that helps you to live streaming your church services efficiently. With a great live streaming solution in place, you can end up bringing in thousands of people around your online church services regardless of what gear you use. If you are looking for the best church live streaming software to broadcast your live services, we are here to guide you through the process. Get in touch with us right now!
By now, it is common knowledge that the COVID-19 pandemic has led to a big shift in online media consumption, in all forms. Businesses across the online entertainment space are spending a lot of effort to keep users engaged. Video streaming statistics show that the online streaming services market is projected to grow to $149.96 billion during 2020-2024 progressing at 18% during the period.
Online consumers, particularly users of Disney + and Netflix are spending dramatically more time browsing these services. Platforms streaming video on demandcontinue to invest in creating their own movies and TV series to cater to their growing user bases as it is becoming increasingly important to understand the changing interest of viewers as the pandemic continues.
As we already know, people are spending more time online during the Coronavirus pandemic. 55% of online video streamers said that they have been viewing videos while 47% of viewers spend more time watching broadcast TV. Whereas, over 42% of viewers said that they have been watching streaming services more during the pandemic. This data also indicates that people have discovered new interests during the pandemic.
The impact of Coronavirus pandemic on viewing habits
Online users seem to escape the continued anxiety around the Coronavirus outbreak by spending more time on online media and increasing the time they spend on digital devices and video streaming platforms. Although each streaming video on demand service attracts viewers looking for different types of content, many have been discovering new genres they never thought they would enjoy. We have gathered together a series of data insights across the video streaming spectrum to understand key patterns of how viewers are responding to the current changes. If you are looking for how to start a video streaming business, analyzing these insights can help you deliver high-quality viewing experiences for your viewers in times of pandemics like these.
Users like it when genres blend
In the initial days of the Coronavirus outbreak, Netflix dominated the video streaming landscape with its own show, Tiger King. The show covers documentary, crime, and cringe comedy which might have contributed to its success. It seems like Netflix users of today want to see more content in diverse categories. Most users prefer watching fantasy content, adventure, documentary, or drama. The Majority of Netflix viewers spend more time on the streaming platform exploring multiple genres. This implies that if you are building a VOD platform, it is important to integrate a diverse range of content in your streaming service to satisfy the varied interest of your audience.
Need for better streaming quality
Sudden increase in the number of viewers can have drastic effects on the quality experience that viewers have. As the traffic increases, the streaming quality must increase as well. To understand how the traffic affects streaming quality, you must understand video streaming and how it works. Video streaming allows viewers to watch videos without actually downloading the media. With the use of content delivery networks, video providers must be able to improve streaming performance and reduce the buffering time according to the incoming traffic.
So how does online streaming work? Just like any other information that is broadcasted over the internet, video streams are broken down to small chunks of data packets. Each data chunk contains a small piece of the file that is sent to the video player of the client device’s browser that interprets the flow of the data. When compared to transmitting text-based content over the content, sending videos calls for a faster method of transmission which gives importance to reliability over speed. Hence the VOD platforms must have the right technology and tools to handle the traffic spikes in the VOD platform.
What are people watching on VOD platforms?
As online viewers are spending more time at their home during the lockdown they would watch more content, and the type of content being streamed will also be altered.
Let’s look into the type of content people are watching and the changing viewer behaviors during the current pandemic.
News
The interest of viewers in live news content is increasing. As the whole world prepares for the pandemic, people tune in to video streaming platforms to tune into current news. The main topics of focus onVOD platforms are politics, world news, entertainment, technology, science and health, business, and sports. Most news streaming platforms cover multiple sides of sites thus giving the viewers balanced and fair coverage, which is what most viewers are looking for.
Religious content
In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, religions are embracing online communities and live streaming to connect with the congregation. While the transition was easy for congregations that had embraced digital tools and live streaming, others have struggled to adjust to the digital experience. However, the advanced modern technology and the ease of access toVOD platforms allow making this transition smooth for all.
A decade ago, religious websites were not commonly used by people, but today considering the global lockdown and restrictions to access the church has caused a significant increase in the adoption of religious streaming services by people across the globe. Video streaming statistics show that about one out of five adults consumes Christian online media on a daily basis.
Fitness
The COVID-19 pandemic has left millions of people around the world adjusting to life indoors. As fitness studios are shut down, most of them are shifting their classes online In response to the pandemic, a variety of video on demand services have emerged to ensure people can continue working out while social distancing. Popular fitness studios across the globe are offering their customers online services instead. If you are planning on how to start a video streaming business, you can consider building a fitness platform if you are already in the fitness industry.
Here is the share of adults who watch more online exercise videos during social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S.
The COVID-19 has changed how sports fans participants engage in sports events online. Some sports leagues have resumed with others to follow as the fans cannot gather in the galleries until the spread of Coronavirus is under control. Sports broadcasts are harnessing the power of technology to connect both online and offline fans to present the sport in a much more attractive and engaging way during and after the pandemic.
Conclusion
The culture has gone virtual in the new norm of COVID-19 pandemic and social distancing which can be seen in the rise in usage of VOD platforms and Facebook and Instagram Lives. The worldwide lockdown has also led to a shift in viewer behavior, specifically in terms of demographics. However, these are testing times for both viewers and video providers alike. In unpredicted circumstances like these, the need for a backup plan, accurate, and reliable data is becoming more important than ever.
Video streaming providers who can react quickly to the streaming needs of their viewers have the unique opportunity to connect with users as they adapt to new scenarios. If you are planning to start a video streaming business, now is the right time as the future of streaming is quite bright. If you are looking for any guidance to get started with your video streaming business, please get in touch with us, our expert team is here to guide you through the entire process.
Video streaming, both on-demand and live are essential tools for businesses of all types. As major networks and studios continue to launch their streaming services, you need to offer content libraries broad to attract new customers and retain existing customers.
Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic is contributing to the remarkable growth of video streaming marketing due to the rising adoption of streaming as more people are subscribing to these entertainment platforms. To point out, the video streaming market is expected to grow from $42.60 billion in 2019 at an annual growth of 20.4% from 2020 to 2027.
Here is what Asia pacific video streaming market size looks like from 2016-2017.
Considering this immense growth of the industry, many digital media and broadcast providers are putting in their efforts to build new platforms for customers to access different types of content like music, videos, and other types of entertaining and informative content. The emergency situation COVID-19 has positively impacted global video streaming growth and the adoption of white-label video streaming in general.
What is white-label video streaming?
A white label product is something that is manufactured by one company and sold to other companies to be reused and sold as their own. When it comes to video streaming, white-label streaming means broadcasting your content with customized features and branding of your own.
Simply put, white-label is a term that refers to something without branding. For example, a video streamed from youtube will have its logo on the player.
Now, what is a white-label platform? A white-label video platform is an online video platform that comes equipped with a white-label video player and the necessary tools to customize it according to your needs. When your audience watches your content, they will associate your brand with the content and not the service you used to host or stream it.
With easy-to-navigate online video platforms and new integrations, white-label video streaming no more requires technical expertise to get started. Whether you are offering video on demand or live streaming solutions, you can benefit from a white-label streaming service to promote your unique video content.
Advantages of using a white label video streaming
The advantages of white label streaming to business are several. While label streaming platforms do not just offer professional video players for video on demand and live streaming solutions, it also offers offer branding solutions, video monetization, and a lot more.
In particular, white-label video streaming allows you to add your logo to your video content which helps to facilitate greater recognition of your brand to your audience. It also supports the aesthetic and functional personalization of the website in terms of colors and dimensions. The fundamental idea of white-label streaming is to allow broadcasters to maintain ownership of their content through the streaming process both from the customer and legal perspective. Not just that, there are more advantages to white label video streaming. Let’s look into those.
Control over the content
You might have heard stories of videos or live streams taken down from major platforms without any prior warning. The problem might not be always about copyrighted content. Your content could still be taken down even if you own the copyright or follow the rules. Paid solutions generally don’t monitor the content in the same automated way like social media platforms or other free services do. With white label video streaming, you have control over the content and if you meet all legal requirements, you can reduce the risk of your content being taken down without any explanations.
Advertisement free watching experience
Most free platforms allow you to host your content for free. Instead of a monthly fee, you pay for it by allowing advertising on your videos. But, you won’t have any control over the content of advertisements either. It could be advertisements of your competitors or something not relatable to your content.
In both cases, you might lose your customers to your competitors. If you have watched videos on youtube you might have noticed the advertisements that come before the content, in the middle, or at the end. Some ads might be non-skippable as well so your audience might stop watching your videos. With white-label platforms, you won’t have to give someone else the control to interrupt your content.
You choose the quality
Free services put limits on what you can upload or stream Thye can limit the file size, playing time, bitrate, or support a few video formats. When it comes to live streaming, it can restrict the resolution, streaming time, bitrate, and the number of viewers. However, white-label streaming serviceallows you to choose the quality of your videos, streaming time, resolution, playtime, and other factors that you cannot get with a free service with limitations.
Control over video placement
Withwhite label platforms, there are no limitations on content placement. If you want to place your videos on the homepage of the site, you can place it there. Or if you want to put your videos behind a paywall, you are free to do it as well. The player you use is customizable so you can personalize it to deliver the viewing experience you want.
Video monetization
With a built-in paywall of the white-label platform, you can accept payment in the player and your viewers can easily pay for the video content. This built-in paywall integration allows you to control rates, offer exclusive offers, and offer easy access to your content.
Conclusion
If you are planning to invest in creating videos for your business, it is worth using a white-label platform that allows you to maintain control and ownership of your content.
These affordable streaming solutions are designed to offer your streaming services the support you need to establish a successful position in the industry. With white-label streaming, you can customize your video player with your branding, colors you like, monetization integrations, and more. Not sure whether to use awhite label streaming service or not? If you need assistance in choosing a white label solution for your video streaming business, get in touch with us for further guidance.
The transition that is happening in the digital landscape where people are consuming videos more than ever before offers a lot of new opportunities for businesses. The strong increase in internet speeds and devices that supports high-quality video consumptions is giving viewers more control over when and where to watch a video. With the trend of watching videos through smartphone apps gaining remarkable attention, an entire industry based on on-demand video streaming platforms has emerged in recent years. Content providers can leverage these opportunities by providing their offerings via VOD platforms.
If that is not enough, there are 7 reasons to start a video on demand business in 2020.
1. Demand Never Drops
Just have a look at the incredible numbers of Netflix to know that it has already replaced the broadcast TV as the center of peoples viewing culture. With over183 million subscribers spread across the globe, Netflix features the highest-rated entertainment shows.
In the recent coronavirus quarantine times, all home entertainment services like Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime, Hulu, etc. are seeing higher viewership and increased member growth. If you are thinking about how to start a video on demand business, there is no better time than now. There are reasons for that- this demand is never going to end, but is only expected to rise tremendously in the coming years.
2. Flexibility and Convenience
Video on demand platforms like Netflix is accessible to everyone, anywhere, and at any time. Users can access the VOD platform with a single button click using the device of their choices like smartphones, laptops, desktops, tablets, or connected TV. No matter how wide is your user base, all of them can enjoy unlimited access. Offering worldwide connectivity and accessibility means you will have a broad global audience and can grow your business as a profitable one.
3. Quick and Low-Cost Setup
It is true that if you are developing an on demand video streaming platform from scratch, your VOD platform can cost you thousands of dollars. However, you necessarily don’t have to follow this development approach.
Consider creating a subscription video on demand service using a white label solution to customize your VOD platform according to your requirements. All the basic and advanced features would be included in the purchase and you can customize the design and features. When you start out, begin with minimal features and add better functionalities as you grow. Like every business, you need to consider some operating costs as well like domain and hosting.
4. It is really profitable
Having your VOD business is a lucrative revenue stream that can help you make a lot of money. Your content needs to be really good though, and you have to invest in marketing efforts to bring in audiences. If you are planning to create a subscription video on demand service, you receive a steady stream of income of every month provided that you have a stable user base.
Let’s look at some of the common VOD business models.
Subscription Video On Demand
Subscription video demand is the most common business model followed by most VOD businesses. This business model facilitates users to access TV shows and movies. Popular VOD platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime provide monthly subscriptions through multiple accounts so that up to 4 persons can access the platform through the same account on different devices.
Advertisement Video On Demand
Another business model is an advertisement-supported video on demand where users can access videos for free along with advertisements that play at the beginning, middle, or at the end of the video. For example, YouTube works primarily on this business model. You can use this business model for your on demand video streaming platform if you want to gain more users when you are starting out as the content is offered for free. However, if you don’t have good viewership, the income earned would be quite low. Another alternative is to use the advertising business model in combination with SVOD or TVOD which is going to be briefed below.
Transactional Video On Demand
Transactional video on demand is one of the flexible business models that allow you to enable customers to pay for each video they watch instead of subscribing to a package for unlimited users. Not all users might be interested in paying for accessing the entire content library. Instead, they would just prefer to watch the content they like. iTunes and YouTube are examples of TVOD business models.
5. You have Full Creative Control
If you are a media brand or an independent content creator, on demand video streaming platform of your own will give you complete control over the creatives. There are no guidelines you have to abide by, you create your own rules. You have the flexibility to set rules, design your platform the way you want, add the features you like without having to compromise your creative vision.
And, if you create movies, you don’t have to wait for streaming services like Netflix to buy your films. By putting up your creations on your VOD platform, you can control distribution, marketing, and pricing.
6. Offers Valuable Insights
Being a media brand that produces content, you need to constantly work on improving the customer experience as you expand. Setting up an on demand video streaming platform is not just an effective way to connect with your target audience, but is also a great platform to gain valuable insights about customer’s interests and preferences. VOD platforms come with in-built analytics and reporting tools that help you to collect customer data, including their viewing behavior, browsing history, watching time, etc. A well-structured video on demand business allows you to collect significant data from your audience which you can later use to improve customer experience and thereby refine your offerings.
7. You can Create a Passionate Online Community
If you take any of the popular video on demand platforms, they all have a strong online community which makes them prominent in the market. For example, if you take Netflix, the VOD giant has over 22.8 million followers on Instagram whom they engage using interactive images, memes, and videos.
Likewise, by creating a subscription video on demand service, you can also build a community around your niche that you are passionate about. It is easy to bring people together around a topic they love and creating a community that is passionate in that niche is one of the strong and profitable reasons to start a VOD business.
Creating your Video on Demand Platform
If you want to start a video on demand business, the first step is to create a full-fledged VOD platform to power your business. You might be surprised to learn that creating your own on demand video streaming platform is easy and affordable. If you are looking for faster deployment at effective costs, consider creating your VOD website using white label solutions. White label solutions are readymade scripts or clone scripts with all the standard features of Netflix. StreamView is the finest clone solution to launch your Netflix like website for your users.
With StreamView, you can customize your website to suit all your requirements from adding features to modifying the front-end UI. Integrate features like support for unlimited users and videos, multiple upload channels, dynamic admin panel, multiple monetization channels, PayPal payment gateway integration, native android, and iOS app, etc.
Conclusion
With online video consumption increasing rapidly,92% of marketersbelieve that on demand videos are an important part of their marketing strategy. If you are a video production brand considering venturing into the niche of video on demand in 2020, think no further. And with advanced technology, it’s easier to do. Make sure you fend the requirements of your viewers through your VOD platform with custom features and functionalities that attracts them to your website. It is not just about the content you have in your VOD platforms, it’s about the experience you offer to your viewers. If you are looking for further assistance in building your VOD platform, get in touch with us. We will help you take your dream further.
The popularity of video on demand has revolutionized the way videos are viewed and broadcasted over the web. VOD allows people to watch videos from any internet-enabled device at the time convenient to users. The convenience of viewing entertaining content, educational tutorials, etc. from virtually on any devices from anywhere is the beauty of VOD.
VOD is transforming itself from a marketing technique and evolving into a famous business model. While Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, etc. are mainstream brands that have built their businesses around VOD but an increasing number of businesses of all sizes and niches are making it a key part of their business model. You can make your videos exclusively available to everyone online or your subscribers only. Basically, the content will remain online and in most cases, extensive video libraries are created.
In this blog, let’s explore in-depth on how to choose the best VOD platform with powerful features and interactive tools that enhances the virtual experience for your audience.
Why is Video Demand Important for Businesses?
Reports show that the video streaming industry is a lucrative one that is expected to be $70.5 billion by 2021. However, it is not just the business model, but also the efficacy of the VOD platform that makes it very popular. If you are a video production company with a competent business plan, you can start your own VOD platform to secure your own space in the market. Not just media companies, fitness brands, sports brands, educators, food bloggers, etc. have scope to develop their VOD platform to present excellent ways to generate profit from video content instead of just offering it as an addition to basic content. For example, Nia TV is a great example. Nia TV is an on demand fitness platform that offers users at-home workouts and podcasts to embrace a fit lifestyle.
Choosing the Best Video On Demand Platform Providers
Before launching your video on demand platform, you will have to build a strong library of videos especially if you are going to implement a subscription-based business. You must have a vast library of content your users feel worth to invest in. If you don’t have a large library but want you to launch your business, you can start with an advertisement or pay per view business model allowing your users to watch videos for free or pay for individual videos alone respectively.
While you can leverage free platforms like YouTube which has a built-in audience, creating your VOD websites is the best bet if you want to generate revenue by selling videos online and bringing more visitors to your website.
When you want to develop a VOD platform, it is equally important to choose the best video on demand platform providers. Choosing a white-label video streaming solution that can be personalized according to the requirements of your business is the best bet. Here are some of the important features to look for in your VOD solution to ensure you are signing up for the best deal that offers value for the money you spent.
Intuitive Search and Smart Recommendations
Intuitive search and smart video recommendations are one of the most important features of any on demand video streaming platform. Intuitive search allows to predict the query in real-time as the user types and suggests the videos similar to videos users are looking for. It also helps to search for videos using titles, categories, subcategories, and genre along with the ability to search for users in their username. Smart and personalized video recommendations are yet another important feature that delivers videos that match to the viewer’s preferences and search history
Unlimited Video Uploads and Categories
A good enterprise video streaming solution must be scalable enough to cater to your growing business. It must support unlimited video uploads and categories regardless of the niche.
Multi-Screen Support
Look for a solution that offers support for multiple devices to deliver a multi-screen viewing experience with the power of technology. There are video on demand platform providers who offer support for Android TV, along with Android and iOS apps, tablets, and other digital devices.
Reliable Video Streaming Server
Look for a service provider that supports reliable streaming no matter the device your users use or the network condition. If you want to know how to set up a video streaming server, it is important to know the quality of streaming you want to deliver. Ngnix server is an open-source web server that is used by some of the biggest enterprises like Google, Adobe, Autodesk, Cisco, Apple, Intel, LinkedIn, DuckDuckGo, and more. Nginx server effortlessly converts the HTTP format to HLS and RTMP format for the website, Android, and iOS respectively.
As the strong points of this streaming server are performance optimization and high concurrency and low memory usage, it outperforms other web servers. Some of the common features of this video streaming server are.
Load balancing
Asynchronous processing
Reverse proxy with caching
Web sockets
FastCGI support with caching
SEO Friendly
To run a successful on demand video streaming platform, one of the important factors your enterprise video solution must have is SEO optimization. It must feature SEO optimizations that enable you to bring in more traffic and thereby more exposure to your video platform. Any user who searches for the videos in your platform must be able to easily find it with any common search engines. This is when an SEO friendly solution helps you to optimize your content and videos on Google and Bing.
Diverse Monetization Channels
An enterprise video streaming solution must be the one that allows supporting multiple monetization channels. Accelerate your revenue generation with monetization models like subscription-based, advertisement-based, transaction model (Pay-per-view), and hybrid monetization model. Flexible monetization support (like the one YouTube offers) allows your platform to monetize through both audio and video streaming efficiently.
Payment Integrations
If you are seriously thinking about how to start a video on demand business, you must expect your platform to cater to users with diverse payment requirements. While some of your users prefer to make payments on your video platform using credit cards, some might prefer to use online wallets.
Make sure you don’t miss out on any of your users just because they don’t find the most commonly available payment integrations in your video platform. Also ensure that the payment gateway you choose supports different monetization channels like subscription-based, ad-based, and pay-per-view, or a hybrid model that supports your business goals. A secure payment gateway will also make sure it supports different payment methods and make collecting payments from users simpler.
Dynamic Admin Panel
To run your video streaming business flexibly, you need to have full control over your business. A dynamic admin panel is the most significant aspect that helps you to control your account, videos, and users on your video platform.
It also helps in controlling the monetization aspects of your platform and collecting commissions. A powerful admin panel will also allow you to convert high-resolution videos to a lower resolution when uploading the videos if necessary making the uploading process fast and smooth.
Referral Programs
When you are launching an on demand video streaming platform, it is important to gain new users and referral codes work great for this purpose. Recommendations help to bring in new users to your video platform. When a new user registers to your video website using a referral code, your platform can offer some credits to them which will be stored in a built-in wallet. Look for an enterprise video streaming solution that offers this important feature.
Native Android and iOS Application
As we live in a smart digital world, a good number of your users would be those who use mobile devices to watch videos. This is exactly why you need native Android and iOS apps for your video streaming platform to increase your business exposure and promote the growth of your brand. Mobile apps can also be leveraged as a powerful marketing tool in researching and targeting your potential customers.
Analytics and Reports
The best enterprise video streaming solution features built-in tools for powerful analytics to track the performance of your videos and the platform in general. With this feature, you can easily determine what type of videos are driving more views to your video platform and facilitating better engagement. By analyzing the behavior of your users, you can bring in more exposure and revenue to your business.
Security
The security of your communications is critical. Choose video on demand platform providers who offer solutions with multiple layers of security natively built into the solution like a restriction to access page source elements and console, geofencing, etc. Deploy secure experiences that delight your users with safe and secure navigation, search, and video delivery across all platforms and devices.
Lead the Video Streaming Industry with your On-Demand Video Streaming Platform
Redefine the way entertainment is delivered to your customers by building your own video on demand platform. If you are looking for how to start a video on demand business, choose StreamView which is one of the best VOD solutions that facilitates creating a professional video website for a competitive price.
Being a white label VOD solution, it allows you to launch a highly customizable and scalable video platform. StreamView enables you to launch your VOD business quickly with a professional website and mobile apps without putting in a hefty amount of money. Standard back end structure and powerful built-in features allow you to launch your project with ease. You get the complete source code and advanced technology for a single time payment.
StreamView allows you to create a platform that is simple and intuitive to use and can be easy for people with no advanced technical knowledge. Pre-built templates are available to display your videos, which can be customized according to your requirements. Additionally, it also provides all the above mentioned important features to deliver the best possible user experience to your customers.
Conclusion
Hope this blog has helped you figure out the best on demand video streaming platform for your requirements. To make your final choice, take advantage of the free trials to test all the features, and to see if it is compatible with your business needs. If you are looking for an enterprise video solution that matches your unique business requirements, we are here to help you.
The greatest secret of a successful video streaming business lies in its business model. A company’s revenue model is the way it makes money. When choosing a revenue model, most businesses wait until the very end of development and simply look at what industry leaders are doing, altering it slightly. But when considered carefully the revenue model can be a very powerful tool and it is highly important to shape it according to your business needs. If you want to create your own Netflix, you must choose the revenue strategy that compliments your streaming business.
Netflix’s annual revenue in 2018 has hit $15.8 billion continuing to secure the impressive figures Netflix enjoyed over the last decade. By the last quarter of 2019, Netflix generated total revenue of $5.2 billion which is over $1 billion up from what it earned in the corresponding quarter of 2018.
If you are looking to find out how to start a video on demand website, we will be briefing it in this blog. The business model of Netflix, popular revenue models to follow, costs involved in creating your own Netflix also comes under the scope of this blog. Let’s get started.
Netflix Business Model
What Netflix succeeds at is known as video on demand, by allowing users to access content like TV shows, movies, and other series instantly through Internet-connected devices like PC, laptop, tablets, smartphones, over the top box connected TV, Internet-connected TV, etc.
This video streaming on demand giant operates on a subscription-based revenue model where users pay for a monthly, quarterly, or yearly subscription plan and gain access to streaming movies, shows, originals and other content available on Netflix in the Standard Definition (SD), High Definition (HD) and Ultra HD quality based on what they pay for.
The primary revenue source for Netflix is subscriptions. That is, users pay to access content on Netflix and that is how the company makes money. Learning more about the Netflix business model will significantly help you in choosing the best revenue model for your VOD business. Netflix offers 3 different plans for users based on the streaming quality of the content provided.
Basic– This plan offers access to content in SD quality.
Standard– This plan offers HD content access to subscribers.
Premium– This plan allows users to access videos in ultra HD quality.
Popular Video-on-Demand Revenue Models
The very first step of learning how to start a streaming service like Netflix is to choose the right monetization model for your VOD platform. What is the best way to charge users to access your content? In this blog, we are going to break down common VOD revenue models so that it becomes easy for you to choose the best one that suits you. Let’s get started.
Subscription Video On Demand (SVOD)
The subscription video on demand business model is the one that allows users to access an entire library of videos for a recurring fee. This fee may be charged weekly, monthly or even annually. Once a user subscribes to the service, they can watch as many videos as they want until the subscription period ends. Netflix follows this model to monetize its services. Subscriptions are auto-renewable and users have the flexibility to cancel them anytime. This model suits platforms that have a huge variety of entertainment content like movies, TV shows, drama series, TV programs, etc. to engage their audience on a long term basis.
Pros
One of the biggest advantages of SVOD is the recurring revenue stream that ensures a steady income every month. It also gives you the chance to upsell your users to bigger packages getting more money for your business.
Cons
While SVOD offers great chances to upsell, it becomes hard to upsell from a cancellation. That means once a subscriber cancels the plan, it can be difficult to bring them back to your platform.
Advertisement Video On Demand (AVOD)
Advertisement VOD is the business model where viewers are allowed to watch videos for free but they must watch advertisements at different points throughout the length of the video. Ads are powerful and advertisers generally pay huge amounts for streaming their ads on your video on demand platform. You can also choose your ad pricing depending on your platform’s popularity and the type of content to be chosen for the ad.
If you are just thinking about how to start a streaming service, it is recommended to design your services based on the ad-based business model. As your VOD platform gains more users, you can expand to other monetization models eventually.
VOD ads are broadly categorized into pre-roll, mid-roll and post-roll ads. As the name suggests pre-roll ads refer to the ones that play at the beginning of a video. Whereas, mid-rolls play ads in the middle of a video and post-rolls play ads at the end of a video. These ads are generally skippable or non-skippable in nature depending on how the ad network chooses to keep them. YouTube works primarily based on this revenue model.
Pros
AVOD works the best if you are new to the business as it brings in additional revenue with very little investment of your money and effort. This is one of the most common and easy ways to generate passive income.
Cons
As ads are everywhere online, too many of them can annoy your viewers.
Transactional Video On Demand
The transactional VOD business model allows you to buy content on a pay per view basis. It is exactly the opposite of what SVOD is. Instead of paying for the entire content, viewers are required to pay for only the content they want to view, buying a piece of individual content also facilitates users to keep it with themselves either on your VOD platform or download to their personal devices. Alternatively, TVOD can also allow users to rent a piece of content from a video streaming platform for a period of time and once the period expires, they will not be able to access the same content again. The transactional model works with live programming where users purchase a particular piece of content to view it. WWE streaming service is an example.
Pros
In TVOD, there is no confusion in understanding what your users prefer. You can easily understand whether there is a great demand for a particular video or a type of content. It also brings in better revenue opportunities for new content releases.
Cons
In the TVOD model, user retention is a common problem as users have a tendency to pay for particular content and then go off the platform. For the same reasons, it is difficult to push users to purchase new content.
Hybrid Video-On-Demand Model
When you have a vast library of videos and your platform is getting popular day by day, you can implement a hybrid of different revenue strategies to monetize your videos. You can choose a hybrid of AVOD, SVOD, TVOD, or any combination that works for you. If your audience base is deferred and you want different monetization models to target to suit the needs of different types of audiences, it is best to opt for a hybrid VOD model. You might have a large set of audience who don’t want to pay for accessing content but won’t mind watching ads in between and vice versa. YouTube is one of the best examples of a Hybrid VOD platform. It doesn’t just rely on advertisements to monetize. YouTube Premium is an example.
Is SVOD the Best VOD Model to Make Money?
Subscription video on demand is the most common type of VOD service offered by streaming platforms. In 2017, 55% of Americans were using Netflix and 31 % were using Amazon Prime video service.By 2022, it is estimated that over 568.4 million users would be using these platforms. While SVOD is not the only realm of streaming giants like Amazon, Hulu, and YouTube, many new VOD businesses are using subscription models to grow their income and audience.
If you are looking for different ways on how to start a company like Netflix, it is not mandatory to follow the exact path of Netflix. Choosing the revenue model that suits your business and your target audience is the ideal way to go for it. Next, let’s look into the popular revenue models in the market and understand what suits your business the best.
Costs Involved in Running a Streaming Business
The question of how to make money using a live streaming app and how much you can make cannot be answered without learning about the cost of expenses and expenditure a streaming business has to incur to get these profits.
Licensing Cost
To stream popular shows and movies in a legal manner, video streaming websites have to bear a cost to license and acquire content which differs for different types of content. For instance, Netflix reportedly paid $100 million to keep the popular series “Friends” on its service for 2019, almost three more than its previous licensing fee of $30 million.
Production Cost
Unless you are planning to acquire content from content creators, you have to bear production costs for creating your own originals. Offering original series is a great way to evade licensing costs and offer exclusive content to your users. However, the production costs can go higher when producing your own content.
Marketing Costs
Once your platform is up and running on the internet, you have to compete with N number of streaming platforms including giants like Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, etc. Beating the competition involves a lot of marketing expenditure. Marketing costs primarily including the expense for advertisements, payments to affiliates and device partners, and the trial month fee of every user.
Research and Development Cost
Every popular streaming website invests in the research and development department. For example, Netflix focuses a lot on research and development and that is one of the reasons why they are pioneers in the market with just a subscription-based business model.
Technology and Development Cost
From the moment you create a movie streaming website and have users visiting your site, you must ensure a seamless and lag-free viewing experience to all of them. Netflix has partnered with hundreds of Internet service providers to localize a substantial amount of traffic. Technology and development costs make up a major portion of the overall cost you have to bear.
It also includes streaming delivery technology costs and the costs involved in designing new applications and other infrastructural costs. Regarding the video streaming server costs of Netflix, it uses its own content delivery network (CDN) called Open Connect, but also depends on the service of top tier CDN Akamai. Data is stored in Amazon Web Services (AWS) where terabytes of storage can be deployed to a thousand servers quickly. It is important to leverage the services of a good content delivery network even if you are not planning on growing fast because you are eventually going to scale.
CDN offers guaranteed delivery of content to users through a geographically distributed network of servers. It transforms your streaming website into a scalable system to meet any major viewership spike in demand for your content.
General and Administrative Costs
These costs include the payroll and other expenses on the human resources of the business as well and the partnership fee needed for the administrative purposes of the company.
Miscellaneous Fee
Besides all of these costs, there can be other miscellaneous costs like payment processing fees.
How To Price Your Content The Right Way?
Behind any successful revenue model stands a well-designed pricing scheme. It is one of the most critical elements of any business strategy, especially for SVOD services. If you are looking for how to make a movie website like Netflix, pricing your content is one of the important aspects to consider.
Pricing video will always be a work in progress and with the constant changes in the market, you need to experiment with different approaches. You will get to know your customers and their spending habits as time goes by. To help you with this, here are some tips to choose the right pricing scheme.
Consider Value and Customer Satisfaction
Building a pricing model based on the value and customer satisfaction will help you make your VOD platform as sustainable as possible. Additionally, offer your users enough choices that will help you to retain existing users while attracting a new audience. Approaches including tiered pricing, freemium, or consumption-based pricing will help your viewers commit to a plan that suits their personal preferences and needs.
Analyze Your Revenue Goals
It is significant to understand how much would your video on demand business be making in monthly revenue. Make sure to include overhead costs to your goal.
Consider The Size of Existing Followers
Once you have created a movie streaming website and gathered in a few users, analyze the size of your audience. How big is your current audience and measure the number of followers you have on social media? How many contacts you have on your email list.
For this formula, use the total number of followers from each individual platform. Your existing audience or the ones you are currently not monetizing is the main revenue potential you are going to focus on as they are our biggest supporters.
Start With A Low Price Window
If it’s your first time monetizing your services, aim for a low pricing formula. The most successful customers offer monthly subscription prices anywhere between $2-$50.
Industry and Genre Must Be Considered
The nature of your content will have a direct impact on how you price your content. The best thing is to start with basic market research to see what other subscription video services with niche similar to you are charging their customers. If you are planning to charge higher than your biggest direct competitor, you must be sure that your services are with a significant difference and offer more value to your users in terms of the quality of services. The next thing to consider is your Content type and genre. Each type of content has an industry price average that you must consider unless you offer content that’s obviously more valuable.
Niche and Specificity Matters
Niche content or micro-niche content to be specific is valued high due to its ideal audience. While small and limited, if a service is very focused on a particular niche, users usually won’t mind paying for that extra bit.
How to Start a Streaming Service Like Netflix?
You are on the right track of building a streaming solution to create a movie streaming website customized according to the preferences of your audience. The goal is to delight media consumers and ensure all-time technology support to keep your users happy at all stages.
To build a fully functional streaming website to cater to your global audience, it is best to choose Netflix clone open-source that comes equipped with all the essential features and functionalities. Clone scripts are readymade website script that comes equipped with powerful admin dashboard, web app integration options, Android and iOS native apps to get started in the video streaming industry.
You can choose the best video on demand platform providers to build your VOD platform who will customize their solution to match your preferences and business goals including the revenue model suited for your business.
Choosing A Revenue Model For Your Business
In an increasingly complex digital world. You can build profitable video on demand business by choosing the best revenue models that generate more money than you could ever think. The secret is to find the business model that serves both your customer’s needs and your business goals. Some of the best in the world are listed above and you need to pick the one that suits your requirements. We understand how difficult it gets while choosing the right revenue model when creating your own Netflix and the doubts that come bundled with it which is why we help consult on you the same. Get in touch with us now.
