How To Choose The Perfect Revenue Strategy For Your Streaming Business?

How To Choose The Perfect Revenue Strategy For Your Streaming Business?

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. 

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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. 

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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. 

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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. 

OTT Video Streaming Trends For 2019 That Platforms Must Know

OTT Video Streaming Trends For 2019 That Platforms Must Know

The old concept of prime time has changed over time. Viewers today have a vast catalog of content to choose from, and there are certainly more places to watch the content, too.

The viewership of traditional TV is falling apart as the OTT platform is offering high-level customization to the content browsing experience. OTT refers to over-the-top devices that use the internet instead of traditional cable TV to broadcast and watch TV content. 

In 2019 alone, there are over 182 million OTT subscribers in the US. In this article, we are going to discuss eight powerful trends that have influenced the growth of video streaming. From cutting-edge business models to sophisticated video streaming technologies, we will talk about everything responsible for bringing OTT to the masses. 

Hybrid Monetization Tools

A prerequisite for sustaining an OTT platform is to generate a significant amount of revenue. There are mainly three monetization models that OTT streaming operates on: Advertising model, subscription video-on-demand model, and transactional video-on-demand model.

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YouTube, one of the biggest OTT platforms works on an advertising revenue model. General YouTube users are ready to wait patiently for the Ads to finish before they can watch their favorite video. However, the advertisement model is not suitable for most new players as they don’t have a stable subscriber base to drive this model by volumes. 

The subscription model is offered by major OTT platforms like Amazon Prime and Netflix where users pay a fixed subscription fee to access unlimited content available on the platforms. The major advantage of a subscription on-demand model is that it is convenient to use and you can unsubscribe whenever you want. Transactional on-demand model, on the other hand, offers a broader viewing experience by allowing users to down the content of their choice and pay a single time fee to watch the content of their choice. 

Unlike the advertising and subscription model, the transactional on-demand model does not rely on volumes. Now, live streaming platforms have begun to experiment with hybrid content monetization models and are leveraging multiple opportunities as users are willing to pay for premium content. 

Increasing Demand For Originals

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Netflix changed the game by rolling out House of cards, its first original web television series. The streaming giant has put more emphasis on its programs over the last few years with over 100 Netflix originals. Orange is the new black, American Vandal, Stranger things, Russian doll, Master of none, are some of the popular Netflix originals loved by the audience. Millennials and the new-gen audience are preferring VOD streaming platforms because of the exclusive original content. 

Mobile Surpassing TV as a Primary Content Consumption Medium

Not everyone today watches TV shows on a conventional TV screen. People prefer to watch TV shows and movies on the go on mobiles and tablets. Mobile is emerging as a dominant content consumption channel. For example, a viewer who watches Game of Thrones in his TV screen while at home, whereas streams content directly from mobile devices while traveling.

AI to Make Streaming Better

The OTT industry is expected to leverage the power of artificial intelligence through recommendation engines. The recommendation engine is nothing but an AI-driven extension that keeps a tab on user activities and recommends customized content to subscribers.  This offers your subscribers with a personalized viewing experience curated by a combination of user behaviors like content browsing trend, viewing pattern, when they prefer to watch, preference of genre, etc. 

The Growth Of Niche Services

For the past decade, the OTT market has been dominated by giants like Amazon Prime, Netflix, and soon Apple and Disney will enter the scene. Recently it’s been clear that there is a real opportunity for a niche video content market. Niche platforms are ultra-specialized video-on-demand platforms that directly aim for a targeted audience. They offer independent cinema, niche sports, documentaries, fashion, luxury, children’s animated content, and Auteur cinema, etc. Niche platforms bring together active customers of similar interests around the content that excites them. Be advised that consistency and regular renewal are the keys to success for niche services if you are planning on launching your OTT Platform

Content Goes Hand in Hand With Distribution

The OTT platforms not only focus on the content but also on the distribution side. Those who benefit from the widest distribution will have better chances of winning the stream services competition. For example, Apple plans to launch its own streaming services during fall 2019. Even if it is late to the scene, it can count on its 1.4 billion devices that are already in the market and one its final resources with avid support of Hollywood studios. 

Similarly, AT&T relies on its network of subscribers to promote its warner media services that merge the HBO channel with the turner channels. To establish in the market for long term and to consolidate the business, distribution is an important aspect for OTT platforms. 

The Cloud Revolution

Till a few years back, OTT VOD streaming was a risky affair, but thanks to the cloud revolution, new opportunities arise as cloud simplifies workflows, reduces maintenance, and seeds funding. The development of cloud solutions significantly lowered the costs associated with technical implementation. With that said, now just a 2k subscriber base is sufficient enough to cover the technical costs. This also allows broadcasters to reduce the costs and improve efficiency to a greater level. OTT platforms can be launched and grown quickly without compromising the service quality.

Being Interactive With Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality

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Source: empactlabs.co

Augmented reality and virtual reality have slowly started getting into OTT platforms and have the potential to become a new way of entertainment and engagement. In the future, we will see more live streaming platforms and OTT services depending on hardware manufacturers for the distribution of VR devices as a part of their service. 

One of the most important content segments for OTT is sports, which when combined with AR and VR will increase views. Imagine being able to watch a sports event in VR as if sitting in the stadium. VR is expected to offer an immersive experience that will elevate the brand engagement. 

To build your own OTT business, you need not have to invest too much. You can build your own OTT platform and stream videos using VOD streaming software in an affordable manner. Once the platform is ready, prepare a marketing strategy and focus on branding and promotions. As more people shift to online channels and more businesses join forces in many different ways, the challenge is to identify the opportunities to attract customers and maximize revenue. Taken as a whole, these popular trends affect the OTT ecosystems in significant ways. Where some business players see maturing the market, others see fresh opportunities in these emerging trends to transform their services based on the industry standards. 

Stop Uploading Your Video on YouTube for Free. Start Connecting with Video-On-Demand Platform

Stop Uploading Your Video on YouTube for Free. Start Connecting with Video-On-Demand Platform

YouTube is a powerful video-sharing platform and the most effective way to showcase your creation as it gives better exposure to your videos. There is no denying the fact. As a google affiliated with over a billion users, YouTube is the largest search engine, second to google. However, is it very helpful in making a profit by uploading your videos? When it comes to making a profit, YouTube lacks a lot of things. In this scenario, uploading your videos on Live streaming platform is a great idea to generate more revenue. Instead of uploading your videos on sites like YouTube, you have to take advantage of technology to establish a professional online presence. If you have a live video streaming platform on your own, you can upload your videos without any restrictions from third-party.

Video content providers, here is why you have to create your video on demand platform instead of uploading your video on YouTube for free.

Own Your Creative Work

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Uploading your videos on YouTube will have restrictions on your creatives. What does a video on demand platform mean to Streaming Video Content providers? It must give the creator adequate freedom to decide how the videos must be showcased to users. On your own video platform, no one will remove your videos without letting you know.

You can also decide whether you want to sell video content online for free or for a price. A video on demand website of your own is just like a platform where you have full control of the feel, design, audio, and behavior completely. This is your place where you can invite your audience to create a brand identity by customizing things from header to footer.

Spread Your Influence

If you wonder how to sell video content online, a video on demand platform is a website that allows your audience to buy your creations. You can also integrate your social media profiles on the website which enable you to spread your influence even further. You can take a step to further spread your influence through forums or your website blog. The video-on-demand platform serves as an opportunity to present your creations and people know about your brand even more in detail.

Offer Exclusive Content

If you are a good Video-on-demand content provider, never do it for free. Because you can actually make good revenue from it and offer exclusive content to entice your target audience. For example, if you are a video creator offering fitness content, you can post a preview video of your new workout series. On YouTube, it is possible to offer the initial session of your workout videos as a free demo.

Whereas, on your website, you can sell the entire workout series for a given price. You can also sync the content from your social media on your website. The best part? You can double the benefits by increasing your website reach and video views on your site and on the Live streaming platform as well. Once you have your content forever on your site, it helps in turning your casual visitors to a devoted audience.

Engage With Your Audience

Even the most popular YouTube celebrities have their own website to keep their audience updated. Use your website to engage your audience as the popular influencers do. On your website, you can interact with your audience by keeping them informed about your upcoming events, ticket sales, exciting discounts, tours, etc.

Grow Your Business Potential

A Live streaming platform is the best place to promote your business. Unlike YouTube, if you have your website, you can create newsletters. Through this, your community can receive the first look of your videos and they would always be updated and informed. Additionally, your video platform will help you grow an email subscription list of valuable contacts by adding the info of every user who signs up.

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Leo Laporte has a YouTube channel and now he is a part of the Drupal-powered Twit.tv, an internet podcast network. When you have your own platform, the choices are endless and there are plenty of ways to promote yourself as a brand. No matter what your requirements are- An online portfolio, film trailer site or a production blog, you will have a place to direct your audience too.

How To Implement Video On Demand?

With on-demand platforms, the number of videos and the duration of videos allowed is unlimited. As bandwidth and viewing are unlimited, you don’t have to worry about the costs involved for bandwidth. While the reach of YouTube videos is quite broad considering its popularity, your own video on demand platform allows you to deliver videos to a global market along with a variety of other features. Beyond all, video on demand platforms can allow video content creators to set up their storefront in any language from the landing page to the billing page. It also allows subtitles and closed captioning in any language.

Designing Your Video-On-Demand Platform

Once you have the right foundation, you can start by designing your video-on-demand platform. Consider this as the user experience part of the whole process. You have to design and build all the parts of your website that your customers will come in contact with or see through your marketing strategies. You can add in features like images, layouts, logos and have to stick to the coding framework. Here are some essential features for designing your video-on-demand platform.

Video Focused Platform

When you design an on-demand platform to showcase your videos, the website has to be well equipped to focus on displaying and categorizing your videos.

Mobile Responsive

Your website has to be mobile friendly with responsive themes which adapts to smartphones and tablets.

Static Landing Pages

Create pages on your website for people to subscribe to your mailing list and purchase your products.

SEO Ready

Your website theme must also allow the pages to be SEO ready.

Conclusion

Video on demand is expanding from a marketing strategy and evolving into a business model. Popular video-on-demand platforms like YouTube has a built-in audience, but if you want to generate good income selling videos online, hosting your video on demand platform is the ideal way. Having a video platform facilitates Streaming Video Content providers to keep the viewers informed about the new updates and additions, which is an excellent selling point. On-demand streaming platforms are not only evolving as a significant part of business models, but they are also actually the foundations of most businesses. It is a great way to create a solid user base while making a good ROI by sharing your video creations.

How Live Streaming Platform Dominates the Social Media Landscape

How Live Streaming Platform Dominates the Social Media Landscape

Finding new tactics to grow your business is a daunting task, especially when your competitors do the exact same things. In this scenario, you need to make yourself different. The old marketing strategies won’t help you. The best way to attract your audience is to use new platforms where they engage often. That’s where live streaming comes into the picture. It’s no secret that videos generate lots of traffic, views, and engagement. Though slowly, but surely a live video is getting established as the future of online video marketing,

Live Streaming on Social Media

It all began in 2011 with You Now, a live streaming app started streaming for the first time. Later in 2014, we saw the launch of Snapchat. A year later, Twitter integrated Periscope, a live streaming app into their social platform. Later in 2016, Facebook launched Facebook live and many social media giants including YouTube and Instagram followed it.

Video Grabs More Attention

80% of online users prefer watching a video than reading the content. The number of people staying tuned to live streaming content is increasing too. Popular video content marketers state that they drive 41% traffic higher than others. It reaches 100% more audience than a photo post. All these shows and constant growth in the popularity of live streaming among internet users. Considering the previous year, 2019 will be an even bigger year considering both audience and brands have settled into the format now.

Why Social Media

The majority of brands choose social media as the Live Streaming Platform to host videos for several reasons, as mentioned below.

Social Media Platforms are Free

You need not invest any money for live streaming on any of the social media platforms. Having a smartphone with a good camera, and an internet connection, the mobile app is just enough to start with live streaming. However, if you want a professional grade streaming quality, you can go for professional live streaming applications like Ustream.

It’s Interactive

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Source: skedsocial.com

While live streaming itself is a great engagement booster, social media platforms combine an array of interactive features like live commenting, sharing, stickers and donations. Add it to your profile and users can take part in discussions even after the event is finished. If you are representing a brand, you can also conduct live streams in the form of a chat session or Q & A session to interact with your audience.

Live Video Content Shows to Dominate Social Media Feed

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Source: newsroom.fb.com

Facebook live and Instagram live has received a high uptake. Therefore in social media feeds, in the coming years, we expect to see more video content. Social media uses text and images to express opinions and feelings. With the introduction of live video content on social media, both people and brands prefer video content to express their feelings. Therefore, it is one of the biggest social media trends that are here to stay for long.

With the introduction of a live broadcast on Facebook and Instagram, this trend is gaining traction across all Live Streaming Platforms. Brands have also been using live video content in their marketing campaigns.

Masters of Storytelling Will Dominate Live Streaming

We have been seeing many brands utilizing live streaming to market their products and services. However, the more engaging content is, the chances are high for it to create an impact. We will soon see social media dominated by storytellers.

Wondering how to start a live streaming business? The secret to reaping success with live streaming is sharing stories in a unique way that your users feel the appeal. While individuals take advantage of features like Instagram or Facebook live to share personal stories, the brand will move towards investing in advanced technology like Facebook watch to broadcast their stories through shows.

The Challenges and Drawbacks of Live Video

The most prominent challenge that businesses face with live video content is that they are live. The live content demands authenticity in a way that is not easy for businesses to deal with.

Consider this example- A small business goes live to show the new collections in their store. In the background, you hear noises and disturbances that make it difficult to what is being spoken. Along with such things, live streaming also poses the challenges of unexpected interruptions. Maybe it can be any technical difficulty or interruptions like the phone starts ringing or something else. Or simply, an unexpected disruption comes in the form of you slip up and say something incorrect or even stumble.

With live video, things always happen in live and you can’t go back to re-record the video to make it perfect. This can bring in pressure, but if you follow best practices, you can take care of this.

Live Video Streaming Best Practices

All the live video content best practices come down to preparation. Though it’s live and at the moment, you have to be prepared for it as it would be any client interaction. You have to represent your business well and make a good impression.

Some of the best practices include:

Actually Practicing

Have an idea of what you want to present in the live streaming ahead of time. Go through the content until you are comfortable with it. This makes you comfortable with what you have to present and the chances are less to go blank when you go live.

Have Notecards Handy

Though you have practiced the content and got familiar with it, it is better to keep notecards handy. Have your content written in bullet points so that you can quickly go through what you want to talk in the live video.

Make Sure the Location is Brightly Lit

Choose a location that is quiet and doesn’t have background noises. Similarly, the location must be well lit and free of any possible interruptions.

Announce That You are Going Live Ahead of Time

If you want to improve the views and engagements, let your users know when you are going live before you actually do. For example, Facebook makes it easy with their scheduling features, but even on other social media platforms, you can post a day or so in above. There are facilities to remind users an hour before. Ensure that you cross-promote on other social media platforms, too.

Choose Strong Headline and Descriptions

This helps you stand out and get more viewers. It also keeps users to have an idea about what you will present in your video. As you will have viewers entering and exiting throughout the video, it is recommended to have a clear headline and description so that people understand the essence of your video. The only exception is Instagram, which doesn’t have the option to create descriptions.

Share the Video Later

It is a great idea to save and share your video alter with your users. This maximizes the reach of the video and allows users who couldn’t actually watch you live to listen to your content. You can share the video on other platforms if it meets the time requirements.

How Successful Brands Get Results with Live Streaming in Social Media?

Have a Plan

Live streaming is not about the produced video. It is not a place for polished talks. Start it casually, ask questions to your followers, and have them talk to you. People want to see who you are in real. Live streaming is a real kind of two-way exchange. There is always a market for polished and produced video, but a Live Streaming Platform is not meant for that.

Viewers will have questions and they won’t be ready to wait till you finish. Have a clear strategy on how you will pull it off. When your plan isn’t working, adopt spontaneity by ditching the script. Plan, change, adjust, let go and have fun interacting with your audience.

Let Your Audience Know You Value Them

Once you start the live streaming, welcome your audience and thank them. Tell them how much you care and value them. Use these conversations to make your content strong. Brands who can establish a strong connection with the audience are likely to succeed with their live streaming efforts. This connection makes your viewers believe you. Another great thing with engaging your audience is discovering their needs and using it to sharpen your marketing strategy.

Be Ready to Trust People and Take Risks

Investing in ideas and people are much more important than technology. Invest in and empower your best storytellers. Popular brands conduct short Q&A sessions before a show or match and use live streaming to weigh in behind the scenes or the actual show. The key to finding success with live streaming is to collaborate with others and explore new things. You need not do it alone, you can invite others to extend the reach of your brand to their networks. This requires trusting people.

Demonstrate Business Value for Your Audience

Use the live streaming to initiate conversations, offer your customers significant information, highlight employees and fans. Sharing the behind-the-scenes clips with your audience is yet another way to thank them and help share your brand story. When done right, this gives returns in terms of downloads, publicity, customer engagement, lead generation, and influencer marketing.

Conclusion

The world of live streaming and social media is constantly undergoing changes and deriving new ways to reach customers. Thanks to technological advancements and improvements in networks and connectivity, we can now watch our favorite personalities in real time. Live streaming can cover a large number of topics from video games to sports. Social networking applications and live streaming platforms have introduced new features, giving users a genuine way to connect with brands and celebrities.

What Makes the Netflix a Winning Element- 5 Things You Should Know Before You Start a Streaming Website?

What Makes the Netflix a Winning Element- 5 Things You Should Know Before You Start a Streaming Website?

How did Netflix get there? The streaming world before they enter the market was largely uncharted. Purchasing streaming rights from various production companies is not as easy as it sounds. It can get pricey leaving original programming as the most affordable alternative to take. However, not all streaming services are created the same. Netflix Business Model has somehow managed to stand head and shoulders for a variety of reasons.

This is one common phrase we heard often- “Netflix and chill” But why Netflix? Why not Amazon Prime or Hulu? There are plenty of websites and applications that allow viewers to watch movies and TV shows. Interestingly, many services even have a broader range of selection than Netflix.

Over the past years, Netflix has grown exponentially in popularity and figures, leaving other streaming business and even regular TV network in the dust. Wondering How to start a streaming service like Netflix?

Before that, let’s look at what makes Netflix a winning element.

Storytelling

The way Netflix creates content for a show is with full of narrative twists, ten episodes long story arcs, and all of these are aligned with the company’s main metric- user subscription. The ways the content is created at is aligning with maximizing advertisement support during the time a show is aired. However, Netflix ensures that the best content is delivered to its viewers, and without Ad interruptions.

Different metrics

Netflix always follows a different method of evaluating success than other traditional networks. Netflix measures its success with valued hours, which is a variation of viewed hours. It accounts for a percentage of overall time spent watching shows on Netflix. For example, if one particular show is just the one a set of subscribers watch, and they pay off every month for the same, Netflix will consider that particular show valuable to them. Enjoyment is also another metric measured by Netflix.

It isn’t subject to ratings

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While TV networks and movie studios rely greatly on ratings so as to hawk space to advertisers, Netflix purely runs on subscriptions. Which means the most significant economic metric for the network is, how much a movie or TV series contributes to its ability to get new sign-ups and retain the existing customers’.

However, the problem is that it’s a hard thing to measure. Internally, Netflix knows exactly how many people are streaming what movies and shows, and it utilizes the data to make the original programming better.  Earlier, the services used to measure the quality of content with a 5-star rating, but later switched to thumbs up and thumbs down during the end.

5 Things You Should Know Before You Start a Streaming Website

Beyond any doubt, modern people entertain themselves with TV programs, movies, and series. All thanks to the internet, you will always have something worth your attention. Whatever your business objective areas, use case, and models are, it is your prerogative. How you are going to create an audience base, what kind of video content you are going to stream or what methods you are going to adapt to monetize the site.

However, as a start-up, what is the minimum feature set you need to build a video streaming service like Netflix?

     1. Get a license for the content

When you are launching a business, of course, you have to follow guidelines and abide by the law. You need to obtain licenses for all types of content you plan to stream. There are 2 ways to get a license.

  • You can rent the movie directly from the distributor authorized to grant a license.
  • Contact the copyright holder directly.

Licensing may be restricted to specific regions and you have to find an appropriate license for content distribution in your region.

     2. Focus on User-facing features

You are building a platform to unite video content creators and viewers. Your role is to ensure website administration and 24/7 support. The ultimate goal is to delight your consumers and earn happy users on the go. To begin with, your streaming website must have universal functionality.

  • Homepage

The home page of your website is the place to inform your users what they are signing up for and the benefits they will find. Mesmerize them by the looks and the promises of entertainment you intend to offer. The home section must highlight TV shows, movies, and other categories of content customized according to the preference of each user.

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  • Sign Up/Login

Registration and login are indispensable interactive elements of any video-on-demand service. Provide various ways for your users to sign up and log in to your website.

  • Google login
  • Facebook login
  • Login by email or mobile number

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You must also ensure there is a password recovery option.

  • Dashboard

After the home page, the significant section is user profile. It is nothing but a virtual; user profile to navigate through the entire journey. Not to mention, it’s an excellent place to retrieve insights if you think analytics wise.

  • Settings

Allow users to modify and control their level of privacy. Let them to toggle between privacy options and social platforms to broadcast to.

     3. Choose a technology stack

Choosing a technology stack for your video streaming business can be quite challenging. The natural thing is to repeat the success of industry leaders like Netflix by following Netflix Business Model. But there is a catch.

– They are already much ahead of you, so can you catch up with them by using the same tools?

-They started it a while ago. Technology constantly evolves, there are much more efficient, smarter and cost-effective solutions in the market to start with.

-The circumstances are unique and so should be your business model.

Before you start developing a website or an app, it is important to determine which all the primary functions are. Start with MVP (Minimum viable product)) technique. This technique lets you outline a minimal feature set that is a must have to survive in the market. Next, you have to pick the complexity of the development from simple, mid-level and complex levels. Complex website and applications will have lots of functions and integrations to process heavy loads.

     4. Video Streaming Protocols

If you are going to build a video streaming platform, you must look a bit deeper into the streaming technology. Most video content isn’t designed for streaming, a video streaming protocol is a standard delivery method to break the video into chunks, send to the viewer and reassemble it. This is different from compression technology. When you choose a protocol, look into factors like properties, quality, latency, etc.

Let have a look at the most popular protocols.

RTMP

Real-time messaging protocol or RTMP is a widely used protocol for real-time streaming. It has the least latency among other properties and is robust and universally supported. RTMP is a great streaming and data sharing solution to use between clients with a flash player.

MPEG-DASH

Moving Picture Experts Group Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP or MPEG-DASH a vendor-neutral standard that is compatible with almost all encoding formats. Due to its ability to adjust second-second, it can fix some long-standing technical issue with compression and delivery. It implements AI to choose segments and intervals in the multimedia content with the highest bitrate that can be downloaded for playback without buffering.

HTTP Live streaming or HLS protocol

HLS is the most robust and safest bet popular for delivering the best audience user experience. Originally created by Apple to drop flash from the iPhone, it is now supported on Android, smart TS, desktop, and iOS. HTML 5 video player also supports HLS natively, but not RTMP. It supports ABR streaming, H.265 codec that delivers the twice the video quality at the same file size.

WebRTC

Web real-time communication or WebRTC facilitates audio and video transmission between browsers in real time with no plugins or downloads. In fact, it is not a protocol but a protocol stack. It opens the door for live and end-end communications from any point- web pages, phones, automobiles or even appliances. Its simplicity and potential ubiquity make it ideal for video streaming, especially in the areas of peer-peer data exchange and teleconferencing.

     5. Monetization

This is yet another important aspect- To make money with live streaming platforms and VOD streaming platforms. When it comes to revenue generating models, there are a few popular revenue models markets leaders follow.

Subscriptions

Users can subscribe to the service for a certain fee every month and access the service without Ads.

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Netflix Business Model follows the same monetization approach.

Fermium- Free + premium

Some video streaming services use a combination of free and paid features. For instance, if you pay a certain fee, you can view the same content with fewer or no Ads, more storage and cross-platform support.

For example, YouTube. It offers both free streaming with Ads and premium streaming with no Ads and an exclusive catalog of content.

Ads

You can offer multimedia content to users for free, but with Ads playing in between. Ads can launch when your website is launched and can change as the number of advertisers and they pay increase. It is used by the platform like YouTube to monetize its business despite offering the content streaming for free to everyone.

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Think of Scalability While developing Video streaming website

The smooth and continuous working of a video streaming platform greatly depends not just on the video streaming protocol but also on the architecture. The more audience you acquire; the more requests your server gets. Eventually, this can lead to glitches and even website crash. The most common and reliable way to solve the problem is to build a content delivery network (CDN). This involves creating multiple proxy servers with data centers in different locations with the same data.

With this, users from different countries will get quick access to data that was built on the other side of the world with minimum delay. A great content delivery network helps to distribute the load among different servers by reducing the likelihood of crashes.

You don’t need to build your own CDN and data centers. You can simply integrate the APIs from popular CDNs and Media servers. Even Netflix uses Amazon’s AWS to deliver high-quality content across the globe.

Conclusion

If you want to build a streaming business like Netflix or YouTube, don’t repeat the features provided by successful video services. Instead, gain inspiration from their functionalities and build an exclusive experience with improvement in content and video-on-demand service. Leverage the power of technology to showcase your creativity, add storytelling, etc. Create a digital space irresistible to creators and your potential users.