Video streaming applications have become permanent fixtures in a rapidly growing number of devices across the world. What started off as an add-on service to DVD and digital download packages has now flourished into a multimillion dollar industry and a favourite pastime amongst millennials, courtesy lightning-fast internet connections and a burgeoning number of mobile devices world over.
The success of video streaming services all boils down to differentiation and first-mover advantage. Presenting to you, the top video streaming sites of 2017.
Netflix
You’re probably no stranger to Netflix. Netflix is one of the best video streaming sites, emblazoned on the face of the video streaming industry. With a generously stocked library that is continually pumped with new content, its offerings are novel. Plus, Netflix has always stayed ahead of the game by introducing original programmes such as House of Cards and Luke Cage.
Offerings
So, what is the hype around Netflix?
Well, other than the massive selection of titles that it features, Netflix allows varying degrees of concurrent streaming through differentiated packages. Its $7.99/month plan, for instance covers one Standard-Definition (SD) stream. Move to High-Definition (HD), and the pricing changes. For simultaneous usage on two different devices on the same account, Netflix offers a package of $9.99 for new members. Talk about 4 concurrent streams from the same account, and the price moves up a notch to $11.99. Whichever way you look at it, Netflix offers value for money! Netflix now also allows offline viewing, and offers more fluidity across devices than any other service provider in the market. So, if you have a flight to catch, or a car journey with sketchy signal, download content beforehand and enjoy it on the go!
Through Netflix’s localised content strategy, it has also clinched partnerships in new world markets to deliver regional content. In India, for example, it has inked deals with telecom operators such as Airtel, Vodafone and Videocon to deliver content Over the Top (OTT).
Of course, as newer technologies take root across the world, video streaming is becoming more fluid than ever before. Streamhash, a turnkey technology that underpins many successful video streaming startups today, provides a seamless device-agnostic user experience that can be customised to embrace a suite of devices.
Monetisation
Netflix has pioneered a revenue model that has inspired many businesses to follow suit. Here are some reasons it stands out:
Subscription Fee: Netflix’s move to bring in a subscription fee was considered risky, because it had never been attempted before. Yet, the standard price offering clicked, and many Video on Demand (VOD) services have adopted the same model.
DVD Rentals: Surprised? Don’t be. Few people even know that Netflix offers DVD rentals as a service. Most of us associate Netflix with pure video streaming. DVD rentals contribute a measly percentage to the overall Netflix revenue, though the service was popular when it was launched. However, with technology evolution and internet ubiquity, Netflix’s video streaming service has become a massive engine of growth.
Marketing Strategy
Netflix’s approach to marketing has been heavily focused on consumer insights:
Personalised Dashboard: What you see on your Netflix home screen is probably very different from what your neighbour sees. Netflix’s brilliant algorithms customise recommendations by curating movies and shows that you’re likely to enjoy based on your past preferences. It is an excellent way to micro-target customers and build user engagement.
Brand Identity: Netflix has spread like wildfire thanks to social media. Its digital presence and subtle campaigns have worked magic for the brand, especially its youthful tagline, #NetflixAndChill. It hasn’t spent much on Above the Line media, like traditional advertising.
Listen to Users: We already know about Netflix’s sophisticated data mining approach. But the company uses data trends to assess user behaviour and tweak its offerings. A market insight uncovered by Netflix revealed that users enjoyed binge-watching shows at one go, and that the experience proved more enjoyable this way. Thus, Netflix started releasing all the episodes of a given season at once, to boost user contentment.
Amazon Video
Amazon Video is always attempting to one-up Netflix through pricing or promotion. On the pricing front, its $10.99/month includes a suite of benefits, like Prime’s free shipping, Amazon Photos and the Kindle Lending Library.
Offerings
Amazon Video offers an annual package at $99. Its streaming service contains about 40,000 titles, but very few of those qualify for Prime Streaming. The ones that don’t, need to be bought, regardless of Prime membership. Like Netflix, Amazon Video also offers provides offline downloads. The only real challenge with the service is that it isn’t as device-agnostic as Netflix, and doesn’t work on Google’s Chromecast. The service also offers concurrent viewing from two streams.
Monetisation
Annual Subscription Fee: Ditto, Netflix. This plan offers users the option to pay upfront for a full year, with a built-in pricing benefit.
Standalone Monthly Subscription: Here, a user may can subscribe to Prime whenever, wherever. There’s no long-term obligation.
Marketing Strategy
Streaming Partner Program: Where Amazon Video really stands apart, is with its Streaming Partners Program. With this OTT streaming subscription programme, Amazon has collaborated with twenty broadcast companies, such as Showtime, Starz and CBS. The service allows you to add specific networks to your account at a discounted price.
Bundling: Amazon’s competencies are diverse, and the company has leveraged its array of skill sets in its promotional bundles. By packaging its Kindle line, streaming and express shipping service together, it has created a value proposition that no other pure VOD player can match!
Hulu
Hulu is still coming into its own. What used to be a free, ad-speckled viewing experience has taken on a Netflix-like twist. And it all lies in its monetisation plan.
Offerings
Unlike its more popular counterparts, Hulu manages to procure content aired on television within days of it being televised. Netflix and Amazon, on the other hand, take months to broadcast the same content. Its partnership with big studios is its ticket to quick content.
Monetisation
Monthly Subscription Fee: Hulu is priced at $7.99/month. Interestingly, Hulu is ahead of Netflix and Amazon in procuring television content.
Advertising Spots: Hulu still takes on advertisers, despite its monthly fee model. This means that viewers still see ads. The company also offers a $11.99 variant, that comes with an ad-free experience.
Marketing Strategy
Advertising Spots: Hulu is one of the only VOD players to continue with advertising spots in a world where netizens tend to skip advertisements. Still, Hulu is looking to capitalise on these spots to draw advertisers and enhance the ad viewing experience of users.
Original Content: Netflix and Amazon have already cornered this opportunity, and now it’s Hulu’s turn. By introducing superior content onto its platform, it will create a differentiator for itself.
HBO Now
HBO is the first media company to branch out onto the internet. Although it started its online expedition with HBO Go, the media house found that it didn’t work as well, because users needed a pay TV login to access it.
Offerings
As the name suggests, HBO Now streams content owned by HBO. There aren’t any stream limitations so multiple streams can be opened on devices with the same username.
Monetisation
HBO Now sells for $14.99/month. Because HBO owns the content, shows and movies debut online within minutes of being broadcasted on television. HBO Now can be accessed from any device, through Amazon, Google Play and the App Store.
Marketing Strategy
Well-Timed Programming: HBO’s launches have been well thought-out. For instance, it timed its tremendously popular show, Game of Thrones, with the launch of HBO Now.
Tailored Content: There isn’t a significant difference in cost between HBO as a cable addition and HBO Now. However, by offering customers a unique, made-to-order viewing experience, HBO is combining its traditional and online properties to envelope a customer in the brand’s prowess.
CBS All Access
Meet another television entrant on the online bandwagon!
Offerings
Like HBO, CBS has also developed an exclusive digital platform. And while you may find it odd that a platform could possibly broadcast shows from a single channel, CBS has cracked the code. By offering its stellar line up of shows the day after their telecast, CBS has viewers tuned in to stay up to date with missed shows and new content.
It isn’t difficult to start an online streaming platform anymore. Many media companies purchase ready technologies like Streamhash to complement their traditional offerings. And with the plethora of handy customisation options and fantastic features that such technologies provide, you save a whole lot of time and money.
Monetisation
Monthly Subscription Fee:CBS All Access is available for $5.99/month.
Advertising Spots: CBS follows a differential advertising approach. It broadcasts ads for primetime, day-time and late night content, but television classics are run uninterrupted.
Marketing Strategy
Television Advertising: CBS’s first phase of marketing involved advertising on its own television network, followed by spots on select outside networks. Thoughts like Watch live. Watch later and Binge away were pushed to consumers.
Digital Advertising: After traditional media, CBS resorted to a focused advertising approach through digital devices. The advertising featured specific shows or behaviours that would appeal to customers.
Influencer Approach: CBS launched an influencer-based approach, aimed at generating referrals through fan websites and word of mouth. It also hinted at rewarding these fans with a referral bonus or a free trial of All-Access.
The top 5 video streaming sites in the world are ideal models to follow on your own entrepreneurial path. Curate content for a unique geography as an acid test, and then expand your platform to cover more content. Take a leaf out of each of these company’s marketing books to forge your own journey!
The sheen and glitter of Netflix’s fanciful offerings aren’t currently tailored for India’s vast regional populations. Aside from the country’s content-guzzling urban dwellers, Netflix hasn’t appeased most Indians. And unless it tweaks its media basket, it likely never will. Add to that, the fact that only about 15% of Indians have access to internet, and not necessarily high-speed internet, and you have yourself a problem.
It’s this gap that Vinay Pillai and Tanay Desai identified. When the idea struck them, both aspiring entrepreneurs were working as consultants for Booz Allen Hamilton in Washington D.C., and they knew right away that they had a worthwhile idea. They decided to act on it in the March of 2016. They called their endeavor, Dekkho, meaning watch in Hindi.
The partners started Dekkho as a platform to provide diverse over-the-top content to Indians. In a proposition similar to Netflix and Amazon Prime, Dekkho was designed to let viewers watch, subscribe, share and rate content. When they started, Pillai and Desai knew one thing: that Indian audiences wouldn’t pay for streamed content. And so, they created an advertising-led revenue blueprint that allowed users to view free content. In a YouTube-esque model, the company draws its revenues from advertisers, who broadcast their ads before or during a video. Dekkho works out a fee based on the length of the advertisement. Effectively, you have happy advertisers, happy users and happy content partners. Everybody wins. The founders have hinted, however, that paid content is a possibility in the future. The pair commented that premium content services were viable for products with a superior user experience, content variety and content novelty.
In a country where most citizens do not have access to high-speed internet, Dekkho has a functional solution. The platform offers an offline video facility, and the company insists that the bandwidth consumption is lower than on other media providers.In a bid to win the hearts of Indian viewers, Dekkho has sought to establish partnerships with content providers such as MissMalini, All India Bakchod, Times Group, Sony Music and ScoopWhoop, all media producers that primarily produce content targeted at the youth segment. Dekkho also claims to offer an uncluttered, choice viewing experience.
As Netflix and Amazon Prime, along with an assortment of Indian media players like Reliance Jio, Hungama, Hotstarand YuppTV, take the Indian market head on, Dekkho has its work cut out. But Pillai and Desai have conviction in their brand. The entrepreneurs know that content providers need seasoned aggregators to deliver their content. And with the collective over-the-counter experience that the Dekkho team boasts, the platform would be an ideal choice. Having invested time and effort in gauging the pulse and preferences of the youth in India, Pillai and Desai are confident that Dekkho will soon become the preferred choice for online video content across a range of devices. The brand already reaches out to a whopping 2 million users monthly, a reflection of its expanding reach.
The Video on Demand (VOD) niche in India has seen Netflix and Amazon Prime, amongst other players, plant their flags in the past year. And to differentiate itself, each brand’s approach has been unique. Netflix is closing more local and regional deals, and Amazon Prime has partnered with indigenous authors, writers, directors and producers as it ventures into its own original series. Both Netflix and Amazon Prime are tailoring their content for the Indian market. With competition becoming fierce, the key to growth is locking exclusive long-term partnerships with production companies.While old films are usually covered in these agreements, VOD firms are also clinching deals where they will be able to premier movies on their platform before they hit the television.
In the recent past, there has been a slew of collaborations between production houses and VOD platforms. Hotstar has signed an exclusive multi-year deal with Disney India, to showcase the production house’s movies on its premium variant. Hotstar is growing its international content on Hotstar Premium, while keeping its basic version more local. Similarly, Netflix has partnered with Red Chillies Entertainment (RCE), an Indian entertainment studio owned by Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan. This will give Netflix viewers access to a huge library of RCE films. And taking a cue from local VOD platforms, the brand is producing a local series called ‘Sacred Games’. Amazon Prime is focusing on a diverse array of content, in several languages. The service also promises to feature movies just three weeks after their theatrical release, much before their television premiere. In addition, it has closed exclusive deals with Dharma Productions, Vishesh Films and T-Series, three of India’s top production houses.
If you want to start a business like Netflix, India is a great market to target. In 2016, the smartphone user base in India grew 18% to reach a staggering 300 million users. The global smartphone user base, in comparison, grew only 3%, making India the leading smartphone market in the world. In light of the fact that 46% of videos globally are consumed on mobile handsets, the video streaming business model seems more lucrative than ever.
Netflix employs public clouds such as ec2 and AWS and NoSQL-based persistence solutions like CAP Theorem. The Netflix Cloud Platform forms a layer composed of services, tools, frameworks and technologies that lie on top of ec2/AWS.
As a new business owner, these technologies are obscenely expensive, and for most, unattainable. That’s where technologies like Streamhash come in. Streamhash lets you start your own VOD site in just 2 days, at a reasonable cost. Armed with fantastic features and a responsive design, the product can whip up a fabulous Netflix clone for you. Its fluid design also ensures that users experience the same interface across device sizes and types.
Streamhash is also equipped with a selection of themes that users can apply to personalise their interface. Plus, it has an inbuilt SEO-optimisation feature and a user-friendly admin panel. Streamhash also comes with differential servers to support your site: a Nginx one for video streaming, and an Apache one for web pages. Most importantly, Streamhash is embedded with a noteworthy turnkey video sharing script that lets users divide videos into categories instantly.
Streamhash is backed by Real Time Messaging Protocol (RTMP) technology, a free, open source extension module that is linked to the Nginx web server. You’ll find other technologies that do the same thing as RTMP, online. And while they’re all awesome, they’re all expensive. RTMP is a multifaceted, pocket-friendly platform. RTMP also lowers latency, ensuring that content flows seamlessly to even a user with a low bandwidth. A lower latency also facilitates real-time conversations with your viewers, and reduces buffering.
In terms of monetisation, VOD platforms follow a gamut of models. Amazon Prime, for instance, charges an annual subscription fee of Rs. 999, discounted to Rs. 499 as an introductory offer. Netflix has differential pricing models depending on the package that a user picks. Its packages range from Rs. 500 to Rs. 800. Hotstar doesn’t charge for its basic platform, but it does follow a pay-per-click advertising format with its advertisers. It also has a variant called Hotstar Premium, that features primarily international content. For this, it charges Rs. 199 per month with an option to cancel any time. Likewise, Hungama’s monthly subscription is pegged at Rs. 249 per month.
Netflix launched a digital campaign last year called #LifeWithoutNetflix, highlighting the benefits the platform offers. This was followed by more digital ads, featuring some of India’s well-known comedians, which did the rounds on social media. Their campaign for the new year got 3.2 million views in just 6 days. Amazon Prime is employing several arrows in its marketing quiver. Other than digital and social media campaigns, it is trying conventional formats like hoardings, print and television for their regional content launches. Amazon tweaks its strategy depending on the market. Voot, an Indian VOD player owned by Viacom18, leverages television ads on its partner’s channel and saw 20 million downloads in just six months.
The VOD ecosystem in India isn’t composed only of VOD platforms. With the growing potential it is showing, a spate of complementary services have arrived through various brands. JustWatch, a Berlin-based startup, offers users a search engine to find legal versions of their favourite movies and television shows, online. Using the engine, users can compare content on Netflix, Hotstar, Amazon Prime and Hungama, amongst others.
The Indian market is highly fragmented by language. And this gives rise to immense opportunity to VOD players to bring out a range of content across languages. For example, VOD brand Vuclip, announced the launch of its original production series, titled ‘Originals’, in regional languages. The series will debut in Telugu, followed by other languages. The brand is the first in India to offer VOD content in local languages.
It’s a great time to consider entering the VOD market in India. And with several companies having set a successful trend, there’s proof that there’s money waiting to be made.
Who knew that one day, a business owner in the Australian outback would be able to draw an investor from Sub-Saharan Africa, to invest in his enterprise? Who knew that not only would these unlikely parties be bound by a compelling internet platform, but that they would one day, be able to interact virtually for live broadcasts, question-and-answer sessions and even product demonstrations. So what if they were separated by several thousand kilometres and the Indian Ocean?
Thanks to Kickstarter, the online crowdfunding platform that has provided impetus to numerous start-ups across the globe, geographical boundaries have evaporated to produce abundant business opportunities and seamless communication networks. The organisation brings business owners and artists together with potential investors in a bid to provide funding for viable ventures. Since it started, it has witnessed $1.9 billion in pledges from 9.4 million bidders, and it has clocked 257,000 projects.
In November 2016, Kickstarter launched its live streaming platform, Kickstarter Live, an interactive streaming tool that lets users raise funds in real-time. And to help build their newest offering, they turned to Huzza Media Inc, a Vancouver-based firm that specialised in user-led events and live streaming.
Amazingly, Huzza, started by Justin Womersley and Nick Smit, wasn’t started as a platform for burgeoning businesses. Oh, no. It was started as a virtual forum for musicians to reach their fans through live video. Womersley and Smit, both South African émigrés, had originally started Huzza in Silicon Valley. Following Canada’s Startup Visa program that promised business owners permanent residency in Canada if they managed to attract an investment from a venture capitalist, the pair shifted the company’s headquarters to Vancouver. A chance meeting with the CEO of one of Canada’s foremost venture capital firms, and they had landed themselves a deal.
Huzza knew it had a winning product, when Womersley and Smit saw the impact that their platform had, pulling the music community closer. The product imparted a sense of personalisation and poignancy, cutting through the cyber clutter that vanilla websites often tend to impose. Live video was the way to go.
Womersley and Smit soon discovered that Huzza’s application was universal. It could work for dancers, entrepreneurs and entertainers just as well. Huzza was an interface, and it was agnostic to who was on either side of it. Womersley and Smit leveraged the opportunity.
Huzza, on its part, has collaborated with a number of crowdfunding platforms in the past, with Patreon, being one of the best-known apart from Kickstarter, of course. Last year, when Kickstarter partnered with Huzza to create Kickstarter Live, hundreds of users sought the new live video feature to create online fan circles that catapulted them to cyber centrestage. But that’s not all. The fact that Huzza allows audiences to explore an artist’s personal space, delve into the creative process and experience what happens before the curtains fall, makes it more exciting. It allows fans to feel like they’re part of the artist’s journey. In turn, creators can garner maximum support in the earliest, most nascent stages of their business. Kickstarter has revealed that on average, a user spends approximately 16 minutes on a stream with its creator. And those users that employ streams profit from a 74% success rate, twice that of businesses with no streams.
Internet platforms, whether for video, news journalism or other media, make it difficult for users to separate fact from positive rhetoric. Live streaming engages users like never before, providing validation that the creator is authentic. It lends genuineness to the process.
In January 2017, Kickstarter witnessed an outlandish campaign on its platform; it was a product called Adoptly. The product, a bizarre mishmash of features inspired by Tinder, was an adoption app that worked just like Tinder. Swipe right for yes, left for no; with only a snapshot of a baby’s face for consideration. The app was a market for babies, a crude way of turning an adoption campaign into a superficial pageant. While the campaign was not eliminated from the Kickstarter platform on ethical grounds, there was scepticism surrounding the campaign, with many raising an eyebrow about its legitimacy. Nobody knew a thing about the creators, and there was no way to know.
Now, close on the heels of the success of Kickstarter Live, Kickstarter has announced the acquisition of Huzza. With this, Huzza becomes Kickstarter’s first office outside the United States. Huzza’s erstwhile company headquarters in Vancouver, Canada, will now become Kickstarter Live’s primary base, where Womersley and Smit will grow their talented team of designers, coders and engineers.
It hasn’t been an easy decision for Huzza to join Kickstarer’s growing empire. While the acquisition certainly celebrates Huzza’s success story, the deal has come with certain conditions. For starters, Huzza has been asked to dissolve its creator-facing platform, one that was tied to the Huzza brand. Nevertheless, with the Huzza team’s foray into the Kickstarter family, there will be no dearth of opportunities in leading initiatives related to developing the creator interface.
Huzza has set a precedent in one of the biggest acquisitions in the live streaming niche. And yet, there’s still so much potential left. While Kickstarter Live will capture the sentiments of investors and entrepreneurs, there are a multitude of other industries that can be penetrated in a similar way. Think cooking tutorials, beauty tutorials, video exercise guides, live dance lessons. Once you prove that there’s something there, attracting investors will be much easier, and your brand may even be considered for an acquisition. Plus, you can get started in a matter of two days, with Streamhash’s turnkey framework. With Streamhash, you needn’t invest time or money in starting from scratch. They’ve done it all for you. Visit their website at www.streamhash.com to know more.
Kickstarter is following a novel trend led by the likes of Facebook, Periscope and Twitch.tv in the recent past. For crowdfunding, streaming is an effective way to gain the trust of followers. When backers are invited to witness behind-the-scenes goings on, gaining trust becomes a whole lot easier. Thus, potential investors may see a tangible return on investment.
As Huzza pulls its own shutters down and moves into the Kickstarter family, it’s interesting to look back at its journey. From an unlikely start-up that followed its founders from country to country, to a flourishing business that was ultimately acquired by Kickstarter, it has come a long, long way.
If you look at the larger picture, Huzza is a microcosm of the massive online video streaming community. There has been a number of businesses in the past few years that have successfully adopted video streaming as a tool for engagement. For example, Experian, a finance engine, uses live streaming to connect users with experts who give advice on student loans, credit, debt and market risk. And they use the hashtag #creditchat to create online buzz amongst users and non-users alike. LiveList, a virtual performance app allows performers and entertainers to connect with fans around the globe, enabling followers to keep up with events, dates and even local performances.Then there are quirky enterprises that use live streaming to showcase media that hasn’t been ventured into before. The MoonWatcher, for instance, is a platform that plans to launch the world’s first private satellite with a cutting-edge camera, to provide stellar images of the lunar surface. Of course, when it comes to live streaming, you can start anywhere, and the investment is minimal if you opt for a turnkey platform like Streamhash. Every industry has the scope for video streaming; it’s up to you to plug it in.
