Prerequisites for Launching an OTT App

In this age of digital media, OTT applications are becoming increasingly effective customer acquisition tools. In fact, according to a study by Statista, the OTT media revenue is expected to reach over USD 210 Billion by 2026. Also, the number of SVOD (Subscription Video on Demand) subscriptions in the US is projected to skyrocket to 307 million by 2025. So if you have been thinking of launching an OTT app for a long time now, now would be the opportune moment to take the plunge.

What are OTT Apps?

Over-the-top applications, or an OTT app delivers audio/video on-demand or live content to your smartphone, tablet, or smart TV using the internet rather than the traditional methods of distribution like satellite or cable.  of cable or satellite. 

Downloaded over the internet, OTT apps can change the way you connect with your audiences. Through OTT content, you can provide customers access to a plethora of  content at any given moment.

Did you know that 50% of Wifi-connected homes in the USA use these OTT apps for around 100 minutes per day?

Here are the prerequisites you need to consider before launching an OTT app:

Investment

Designing an OTT app entails an enormous amount of investment in the form of capital, resources and manpower. Designing an in-house OTT app further increases cost and investment in time as compared to relying on OTT platform providers for launching your app as they have pre-build app templates and software that are already pre-built and therefore reduces the go-to-market time. 

Muvi promises to launch your white-label OTT app in less than 72 hours with all functionalities intact!

Determine your Target Users

The next step towards launching your white-label OTT app is to determine who your target audience is and their personas. You could take the help of social media, online surveys, polls, etc. to understand what exact services your customers are looking for. 

You could take a survey on what kind of content they want to consume and what would be their UX requirements, what kind of payment methods would they prefer, etc. so that your app could provide additional value.

Business Monetization Model

Building and maintaining an OTT app could be an expensive job especially if you decide on developing the app in-house by hiring professional developers. Therefore for you to maintain a steady flow of income, you would have to decide wisely on what kind of content monetization model (SVOD, TVOD or AVOD) would you want to deploy. 

Here are 3 well-known models for content monetization:

• Subscription Video on Demand (SVOD) — viewers have unlimited access to all the content for a monthly fee they have to pay. The users can have full control over the subscription and can decide when to start or end the program.
• Advertising Video on Demand (AVOD) — the user gets to watch free content  with monetization happening through video advertising. Advertisers are the ones who pay, and viewers watch content for free.
• Transactional Video on Demand (TVOD) — with TVOD content is purchased by the consumer on a pay per view basis. TVOD services offer more recently released content, which is beneficial to rights holders for higher revenues and for consumers for getting timely access to new content.

Quality Content

The phrase ‘content is king’ stands unchallenged when launching an OTT app. Before deciding to launch an OTT app, you should be ready with a repertoire of classic content for whichever industry you are aiming to cater to, be it entertainment, travel, food, fitness, healthcare, etc. Apart from developing a catalogue of video on demand (VOD) content, you could also host live streams. Remember that:

• Discovering new and personalized content is an important feature that improves client/customer loyalty.

• Make sure to have original content on your app

• A successful OTT app works on a powerful recommendation engine to enable maximum content optimization

• Try to deliver a personalized content watching experience for your customers so that they are hooked to your platform

Customized UX

The look, feel and functionality of your app are the three most important features your customers will look out for when they download your app. Even if you have a fully stocked rich content library, a poor UX of your app will lead to unwanted drop offs and users will not be able to find relevant content. An uncluttered and clean UI, easy navigation, custom recommendations, search options, high streaming quality are some of the basic features that will make your app stand out amongst the rest.

For more details on UX/UI read our blog Essential UX/UI Features for OTT Apps

Seamless App Onboarding

For launching an OTT app, app onboarding is the first impression your user gets of the app and if the user has a great onboarding experience, they will be more likely to come back to your app. Simply put, app onboarding is the process of acclimatizing new users to understand and engage with your app so that they keep coming back to it. A successful VoD app onboarding experience is imperative for customer retention and helps set the tone of your streaming app.

For more information on VOD app onboarding, read our blog 9 Tips to Effective VoD App Onboarding Experience

Building the App

If you are contemplating on building the app in-house by hiring developers, let me warn you that this process is time consuming and involves a hefty pocket pinch. You should instead invest in a third party agency or streaming platform providers like Muvi to do the job for you.

With Muvi, you can launch fully featured native Apps for devices and ecosystems such as iOS, Android, Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Android TV and XBOX. Muvi’s makes it easy to manage all your apps and content from a Single CMS without worrying about multiple logins and multiple dashboards.

Why not take a 14-day Free Trial of Muvi to launch your white-labeled customized OTT app instantly?