Sponsored content | The critical elements of a successful OTT service

Cisco predicts video will account for 80 per cent of all internet traffic by 2019. By that same year, annual OTT revenues are expected to have increased by a factor of three to $32bn (according to Juniper Research).

Television is moving online and the trends we are seeing now are not unlike the shift from broadcast to cable. Now is the perfect time to capitalise on the value of sports content rights for a connected audience.

What does this mean for rights owners? Get some content. Put it up on a “You”-biquitous video platform. Get eyeballs. Make money. Simple, right?

This might work for rights owners just dipping their toes into the online video pool, but if you are looking to grow a long-term digital business and increase revenue year-over-year, you need to look beyond “the simple.”

There are five key things you need to do to guarantee your OTT service is successful:

1. Quality counts: Deliver an unrelenting focus on video quality

One in five viewers will abandon a poor experience immediately, regardless of genre, and one in five will never return to that service. However, according to IPTV News, 90 per cent of users will return to a service that delivers a superior experience.

Therefore to maximise viewer retention, your OTT platform must do the following:

  • Utilize the highest quality encoding technologies to ensure no crucial video data is lost from ingest to delivery
  • Reduce or eliminate buffering and latency
  • Monitor bandwidth and deliver video in adaptive bit rates (ABR) to ensure the right quality is delivered to the right device at the right time
  • Wow the viewer – 4K is here and it’s now possible to stream a world of ultra-high-quality content in up to 4K on-demand AND live.

Big brands like UFC are using a 4K-ready platform to increase viewership and deliver the ultimate experience for their fans. Read this case study to learn how UFC, NeuLion, and Sony delivered the first ever live 4K pay-per-view event.

 

2. Give ‘em what they want: Create the ultimate interactive viewing experience

Engagement leads to extended viewership. Delivering highly customized, personalized and interactive experiences tailored to each device gives viewers more reasons to consume content, and for longer.

Features such as real-time data and social feeds, multiple camera and audio feeds, integrated EPG information, instant replay for live broadcasts, event timeline markers, robust DVR controls including slow motion controls, and more are now table stakes for creating engaging experiences for today’s viewers.

NFL Game Pass, powered by NeuLion, allows fans to: select different audio broadcast feeds for games, watch up to four games at once in ‘Quad View’, draw out their own plays with an interactive Telestrator and more. Read the case study to see exactly how it works.

 

3. Drive revenue through intelligent monetisation and personalisation: Leverage any combination of business models and make it personal

OTT by nature is not a “one-size-fits-all” venture. You can monetise your content using any combination of business models, including subscription, ad-supported, authenticated, pay-per-view or electronic sell through (EST). Engage an expert for this and use a flexible digital video platform that will enable you to deliver multiple services within a single unified experience.

Personalisation is also key to driving increased revenues. It consists of tailoring an OTT or TV Everywhere service to accommodate specific subscribers and segments of viewers. As OTT services gain momentum in the marketplace, marketing efforts to drive new subscriber activations and churn reduction should be a priority for content owners.

Make sure your platform provider offers a wide variety of personalisation features to improve customer satisfaction, digital sales conversion, marketing results, and branding and advertising.

For example, the NeuLion Digital Platform applies machine learning and statistical analysis to visitor behavior and viewer ‘watch data’ to tailor category and video content pages without the need for rules configuration; making targeting effortless. It offers:

  • The ability for viewers to personalise their experience based on advanced customisation to deliver curated social content, custom schedules, videos and news-related content based on their selections
  • Personalised video content delivery based on real-time data, without setting up a single targeting rule
  • Monetisation and merchandising of video content packages using aggregated behavioural data (those that viewed this, also viewed that) and personal recommendations (you previously bought this and might like that).

UFC has been great at monetization and personalization. Earlier this year it launched an updated UFC FIGHT PASS platform in conjunction with NeuLion. Watch our webinar on personalisation to hear exactly how they’ve done it.

 

4. Protect, serve and monitor: Provide quality of service/experience monitoring and business analytics in real-time

Your OTT business is only as strong as the quality of the service. So make sure you have a QoS system that enables you to monitor, in real time, every viewer’s quality of experience for live and VOD content, updated every 30 seconds and viewed by device, bitrates, location, and more.

The offering set should also give you real-time business insight into customer activations, including application downloads, registrations, purchases, logins, and authentications – all viewable by device type and location, and integrated with Nielsen data to create a unified view of broadcast and OTT analytics.

This will empower you to make fully informed business decisions to enhance content offerings, attract new customers, and retain existing customers.  All the while driving more revenue for your OTT service.

 

5. Be everywhere your viewers are: any device, anywhere, anytime.

One in every two internet-connected households in the US has its TV connected for internet streaming, either via a Smart TV, games console, or streaming media player, according to NPD’s Connected Home Report.  Those houses have on average 2.9 devices connected for internet video. To meet this demand, your OTT service needs to seamlessly extend across multiple screens – desktop, mobile, tablets, Apple TV, Roku, Amazon Fire, Chromecast, Xbox, PlayStation, and smart TVs – to maximise audience reach.

 

So, how do you get started? Engage an expert

When launching and building a digital video business, you have enough to worry about. You have one chance to reach viewers and give them the experience they demand. Therefore it’s essential you build your service on a platform that powers the entire digital video workflow.

A comprehensive platform like the NeuLion Digital Platform reduces multi-vendor complexities. It’s an end-to-end turnkey video distribution platform that provides digital video broadcasting, distribution and monetisation of live and on-demand sports and entertainment content to any connected device. NeuLion’s technology powers the digital experience for leading brands around the world including the NFL, NBA, UFC, Eleven Sports Network, Euroleague, and many more, delivering the highest quality video, up to Ultra HD/4K, with advanced interactive features for consumers globally.