Creating a personalised OTT ecosystem is a great way for content creators to stand out in a heavily competitive environment that has a low barrier to entry. Through an OTT SaaS solution like Enveu’s Experience Cloud, any content creator can create their branded OTT apps and go LIVE in weeks with zero coding!

With the recent global growth in OTT consumption (source), content creators today are embracing the promise of OTT and building seamless streaming apps across platforms like Android, iOS, Google TV, Apple TV, Roku, etc. to meet the consumer on their device of choice.

You might think it’s just the usual suspects - the traditional TV channels and large broadcast media outlets - that are seeing success here. But OTT consumption is not limited to just those industries. Digital influencers, YouTubers, Social Media Stars, Sports Organisations and their participating teams, E-Sports, News outlets, Universities & Colleges, Health & Fitness brands, Kids Entertainment brands, etc. to name a few are building their OTT ecosystem to fully control the experience and content delivery to their fan base.

These institutions and individuals pour their blood, sweat and tears into building good and relevant content daily. Why then should they pay a major share of their hard-earned revenue back to a third-party platform? This is a question that hits almost every content creator at some stage of their businesses’ growth.

The answer is usually either a) they do nothing about it and continue sharing revenue or b) create their own custom OTT Video Streaming platform. The latter is a ‘no-brainer’ answer but the hindrance is that most content creators don’t have the right technology resources or means to get this done.

All Content Creators that are serious about growth hit this glass ceiling of figuring out whether to invest & build the technology in-house or buy a ready-made & reliable solution from the market.

The Build vs. Buy Decision

If you are a content creator that’s in this conundrum, here’s a simple set of questions that can help you decide if you need to build internally or outsource to a reliable tech partner like Enveu.

Note: If your answer to even one of these questions is a ‘maybe’, then outsourcing should be your priority, at least for the first few years of operations.

Is your business geared to overhaul and become a ‘Media + Tech’ organisation?

If your core business strength is content production and distribution on a select set of mediums, then to build your own technology you’ll need to start from scratch in curating tech teams and development processes to get a viable product out there in the market. More than being expensive, skilled manpower is hard to source and along the way you’ll need managerial decision makers that have experience in building OTT products too. It’s a sound investment if you have the patience, money and energy to be at it for 2-4 years before your customers see the final product.

Do you have the resources to fail, test and fail again?

Building an OTT isn’t a straight yellow brick road. By the time you launch, your product might look like it was made with 3-4 year old tech. In that time, a competitor might use an out-of-the-box solution and would have captured critical market share. And there’s no hiding away from the fact that every tech solution has bugs that need attention. You might spend time fixing things and not innovating new features.

Does your tech need to be at par with competition and at the cutting edge of technology?

The rules of engagement in OTT today are dictated by a select set of industry leaders. Whether it's embracing new technology like VR / Metaverse or rolling out a feature like the ‘Skip Intro’ button for TV shows, if your OTT doesn’t follow these new developments, it might be seen as a lacklustre offering.

Why Outsource OTT App Development?

Today, every business is looking to book higher revenues & profits in the current month / year and not build out a 3-5 year break-even strategy that won’t appease today’s stakeholders.  Outsourcing then is a fast-track solution to get your OTT ecosystem up and running within weeks, with the least amount of resources and with a higher degree of confidence is success.

Here’s a few key reasons you should outsource: 

• Maintain solitary focus on your core business of creating content
• Avoid business disruptions and take the path of least risk to meet your business growth goals through technology
• Leverage an industry-standard OTT SaaS platform that will always ensure you are at the forefront of innovation. All you’ll need to do is ‘opt in’ with a click for these upgrades 
• Build a visually stunning ecosystem of apps that are 100% customizable to your brand and fanbase. Most providers should help you do this for free
• Create a custom environment that’s unique to you and features any and all accessibility requirements you might have
• Forego offline content management solutions and manage every piece of your content through a CMS that’s robust and flexible. (e.g. need to add custom metadata that’s unique for your business, you’ll be able to do it easily)
• Delegate all the headaches of fixing bugs and issues to the experts so you can focus on what you do best – creating content.
• Avoid incurring running costs for bandwidth, storage, power, management and connectivity; instead focus your dollars on promoting your content.

How can Enveu help you build better resilience?

Enveu offers a 360-degree OTT SaaS solution – the Experience Cloud - that helps you go live in 5-6 weeks across 12+ Platforms and at a fraction of the cost it would otherwise take to build an OTT ecosystem from scratch.

You’ll get white-glove service right from understanding your requirements to building the OTT product of your dreams!

Here’s a quick look at some of the benefits of the Experience Cloud:

• Create a custom & unique experience with your branding guidelines
• Upload unlimited content and publish at your leisure
• Easily create your ecosystem in any language of your choice with no extra development
• Make unlimited edits to your entire visual experience; for FREE
• Complete security & privacy of content; as per industry standards
• Access over 50+ integrations including analytics, payment gateways, etc. with the ability to integrate your own custom ones into the platform
• Seamless roll-out of changes and new features across all platforms in a processified manner
• Have a dedicated team that’s at your service round the clock
• Work with a partner that’s invested in your success

In Summary

With easy high-speed internet access, affordable mobile devices and growing number of platforms, it’s clear that our content consumption habits will continue to grow exponentially. And with so many new content creators entering the fray, it is the need of the hour for serious players to build a unique positioning in the market through their own custom OTT ecosystem. It could be the difference between building a great revenue-generating business with your content or simply being remembered for a few pieces of ‘viral’ content.

Need help understanding more about setting up your OTT platform? We’re here to help! Let’s chat! https://www.enveu.com/