OTT platforms range from subscription-based streaming services to proprietary custom solutions developed to meet specific customer requirements. Here is a list of features and tools that are critical to a successful OTT platform: complex content management; media ingestion; video processing; geolocation; search; user profiles; and more.
Sophisticated Content Management
Content Management (CMS) The 6 key features that create an efficient OTT platform are essential for every streaming platform. It addresses all aspects of needs and empowers media operations, such as ingest, search, editing, enrichment, related image processing, geo-blocking, distribution, and content management. In addition, it aggregates and unifies metadata from a variety of sources.
Media Ingestion
Smooth ingestion and media uploads are essential for any streaming platform. Automated uploads of various video formats from multiple sources and support for live feeds are a must. Pre-built metadata connectors with Amazon S3, Microsoft Azure, REST API, MRSS, FTP, etc. make media ingestion a smooth and hassle-free process. In addition, options for custom integration via scripting layers and 3rd party SDKs are very welcome.
Video Processing
Video processing includes cloud or local encoding, transcoding and packaging. It should provide a wide range of supported formats and adaptive bitrate encoding to provide optimal delivery to any device on any network. OTT platforms should deliver video feeds to end users at bitrates from 240p, 360p, 720p, 1080p to 4K to maintain smooth video streaming. Fast and high-quality streaming is a priority, regardless of viewer location and Internet speed.
Geolocation
Geolocation or geo-streaming provides the ability to enable geo-blocking options for specific content. This feature comes in handy when content owners impose distribution restrictions on certain video-on-demand (VoD) or live streaming services.
Search
The explore or search option is essential in OTT streaming platforms. This option should be designed in such a way that it is visible to all age groups. Also, please try to provide as many genre options as possible in the search drop-down menu.
User profiles
This feature is a no-brainer. Your application must come with a user profile option that gives them the option to manage their application – the content they want to watch, preferred payment options and suggestions based on their viewing history. Also, if you plan to add more users to your app the Netflix way, set up multiple screens in your app and provide a set of OTT platform features for each user.
The feature set of modern OTT platforms that offer live video streaming or VOD services is growing. Competition in the market and growing audience demand has led to the evolution of services. To stand out, OTT platforms, whether off-the-shelf or customized, must offer an increasing number of attractive features. The above list includes basic features and functionality, but is not complete and is subject to improvement and future development.