Suppose you have an idea to create a video streaming platform to monetize the content that you usually share on social media for free. A video streaming platform is a great tool for monetization due to its functionality. But besides content, what do you need? In this article, we will focus on that.
If interested, you can learn more about IPTV solutions for government, ISPs, MSOs, content creators, and huge businesses in the blog.
Software and hardware
To create an online video streaming platform, you need particular software and hardware and consider many questions. For example, you need to define the deployment way, whether it is going to be in-cloud or on-prem.
After defining, you need to find an IPTV solution. Here are several ways: either you hire a development team that designs your IPTV service, or you purchase a pre-developed solution that already has all features implemented. Whatever way you choose, check that the solution provides you with:
- IPTV Middleware to manage content, subscribers, monetization models, and define the user interface. It is the heart of the whole project.
- CDN to expand your business and cover new locations.
- IPTV encoder to let customers’ conventional TVs read digital signals.
- Applications to increase user experience and cover as many devices as possible.
As we said above, IPTV Middleware is the heart of a video streaming service. It helps arrange all processes and enhance the service in the future. To do that, it is better to check that it has the following features:
- IPTV analytics will help a platform owner analyze the user interaction with a platform and find weak spots. These weak spots can be improved further. IPTV analytics also help understand the audience better and learn what they like on the platform and what they don’t like on it.
- Monetization models. The most common of them are advertisements, subscriptions, and transactions. A few IPTV solutions can maintain all of them. But it can also occur that you don’t need them all. It might be that only one matches your goals.
- Customization is essential for you to stand out from the crowd. It allows you to use your brand design on the platform so that you are recognizable.
These are software and hardware that will help you stream videos for users and expand the business step by step. Usually, all these elements make up an end-to-end IPTV solution.
Marketing
Marketing is what you also need. The platform can be great and informative, but if you don’t inform users about it, there are many chances that you don’t have much profit.
There are many marketing tools that can be of help:
- SEO optimization
- Social media platforms
- Email marketing
- Contextual advertising
- Media advertising
You can use all of them combined or choose those that can potentially attract your target audience. To do that, you need to understand what channels they mostly use. For instance, if they spend a lot of time on social media services, you should use social media services to target potential customers.
Conclusion
Of course, content is what customers will chase first. And you can purchase the simplest IPTV solution with the most basic tools. But if you want to expand and grow your business in the future, it is better to have a solution developed for that.