Nowadays, video platforms are more than ever at the heart of all discussions. In the entertainment industry, every player is looking to offer new content, new experiences to viewers... in order to guarantee an optimal and state-of-the-art service.
Is it the right time to propel your videos? Of course, it is! According to the video on demand barometer published by the “Centre national du cinéma et de l'image animée”, the VOD market is growing by 40.3% and has reached 453.9 million euros in turnover during the first 4 months of 2020.
And the most impressive: the video market was 68 million euros at the end of March 2020 and 130 million at the end of April 2020. Enough to get excited!
So, convinced? You will find in this article how to correctly define your needs, some essential keys for the development and evolution of your platform, as well as the new solutions powered by Kinow!
Shaping your project
First ideas, first prototypes... Building its video platform requires long hours of reflection. To help you in this difficult task, a technical specification is essential to ensure the proper conduct of your project and to anticipate possible future challenges.
Thanks to this document, you will be able to see more clearly the path to take and thus define:
- The different persons involved
- The project definition
- The proposed content
- The desired modes of distribution
- The envisaged business model
- How to host your videos
- The content distribution
- The project specific needs and options...
Anticipating all these questions will allow you to serenely apprehend the development of your platform. Indeed, the value of this document is no longer to be proven, and it is a real gold mine for you and your technical partner.
To know more about it, you can find all the methodology, the objectives and a model of specifications for its streaming service to download in PDF in our article: "How to write a technical specification for its streaming service?"
How to formulate your value proposition
In parallel to the definition of your specifications, here are some steps to take into account, which will help you to propel yourself!
1.Identifying levers for growth
First of all, before tearing up the video on demand market, it is important to know the value proposition of your program offering. This must be centred on customer benefit and adapted adapt to the new ways of consuming content.
For the good of your platform, it is vital to keep a constant watch on new market trends.
For example, you can follow OTT market news via the following resources: Advanced Television, Streaming media, Variety…
Otherwise, here are some tips and trends for 2020 that could help you in your approach: OTT market in 2020: trends, growth levers...
2. The right revenue model
AVOD, TVOD, SVOD, Free VOD? Or a combination of several models? Defining your revenue model is essential to envisage a fast ROI (return on investment) and a viable business model.
To learn more about these different models, read our full article: Online video service and monetization: which alternatives?
If you still don't know which one to choose, your editorial line and video content strategy can be a great help! Indeed, choosing the right revenue model also depends on the depth of your catalogue or its renewal.
For example, if your video catalog is full of movies, documentaries, series... prefer a SVOD revenue model. A smaller catalogue will prefer a pay-per-view model.
3. Content investment
To stand out from the competition, it is essential to invest in a video catalogue offering regular fresh content, in order to maintain the interest of the consumer and future subscribers! Think about anticipating the renewal rate of your online catalogue and think about a distribution strategy to enrich your catalogue with new series, films and documentaries.
If you do not have sufficient resources to invest, several aid funds allow you to finance the acquisition of audiovisual content, such as the European Commission - Creative Europe.
4.Thinking about an editorial strategy
Above all, it is crucial to identify its future clientele in order to better anticipate its needs and establish an editorial strategy. To do this, you can help yourself with a persona in order to identify your users' consumption habits as close as possible. To help you in its realization, use the free Hubspot tool!
This way, it will be easier to analyze and set up the tone, the content to be made available, the regularity... on the communication channels you will have selected!
Also read: 15 keys to acquire and retain users
5.Leveraging the user experience
When designing your own video platform, the design of your website and/or application is fundamental to ensure the durability of its interface. UX and UI become essential in order to offer a smooth navigation and content viewing experience. All this to improve the engagement and loyalty of your users.
Also read: Designing the interface of a video platform: how Netflix and Amazon thought about UX and UI design
Nevertheless, this process requires specific skills and numerous design steps: definition of the functional need, design of the mock-ups, static integration, dynamic integration... and a significant budget. However, you can choose to outsource this task and use SaaS software for example.
Today, the new Kinow generic web design meets the latest UX and UI requirements! Thus, you have the possibility to develop your own ready-to-use web interface. A new template, inspired by the best platforms on the market, is now available on request.
We reveal a little bit more about it below:
This design is fully customizable. This means that you can put your own brand on it: customization of the logo and graphic appearance thanks to our many tools and widgets. The interface displayed respects the "responsive design", which means that it automatically adapts itself according to the medium used. Thus, your users benefit from an optimal navigation experience, whether they are on a computer, tablet, smartphone or connected TV. Find out more about it.
6.Features to build loyalty
Once all these tasks have been completed, you can start thinking about the importance of details to retain your subscribers.
What would make them happy?
- Content management functionalities such as thematic playlists
- Custom recommendation algorithms
- A desktop application for offline playback at any time
- …
It's up to you but remember to be as creative as possible!
What needs to be used in the video streaming market in 2020 and beyond…
Why you absolutely need a mobile app
Quite simply because streaming video applications allow your content to be viewed at any time by your users.
Especially since, according to the annual report "State of Mobile 2020" produced by App Annie, the mobile market is breaking records and doesn't seem to be about to stop!
Indeed, in 2025, the world will have more than 25.2 billion connected devices. That is an increase of 177% compared to 2018. In addition, the number of sessions spent by consumers on entertainment applications in 2019 was 50% higher than in 2017.
This clearly shows the acceleration of the transfer of the stream to the mobile.
From App Annie's analysis of the video universe, we learn that:
- “The ever-growing adoption of video streaming apps on mobile devices to watch movies, TV shows, and live events on-demand helped bolster demand for Entertainment apps.
- High quality streaming, growth in user-generated content, and offline mode becoming standardized were industry advancements that helped tip the scales from screen size to on-the-go viewing.
- Competition in the video streaming space will bolster better user experiences to drive growth in downloads, usage and revenue, and ultimately lead to partnerships and consolidation to win the wallets of consumers long term.”
So, the mobile is indeed the new entertainment tool. But then how do you create your own mobile application?
The main goal of developing a mobile application is the users benefit, and therefore make sure that they can consume the content at any time / place: on the train, at home...
In order to ensure a positive viewing experience, a version of the application should be built for the main devices:
- A progressive Web App: to be used
- An OS application: for users with an IPhone, IPad etc...
- An Android app: for all Android devices
- A desktop application: for downloading and offline viewing on Windows, Mac and Linux computers
- Apple TV, Android TV...: for TV applications
For this, Kinow offers you applications for all user supports, with:
- Generic white label templates ready to use and at your image
- Several versions available: web, mobile, desktop and TV version
- An interface and user experience that meets market standards
- Maintenance and hosting included
To divide by 10 the costs and time to market for your website and your mobile, desktop and TV applications!
If you decide to embark on the mobile adventure with the Kinow team, here is a preview of a future mobile app ready to detonate :
Desktop video player: what is it for?
In the era of the mobile revolution, users' expectations are changing. Some use cases cannot be replaced entirely by a mobile application. That's where the desktop application comes in. The purpose of this application is to allow the viewing of video content offline, on a computer with a Windows, Mac or Linux OS.
What's in it for the user? Download their movies, to enjoy them offline.
Streaming platforms that have adopted a "user-centric" strategy in order to know the needs and expectations of their users and so be able to better answer them, have chosen this solution. There are several reasons for this:
- Seamless streaming quality viewing to guarantee quality of service.
- A possibility for the user to watch the content at any time without an internet connection and without having to browse through the entire video catalogue.
- The opportunity to download video content for a fixed period of time
This is especially the case of LaCinetek, a user benefit-oriented platform powered by Kinow:
If this idea corresponds to your expectations, Kinow is able to offer you a desktop application.
In conclusion
As you have understood, before launching your own video platform, several factors must be taken into account. Now you have all the keys to project yourself on the market!
To summarize, establish a technical specification before presenting your project, will help you to see immediately much clearer ! And above all, think about your value proposition.
If afterwards, you decide to turn to a turnkey cloud solution, the Kinow team can ensure a smooth running of your video platform project thanks to:
Simplified management of your content
- Your catalogue in free access with advertising and/or paying access (TVOD-SVOD)
- Streaming, live or downloading
- Organization by categories and themes
A 100% modular solution
- Integrate Kinow on your website and third-party applications (mobile app, desktop, TV...)
- Manage your video content via your control panel
- Launch your platform instantly thanks to our generic themes
An advanced monitoring of your customer data
- Real-time business and viewing statistics
- Complete overview of your customers' profiles and the activity
- Optimization of marketing actions with Business Intelligence tools
Do you have a special need? Contact our experts!
To learn more about how to develop a quality OTT video service, download our white paper "A Practical Guide to a High-Performance OTT Video Service".