Broadcast Live With an OTT : Key Challenges

by | Jul 4, 2017 | Uncategorised | 0 comments

OTT has become a buzzword in online and entertainment world during the past year. Due to its quick market surge, it is no wonder that many live broadcasters and video publishers want to jump on the OTT bandwagon (choo-choo!).
According to a recent Juniper Research report, the OTT market is expected to reach $32 billion in revenue by 2019. However a fully-featured and flexible OTT solution can be costly, so knowing the key challenges in advance can ease the pain for the ambitious live publishers.

In this post, we’ll lay down our top 5 challenges and back them up with some cool charts deriving from survey findings.

  1. Live events are the real deal and time for maneuver is limited

    People simply adore live entertainment. From the supply side, streaming live has numerous challenges, and managing an online live event can be handful especially for events with large audiences. Pay-per-view as the most-direct revenue modelis gaining in popularity and signals the ad-hoc nature of video demand out there. But, we can’t ignore the fact that content rapidly loses from its value ever since a live broadcast ends. That’s why investing in live streaming technology is a must and top priority for broadcasters, as the graph below shows.

    Importance of live events for publishers

    Source: Unisphere Research, Streaming Media, and Transitions, Inc

  2. Quality of experience is the relevant metric, and it’s really tough getting there

    As technology advances, the bar of expected quality of delivery is set really high and live broadcasters are expanding their scope towards “quality of experience” instead of “quality of content”.

    Quality of experience tops the list for viewers

  3. Extending the longevity and repurposing the video content

    As a live video publisher, you want to get the most out of your wonderful content. In the same time, you want to be as flexible as possible while designing your offering. To be able to quickly repurpose your live content and archive it for future consumption can be a competitive advantage for the top broadcasters. Even that the value of content shrinks over time, replays in the form of video-on-demand are a powerful product for audiences who missed the live stream. Services enabling video clippings (made immediately after the original broadcast) is a new way for extending video longevity and it has proven its value, especially in sports.

    Importance of VOD and replays for publishers

    Unisphere Research, Streaming Media, and Transitions, Inc

  4. Leveraging web, social and mobile platforms

    One of the biggest challenges for live online broadcasters is to exploit all the available channels used by their audiences and use their growth effects in their favor.
    Active participation in an ever expanding list of mobile, social & web platforms ask lot of skill and knowledge, as well as a defined strategic approach. Live streaming apps and social media channels can be a great growth engine for the proactive broadcasters, as new initiatives towards integration are becoming a regular practice (like this recent Twitter move).

    Using live streaming apps and social channels for growing audiences

     Source: PWC Video Consumption Report

  5. Do all the above and control costs

    Handling all these challenges could take a lot of resources. Reaching the right balance between these investments and the returns (ROI) is the master challenge. Anyway, precisely detecting the potential gaps and analyzing their effects is a good starting point for your long-term strategy.