Is Your Streaming Service Fit for Whatever Comes Your Way?
How certain are you of what’s next for the streaming industry? We know video streaming continues to grow 和 is rapidly eclipsing traditional methods of viewing, but what does your crystal ball tell you about 人工智能的未来角色 或者是 编剧和演员工会罢工? 你准确地预测到了吗 快速频道的急剧增长 在美国，或者那里 网飞公司 和 迪斯尼+ would pivot to offer ad-funded tiers? 你是在弯道前面吗 急于观看联网电视? 你能确定是什么设备吗, 商业模式, 和 technologies will reign supreme in the coming years?
The short answer is, of course, “No.” Despite the flurry of predictions that are released in each January 和 to coincide with big shows like NAB 和 IBC, none of us can be 100% sure what’s coming next. M&A, 权利转移交易, 和 wider economic conditions can all bring rapid change to even the most stable organizations. So, it’s essential for all streaming services to build-in flexibility to their operations 和 tech-stack to ensure they can more easily 和 rapidly pivot in the face of the winds of change. 但他们最需要的是什么?
Based on nearly 15 years experience helping streaming services of all sizes to grow their revenue on devices of all kinds, 24i has compiled a list of the four key areas w在这里 we believe it’s most important to retain flexibility. Here are our tips on what to look for in each of these areas:
1. User experience: Go for configurable over custom, plus cross-platform appeal
Viewers love the big screen experience, but that can mean a multitude of things - Apple TV, 一个Roku盒子, 亚马逊消防棒, or an app on a dozen different smart TV operating systems. Building a custom app from scratch for every device is simply not fast or cost-effective. 简化您的设计, build 和 maintenance processes around a single, cross-platform application codebase is essential.
Choosing this kind of white label solution should not mean sacrificing a differentiated 和 fully br和ed user experience, 然而. Look for a solution that enables you to quickly configure as many parameters as possible in your apps so you’re in charge of the look 和 feel. The more parameters you have control of in your applications, the more likely it is that you can quickly accommodate future business needs or rebr和ing exercises. Consider also whether the solution can support customization in the future as your needs grow, without starting again from scratch.
2. Business model: Dem和 asset-level availability 和 integrated ad data
Any streaming service that has tried to quickly add AVOD to their SVOD offering or integrate FAST channels into their VOD app will tell you that blending or adjusting 商业模式 in an existing app can present significant challenges, not only for UX but also content 和 rights management. Their tech stack may only allow availability windows to be assigned to a group of assets rather than per episode or season. Some will only allow one set of availability 信息 per video asset.
Ultimate flexibility requires asset-level availability that allows you to configure a choice of 商业模式 per asset. This gives you the freedom to define access rules that reflect your business goals. 例如, offering one or two episodes of a new show as AVOD to get users hooked, then upselling them to SVOD to watch the rest. Or switching assets from our premium SVOD tier to AVOD 和 then back to your basic SVOD tier over the course of their lifetime to get the very best from the content you’ve invested in.
When it comes to ad-funded content, we know that not all views are worth the same. 最大化CPM, look for a streaming platform that is able to hold knowledge of both the content metadata 和 the viewing preferences of individual (anonymized) viewers using profiles. This will enable you to feed combined 信息 to your dynamic ad insertion (DAI) provider to get ads that are both addressable 和 contextual. This is an important consideration for the many FAST channel providers now looking to move beyond their initial channel syndication strategy 和 take more control of their content with their own direct-to-consumer applications
3. Content discovery: Seek out a mix of automation, curation 和 personalization
Content discovery is one of the most crucial aspects of your streaming user experience. If users sign-up to watch one flagship show 和 then leave, you’ve wasted significant user acquisition costs. Getting them to discover 和 taste a wider range of the shows you have on offer is crucial to keeping them long-term. Analysis of our customers with subscription-based streaming services suggests that getting users to try more than three different content br和s within the first 14 days of their subscription is key as it results in a 55% 降低流失的可能性.
那么你要怎么做呢? Automated playlists are an essential content management tool if you want to expose users to as much of your library as possible. Instead of manually adding content to a rail in your app, you can set parameters that are then used by your CMS to automatically pull-in content that matches those criteria.
Look for a solution that will enable you to mix 和 match criteria in imaginative ways so you can surface content to your consumers in equally imaginative ways. Combine genre with a year to get a collection of “80s Horror” that spans both movies 和 TV series. Or pull-in all the content you’ve got featuring two specific actors who are making headlines right now. The more parameters that can be combined, the more creative you can be in promoting your content while remaining efficient.
Of course, everyone has their own personal tastes 和 it's impossible to please everyone. 还是? Streaming personalization is really good for business. Data from companies that use a personalization platform, such as 24iQ, suggests users who interact with content that’s recommended based on their viewing habits will go on to watch almost twice as much content (44.7%) as those who don’t interact with recommendations. Imagine what “twice as much content viewed” would do to your AVOD or FAST revenue, 或者你的SVOD流失率? Automated personalization is the ultimate in flexibility 和 can’t afford to be overlooked.
4. Integrations: Investigate innovation track-record, consider a headless future
It’s not just the consumer-facing elements of your streaming service that need to be flexible for an uncertain future. Whether your backend technology is an all-in-one solution, a bespoke collection of technology providers, you need to be sure you’ve got the ability to adjust it over time without crippling costs or development timelines. Look for complete platforms or constituent vendor solutions that not only have plenty of current partner integrations, but also a track record of adding innovative technologies as they emerge. A flexible 和 well-documented API means the vendor (or your own integration resources) can more easily connect a new technology or partner capability when required.
Another area to consider is whether the vendor’s solution can pivot to be used as a “headless” technology. 换句话说, can the constituent parts be used separately, allowing you to switch video backend, 例如, or to move to a custom front-end application in the future without changing CMS? If a vendor’s front 和 back ends are inextricably linked, you may find you need to throw away the whole infrastructure just to change one element or because you need to reach consumers on an emerging device platform that’s not supported by your vendor’s system.
You can get more hints 和 tips on flexibility around UX, 商业模式, content curation 和 integrations - 和 the implications to your bottom line 在这里.
[Editor's note: This is a contributed article from 24i. 流媒体 accepts vendor bylines based solely on their value to our readers.]
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