An Ultimate Guide to OTT Video App Development

Wide Reach

Media streaming traffic on smartphones and innovative TV platforms has increased dramatically in recent years.

According to estimates, global cell data traffic is expected to increase from 28 exabytes per month in 2019 to 77 exabytes per month in 2022. That’s a threefold increase in three years!

From 2017 to 2022, global mobile data traffic is expected to increase (in exabytes per month) (Statistics courtesy of Statistica)

In reality, the viewers of various video app development services would account for 82 percent of all internet traffic in 2021!

People are clearly streaming content on their phones and television screens. To attract audiences, you can take advantage of this pattern. This is the most important justification for any OTT video app development company to start curating their software.

Increase your earnings

Subscriptions, purchases, and ads are the avenues to monetize the OTT operation. OTT video app development services sales are soaring in all three ways.

SVOD sales are forecast to increase from $25 billion in 2017 to $69 billion in 2023. During the same time frame, advertising sales (AVOD) are projected to increase from $20 billion to $47 billion. In 2020, income from TVOD (pay-per-view) is forecast to hit $46 billion.

For your OTT subscription service, you don’t have to pick between the two models. A hybrid model, which combines SVOD, TVOD, and AVOD, can be used to monetize the content. Provide free non-premium videos to your subscribers when charging them to watch premium content.

[Also Read: How To Develop An App Like Instagram?]

Choose a Niche

Going niche specific is the secret to winning in a competitive business room. An OTT video streaming technology is a broad concept, and you must first determine which niche you will pursue before joining this industry.

What types of images or television shows can your smartphone app or website stream? Maybe you want to make a kids’ OTT video program that streams Cartoon or Disney shows?

Making a judgment on the subject is critical. You can create your Netflix-style service that caters to all potential users, the unique feature of your service might become its USP.

Create a Content Inventory

Content is at the core of an OTT video app.

When attempting to create a video streaming app similar to Netflix, you must first determine what the material would be. You can’t miss creating an inventory of content that you’ll watch on your OTT video app when it launches because the content is the very backbone of it. Often, keep in mind that the material must be fantastic and unique from other OTT platforms.

Select a Business Model

Advertising-based, subscription-based, and transactional revenue structures are also used for OTT providers.

Your app concept would suggest the market model you can use. These market models each have their combination of benefits and drawbacks

SVOD: Subscription video on demand is a model in which subscribers pay a monthly or annual fee to the software in exchange for access to video material. This model maintains consumers engaged while still providing app owners with many ways to gain and raise sales from engaging material.

AVOD: An advertisement-based Video on Demand model is one that allows users to download videos for free. It does not charge consumers anything and allows them to watch videos for free. The only disadvantage is that this model forces consumers to see advertisements, and software developers charge marketers to raise sales.

TVOD: This market model allows consumers to pay for individual material using a pay-per-view model. In comparison to SVOD and AVOD, this model is less common in the OTT video app industry.

Make Your Website

When you’ve decided on a business plan, it’s time to start building the first module of your OTT service: your website. Web browsers are also the primary source of video material, with about 39% of consumers preferring to view content on them. It enables you to:

Obtain a high ranking of search engines
Taking payments is easy.
Gain the confidence of your users.
Answer questions quickly and effectively.

Overall, mainly though the customers cannot use your OTT smartphone app, a website offers a simple experience. As a result, try developing a website first and then a smartphone version.

Make a Tech-stack Decision

Your video app development company will need to decide on selecting the most appropriate resources and technology. You will need to analyze various market aspects for the same.

Although there are various software and third-party platforms available for creating OTT applications, the ultimate judgment would be based on the own needs and product concept. So, before you decide on the technology, we recommend speaking with your video OTT app developers to get more details.

Many businesses often use third-party APIs and software to speed up the production phase and have an MVP version of the finished app ready to deploy and evaluate in the sector. A lot of third-party APIs, on the other hand, is for a fee.

You will need to do some research to ensure that you don’t overpay and get what you need at a fair price.

Here’s a rough engineering stack for making Netflix-like OOT apps:

Kotlin, Swift, JavaScript, and Python are examples of programming languages.
React, NodeJS, and Win.JS are examples of libraries and frameworks.
MongoDB, Oracle, Amazon EC2, MySQL, and Cassandra are examples of database and cloud services.
Amazon SES, Falcor, and Urban Airship are examples of utilities.
AWS, Web RTC, Socket.io, and Wowza are examples of third-party APIs.
GitHub, Git, and Jenkins are examples of DevOps tools.

Create a Mobile App For Your OTT Video App Development Company

Now that you’ve learned everything there is to know about making an app like Netflix or Hulu, it is time to put your plans into action and get your app built. So, aim to assemble a group of ambitious developers and press on to dominate the OTT market.

Bytes Technolab Inc. is one such company that pioneers in app development and will provide its customers with top-notch services.