The video streaming industry develops by leaps and bounds. More people and businesses get involved in the area as they turn to video content instead of something else. Even the popularity of video streaming for government gains momentum.
Some people are still skeptical about video streaming considering it to be the way to kill time and not to be serious. They think videos are up to the youth to have fun for a while. However, it is hard to deny that video streaming continues to gain popularity among both the youth and the older generations.
Those businesses and content creators who understand the benefits of video streaming have already created their OTT platform and taken advantage of their possibilities.
Let’s talk a bit more about video streaming, why it’s popular, and what industries should consider trying it.
What is Video Streaming?
Video streaming is the method of transmitting a video when the video is delivered at the same time as the user watches it – in real-time. It means that consumers don’t need to download the video on their devices.
What users need is an Internet connection. The rest happens under the hood. Diving into technical details, video file data is divided into many small pieces of video called chunks and then transmitted to the consumer.
Everything happens in real-time: a video player connects to a remote server that stores videos and is programmed to compress these files for transferring them over the Internet. Once the video player receives the media files, it decompresses and interprets them.
When the consumer watches the interpreted chunk, it is automatically removed. The transmission happens with the help of a particular protocol, such as TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) or UDP (User Datagram Protocol).
Why is Video Streaming Skyrocketing?
Let’s talk more about video streaming popularity. There are many reasons the video streaming platforms have become popular and are gaining even more recognition among businesses from different spheres.
1. Viewers Watch What They Want Whenever They Want
Unlike the traditional TV with a set number of channels and the video run at a specific time, video streaming allows consumers to access their favorite media files anytime they want.
Moreover, they don’t need to be tied to a specific device as many OTT platforms can be accessed from all major devices today.
2. Consumers Can Choose What Features To Pay For
Quite popular monetization models are AVOD, SVOD, TVOD, FVOD, and other monetization strategies. However, more often, OTT platform owners use a hybrid model.
For instance, they allow customers to purchase one video at a time or pay for a monthly subscription. So, the customer decides whether to purchase only one piece of video content or buy a subscription.
3. Each Customer Has Personalized Recommendations
Customer likes when they can save time searching for what to watch. OTT platforms have the functionality to develop personalized recommendations that will meet consumers’ interests.
4. Younger Generations Tend To Cut the Cord and Turn To Iptv or OTT Streaming Solutions
IPTV/OTT providers can benefit a lot as the youth prefer the convenience of OTT platforms to cable TV with a set number of channels. If your audience is younger people, it is better to try video streaming.
5. OTT Platforms Can Deliver Video Content Anywhere in the World
Content Delivery Network, CDN for IPTV, and video streaming give a great advantage to businesses as it makes it possible to stream videos even on the other mainland so that a business can have an audience in a different country.
What Industries Should Consider Video Streaming?
MSOs/ISPs
People are moving to OTT platforms instead of watching TV content. MSO service providers can benefit a lot from their delivery capabilities, as well as video content.
Keeping in mind that the competition in the industry is extremely tense and MSOs have to fight for every single customer, new features can bring many benefits to MSO service providers and extra revenue.
Satellite/Broadcast
Satellite providers face a row of challenges, such as reaching an audience that the satellite cannot cover, infrastructure maintenance and setup cost a fortune, latencies in streaming happening due to weather conditions, etc.
Video streaming with the help of OTT/IPTV platforms can solve these issues and increase the level of customer satisfaction which will, most likely, influence your income.
Content Owners
If you are a content maker but still haven’t tried videos or you have videos but put your content on social media platforms, you should definitely consider enhancing your video streaming with the help of the IPTV and OTT service.
It will give you additional opportunities for content monetization, such as subscription video on demand, advertising-based on demand, transactional video on demand, and many others. Moreover, it will protect your content from being watched by those who haven’t paid for it. Additionally, it can handle scalability, which is great if you want to expand your business in the future. The representatives of the following spheres can benefit a lot: fitness, educational and religious sectors, entertainment, cooking, etc.
Governments
Video streaming for governments can be quite beneficial as it can contribute to the credibility of government-public relationships. If government agencies are looking to be more transparent to people, they should try video streaming showing the behind-the-scenes or answering questions important to the public.
The citizens will be more informed about what is on the government’s mind and what is generally going on in their cities or, even, countries.
