Factors to Consider Before Developing An On-demand Streaming Platform

Streaming services and streaming various contents is now a crucial part of life. So how can you get a piece of the action? Here we are going to show you things to put in place before building your streaming app.

Although streaming is synonymous with movie and music content, this is not the only option for streaming. There are diverse ways where streaming would help boost the business, such as movies, yoga, education, cooking services, and many more.

Streaming app development is a complex process requiring different steps in the actualization of your platform. These steps are:

1. Technical
2. Monetization
3. Aesthetics

To start-up, let us examine the three steps involved in the building of a streaming service.

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Technical

The technical aspects in setting up a streaming service include the following:

Security and Encryption of data: the customer’s data, streaming contents, and platform safety all need detailed security measures to prevent breaches and failures.

Cloud Hosting: this inter-connected service between physical and virtual facilities provides you the ability to store then distribute your contents to your clients. The advantage of cloud hosting to the regular hosting service is that the cloud offers a wide range of networks where your contents are stored and not on just one server. Therefore, the disruption of one server does not affect the streaming of your content.

Video Quality: Your viewers’ internet connection significantly impacts their viewing experience. Therefore, your streaming should possess different video quality that will cater to different internet speeds. Video quality from 360p to 4K is a suitable range as the minimum speed for streaming video is 2Mbps.

Monetization

Revenue is a vital aspect of any venture. Consequently, implementing a monetizing model on your streaming platform is crucial. You can achieve this through the following means:

Subscription: this is a popular method streaming services adopt, where users pay a stipulated amount to access the platform, and it is usually in different stages such as basic, premium, and sometimes family plans.

Advertisement: the streaming platform may have an Ad placement at different positions during streaming. The ads serve as revenue for the service. An example of this is YouTube’s smart utilization of ad placement, where an advertisement is a huge revenue income.

Pay-Per-View: pay-per-view works for special events (live events) and regular viewing instead of a monthly subscription. However, this is usually considered an inferior option to a monthly subscription plan.

Aesthetics

Aesthetics deals with the look and feel of your streaming platform, either website or mobile apps.

Home Page: this is the first page a viewer sees. Usually contains the sign-in/ sign up page. On this page, there will be a search bar, pricing, and subscription options.

Audio and Video Playback: all streaming services dealing in audio or video contents should provide add-ons such as rewind and fast forward by 10 seconds, playback memory, subtitles, etc.

Content Download: providing an option for downloads on your platform will add an advantage to your streaming platform. As your users will be able to download videos or audio content even when there is no internet connection.