Best OTT Platform

At least 3.52 billion users worldwide now stream video content from OTT streaming services, and it may cross the 4 billion mark by 2027! The market size of OTT video will reach US$ 294.90bn by the end of 2024. This proves that over-the-top applications have successfully redefined how video content is distributed and consumed.

However, it’s never easy for content creators to develop their branded OTT streaming application from scratch. Thankfully, OTT platforms are here to help! OTT platforms help schedule, release, distribute, and manage video content effortlessly. You can also develop your white-labeled streaming platform without coding using these OTT software solutions.

In this article, we will tell you about the best OTT platforms in 2024, their benefits, their different types, and more! So, keep reading. 

What is an OTT Platform?

An OTT platform, the Over The Top platform, helps you distribute your video content directly over the internet. Hence, you don’t need to follow the traditional methods of video content delivery, like cable and satellite TV. These platforms are your gateway to the internet-based media distribution method.

These OTT platforms are often associated with a network of cloud servers called the CDN (Content Delivery Network). They also comprise built-in encoders and transcoders, which help process the videos.

So, when you upload the video on an OTT platform, the built-in encoder and transcoder encode the video and pack it in a digital video format that is suitable for internet-based streaming. Best OTT platforms use multi-DRM technology to encrypt video content. Finally, the processed video is distributed over the CDN, which your end user can access using a streaming platform.

Some OTT software helps you develop your streaming platform too! So, an OTT platform is software that helps you develop your streaming platform or application, upload and manage video to it, distribute the video over the CDN, and secure the video content through DRM.

Apart from these basic functionalities, the best OTT platforms also help you track your videos' performance, monetize the videos, and engage with your audience. Some of them let you live stream too! 

Benefits of Using an OTT Platform

An OTT platform has multiple benefits for content creators. They can deliver the best video streaming experience to their end users, who can access a wide range of original and exclusive content. A global consumer base helps increase the revenue of content creators by many folds.

1. Access to a Wide Range of Content

   Your viewers can access a wide range of content from across the globe, from movies, short videos, music videos, news, sports videos, and much more! On top of that, they can enjoy these videos on multiple devices anytime they want.

2. Original and Exclusive Content

   OTT streaming services are known for their original and exclusive content, which comes straight from the content curators. These original videos are fresh and unique, leading to greater audience engagement.

3. Personalized Recommendations

   OTT platforms use recommendation engines nowadays to deliver personalized recommendations to users. These recommendation systems study the viewers' streaming preferences and recommend videos they might like. It keeps the viewers hooked to your platform for longer, increasing revenues.

4. Multi-Platform Availability

   Most OTT platforms operate on multiple ecosystems, including Windows, Mac, etc. Moreover, most OTT platforms help you create streaming applications for multiple platforms and operating systems, including iOS, Android, Roku, WebOS, and more!

5. Cost-Effective Option

   Compared to traditional video content delivery methods, OTT platforms are cost-efficient. Also, using an OTT platform to develop your streaming application needs lesser upfront investment when compared to building it from scratch.

6. Convenience and Flexibility

   Using Over-The-Top software, your users can stream video content on any device over the internet. They are extremely easy to use for content creators and end users. Also, they allow you to stream video content from anywhere, anytime, across the globe.

7. Global Reach

   You can use an OTT platform to deliver your content to a global audience base. Viewers sitting in any part of the world can stream your content. Due to globalization, your revenue stream shoots up rapidly.

8. Interactive Features

   Top OTT platforms offer multiple user-friendly interactive features like CTA cards, wishlists, favorites, likes and shares, and more! These interactive features help in achieving higher user satisfaction. They also help in understanding the content preferences of your viewers.

9. Ad-Free Experience

   Frequent ads in between videos often irritate your viewers. You can let your subscribers enjoy ad-free content. In this way, you won’t be able to generate ad revenues, but the subscription revenues will help compensate. This OTT business model is quite popular globally.

10. Increased Revenue for Content Creators

    OTT platforms increase the revenue of content creators by many folds. Firstly, they expand their consumer base significantly, as the content is available to global users. Secondly, content creators get more freedom to create diverse types of content and apply different forms of monetization to their content.

Different Types of OTT Platforms

OTT platforms can be of many types depending on the monetization model used and the content delivered. Let’s take you through the major types of OTT platforms individually.

1. Video-on-Demand (VoD) Platforms

   Video-on-Demand (VoD) platforms deliver pre-recorded video content. The users can stream these videos anytime they want to post their release. These platforms often use subscription-based monetization called SVoD or subscription video-on-demand. However, they can also offer ad-supported video streaming, called AVoD or advertising-based video-on-demand.

2. Transactional Video on Demand (TVOD)

   The TVoD platforms use the pay-per-view (PPV) monetization model. Hence, the viewers need to pay a specific amount each time they stream content from these platforms. Since every view incurs a transaction, that is why such platforms are called transactional video-on-demand. Like SVoD and AVoD, TVoD is also a subtype of VoD.

3. Live Streaming Platforms

   Live streaming platforms deliver live video content. Hence, in this case, the video content is distributed instantly after it is recorded. These OTT live streaming platforms often include built-in encoders and CDN networks so that the raw video feed can be processed and distributed instantly.

4. Interactive Video Games

   Interactive video games, also known as interactive storyboards, are story-based interactive platforms where you can choose the story's events. You play a character in the story and make decisions that define the storyline and ending of the story.

5. Niche-Specific Platforms

   Niche-specific OTT platforms deliver content specific to a specific niche, like health and fitness, finance, career, education, etc. These platforms often target a specific audience base that can benefit from this type of information.

6. TV Network/Channel Apps

   Many ruptured TV channels and broadcast networks operate their streaming platforms. These platforms usually cover all the content broadcasted by those channels. However, some of these apps also deliver some original content that is not available on TV.

Types of Users of OTT Platforms

The type of OTT platform to choose depends on the user's use. Different users have different business needs. Hence it’s important to understand the intent of the users. Let’s explore some of them.

1. Film Enthusiasts

   Keeping a film enthusiast away from brand-new and interesting movies is very difficult. Nowadays, many movies are being released directly over the top, which has increased the craze of streaming platforms among film enthusiasts.

   So, the requirement of a film enthusiast is simple. They want to stream the movies from anywhere, anytime around the day, and enjoy high-quality video and audio content.

   So, they prefer platforms that offer lower buffering, smooth streaming at low internet, high-quality video content (preferably HD and 4K), and Dolby surround sound.

2. Cord-cutters

   Cord-cutters want to say goodbye to traditional cable television. So, these people often migrate to internet-based streaming solutions like OTT and IPTV.

   They want to stream different types of content like movies, news, live sports, and others without any need for cord-based cable TV. So, these viewers often focus on the diversity of the content available on your platform.

3. Educators & Students

   Educators nowadays provide online tuition. These online lessons use video or audio content to explain different topics. Due to this reason, many eLearning businesses and educators develop video streaming platforms where they can publish video lectures for their students. The students access these videos from there and continue their learning.

4. Social Streamers

   Social streamers like to stream videos (both live and on-demand) across their social media platforms. These videos can be of many types. Some talk about society, and culture, any special event. and try to create social awareness for a cause, while others are just random videos.

   So, they need OTT platforms that can be integrated with multiple social media platforms. Also, many streamers want to broadcast their content simultaneously on all these platforms.

5. Content Creators

   The content creators create video content and look to generate revenues from it. So, their main focus is to monetize their content and engage with their viewers to convert them into loyal subscribers and long-time content consumers.

   That is why they look for OTT platforms with enough flexibility in monetization models. Many reputed OTT software enable them to create multiple subscription plans. They can also offer ad-based free content to their viewers, with server-side ad insertion and client-side ad insertion.

6. News Junkies

   Nowadays, almost all news channels simultaneously broadcast live news feeds online. News lovers can stream the news feed on multiple devices anytime, anywhere.

   For news streaming, news broadcasters often need an OTT platform to broadcast live content with very low latency. Also, most news channels want to save those live feeds to reuse these recorded videos later as VOD content.

Features Offered by an OTT Platform

Any OTT platform must offer basic features like a content library, video CMS, and subscription management. However, the best OTT platforms offer advanced features like adaptive streaming, DVR-enabled live streaming, multilingual platform, multi-DRM security, dynamic watermarking, multi-device compatibility with device restrictions management, and more.

1. Subscription Management

   The subscription management feature lets you manage subscription plans, subscribers, subscription fees, and the content that can be accessed after buying the subscription. Some OTT tools let you add multiple subscription plans with different sets of content available under them.

2. Content Library

   The content library is the repository of all video content available on your streaming platform. You can use this content library to manage and modify existing videos, their metadata, and the additional information and documents available with them, like cast and crew, recipe PDFs, etc.

3. Resume Watching

   The pause and resume feature lets your users pause the video in between and then resume it from there after some time. They are mostly available for VoD content, but some very good OTT platforms also offer this feature for live videos. In such cases, it is called DVR-enabled live streaming.

   Also, some OTT platforms let users resume watching videos from the episode where they left the last day. This resume-watching feature is extremely beneficial for web series and nested video content.

4. Subtitles and Language Options

   Adding subtitles to a video helps people understand your content better. Anyone who is not that familiar with the language of the content can read the subtitles alongside watching.

   Apart from subtitles, many OTT platforms nowadays offer multiple language options to users. When they choose the language of their choice, they can view the content available in that language.

5. Parental Controls

   Parental controls let you decide what content your kids can view. It allows your viewers to ensure that their child can access content appropriate to their age. It helps protect the kids from explicit content and other security threats.

6. Multiple Device Compatibility

   Most OTT platform software lets you create streaming platforms that can operate on multiple devices and operating systems. Also, many OTT platforms can be accessed simultaneously on multiple devices through a single account. However, in many OTT platforms, the admins can set device restriction rules restricting unlimited simultaneous streaming on many devices.

7. Live Stream

   Nowadays, most top OTT platforms support both on-demand and live streaming. It lets the viewers enjoy live videos and events like live sports matches, live news broadcasts, live music concerts, etc.

8. Video Content Management System (CMS)

   A video content management system lets you manage everything about your video content over a single dashboard. You can upload and edit the videos and their metadata, add subtitles, set the monetization models, track content performance, and perform many more operations that can be performed through the CMS.

How to Select the Right OTT Platform?

To select the best OTT platform, you must verify a few things first, like their customer support, pricing plans, monetization options, cloud hosting, etc. Apart from these common objectives, you might look for features specific to your business needs, like live streaming and device compatibility.

1. Technical Support

   Content creators might get stuck operating the OTT platforms. A good technical support team can help you out in such situations. Some OTT platforms like Muvi are known for their exceptional technical support.

2. Pricing and Subscription Plans

   The pricing of the OTT platform must be within your budget. You might get OTT software options as low as US$ 25 per month. However, such plans have certain limitations. If you have a good amount of content to be distributed, it will be better to go with higher plans.

3. Live Streaming

   If you want to broadcast live content on your streaming platform, you will have to check whether your OTT solution provider offers live streaming solutions. Some top OTT solutions offer built-in live streaming support, while others add this feature on special requests. You should always choose a built-in option.

4. Device Compatibility

   Your audience might like to stream multiple devices like smartphones, tablets, or smart TVs. So, the OTT tools you choose or build must run on multiple devices and OS environments. Best OTT solutions like Muvi One let you develop streaming applications for 16+ OS environments.

5. HLS Video Player

   HLS is the most widely used streaming protocol across the globe. Also, it is compatible with most modern browsers and devices. A built-in HLS video player lets you stream HLS videos without any external or third-party player.

6. Platform Integration

   Many video streaming companies must integrate multiple payment gateways, video editing tools, live-streaming tools, etc., into the OTT platform. Hence, the chosen OTT software must allow easy integration with all these third-party solutions.

7. Compare OTT Platform Products

   As a user, you must compare multiple OTT platform products before deciding which one to buy. This is because each platform has certain USPs that others might miss. So, you must see which platform satisfies your business needs the most.

8. On Cloud/ On-Premise

   Cloud hosting and storage give your platform more flexibility and reliability. Cloud-based servers can tackle multiple streaming requests, a large number of concurrent events and viewers, and offer enhanced security. Hence, if not extremely necessary, you should always go for cloud-based platforms rather than on-premise setups.

9. Multiple Monetization Models

   With time, the preferences of viewers have diversified. Earlier, viewers, in general, were ready to spend more to get ad-free content. But nowadays, many viewers are ready to see relevant ads if they get to watch the content for free.

   Multiple monetization models already existed for many years, but this sudden rise in the popularity of ad-supported video streaming has made it even more important. Content creators now offer multiple monetization options like subscription, membership, pay-per-view, and ad-based free streaming to remain competitive.

   That is why, when choosing an OTT platform, ensure it supports most of these monetization models.

Top OTT Platforms in 2024

Name	Free Trial	Demo	Pricing
Muvi	14 Days	Yes	Starting price at $399/month
5CentsCDN	7 Days	Yes	Starting price at $2.5(1 TB of bandwidth)
StreamShark	7 Days	Yes	Starting price at $199/month
JW Player	7 Days	Yes	Custom Pricing
Cincopa	7 Days	Yes	Starting price at $25/month

Many OTT platforms are in the market, but not all are suitable for professional video streaming. So, to help you choose the right platform, we have hand-picked the top OTT platform in 2024. This section will explain why we like them, their pros and cons, and their pricing structure. 

1. Muvi

Muvi One is one of the most popular OTT platforms, which provides you with all the necessary features to launch your own OTT platform out of the box. Along with a web-based streaming platform, Muvi One lets you launch your own OTT apps for Android TV, Apple TV, Roku TV, and 12 other OS ecosystems without coding. Developers get API access, which makes customization easier.

Launching your OTT platform with Muvi One will get built-in multi-DRM, dynamic watermarking, geo-blocking, and more! Secure streaming is one of the biggest USPs of Muvi One. Along with security, a built-in CDN server network ensures ultra-low latency and minimum buffering.

Along with long-form videos, you can also add short videos like YouTube shorts using Muvi Minis. You can also onboard content partners, who can upload and manage video content on your behalf. Muvi Kart enables you to sell merchandise and products related to their content over the same platform. 

Pricing

    Muvi One currently offers the following pricing plans:

• Standard Plan will cost users US$ 399 per month.
• For the Professional Plan, users need to pay US$ 1499 per month.
• Their Enterprise Plan will cost users US$ 3900 per month.

2. 5centsCDN

5CentsCDN is a CDN solution specialist that offers cloud hosting solutions for OTT Platforms. It offers OTT services that let you deliver on-demand content to PCs, tablets, smart TVs, and mobile devices.

It also helps those streaming platforms migrate effortlessly to the CDN server network. It offers live-streaming solutions too! You can manage content, subscriptions, and billing using their OTT software.       

Pricing

5CentsCDN charges only for CDN services in their pricing plans. Users will have to pay additional costs for additional services, as per their requirements. 

For the CDN, 5CentsCDN has the following pricing plans:

• Users will get 1 TB of bandwidth for the standard plan at US$ 2.5. 
• The volume plan will cost users US$ 7.5 per TB.
• For the premium plan, users will get 1 TB of bandwidth at US$ 10. 
• The enterprise plan will cost users US$ 15 per TB.

For the additional OTT-specific solutions, the additional costs are as follows:

Feature	Price
Video Encoding	US$ 10/month for 1K output minutes
Live Recording	US$ 10/month for 50K minutes
SD Live Transcoding	US$ 12.5/profile per month
HD Live Transcoding	US$ 25/profile per month
Video Player	US$ 5 per MM HITS

3. StreamShark

StreamShark is an end-to-end live streaming and video-on-demand solution provider, that has been offering reliable streaming services for over 10 years. 

It is one of the most reliable OTT live streaming platforms offering secured streaming with a smooth viewing experience.

They help big enterprises create branded channels for their business needs and events. Organizations can significantly reduce the external bandwidth used in their live streams using their peer-to-peer live streaming feature. This technology turns the user’s computers into distributor nodes. 

Pricing

    StreamShark offers the following pricing plans:

• The standard plan starts at US$ 199 per month.
• For the team plan, users need to pay US$ 499 per month. 
• The business plan starts at US$ 999 per month.

4. JW Player

JW Player offers end-to-end video broadcasting solutions for broadcasters, content publishers, and businesses. Their embedded video players can run on any screen and deliver fully secured streaming with studio DRM.

Their solutions are suitable for multiple business and streaming needs like live streaming, VOD streaming, sports streaming, church streaming, etc. They also offer specially crafted solutions for public broadcasters and news broadcasters, who broadcast content on a massive scale.

In short, JW Player is a complete video streaming solution that lets you deliver, play out, engage, and monetize your videos on a massive scale. 

Pricing

JW Player follows a custom pricing model where experts will talk to users, understand their needs, and then curate a specific payment plan. Before that, users get a one-month free trial to try the product. 

5. Cincopa

Cincopa is a renowned video hosting software that offers world-class features like Digital Assets Management, Video API, integration with 3rd-party apps, video CDN, 4K video streaming, and more!

They offer built-in solutions for enterprises, content creators, and eLearning instructors. You can deliver OTT videos, eLearning courses, and enterprise-grade video streaming experiences using their solutions.

They help you host your videos, manage your video assets over a single platform, enhance them, publish them, and analyze their performance. 

Pricing

    Cincopa currently follows the pricing plans given below:

• The Plus plan starts at US$ 25 per month. 
• The corporate plan will cost users US$ 99 per month. 
• Users must pay US$ 350 per month for the enterprise plan. 

Challenges Faced in OTT Platforms

As the world of video streaming is rapidly changing, new technologies are bringing new challenges to the OTT business. With the evolution of smart TVs, connected set-top boxes, and streaming sticks, the way people access OTT content is changing. This change is leading to challenges related to content compatibility, content processing, device fragmentation, and more!

1. Smart TV Processing Issues

   All the smart TV operating systems have certain application guidelines, which every OTT software must follow. If you don’t follow them, your application will face multiple processing issues, and sometimes the store might even reject it.

   Also, as many new smart TV OS are emerging or getting upgraded every day, very few experienced developers are developing these apps. Due to a lack of experience, smart TV app developers often commit fatal mistakes in the framework and architecture of the apps.

   Even when the streaming platform is successfully developed and published, the end-users might face multiple issues. The major issues faced by the users include issues related to Wi-Fi connectivity, frame rate, sound quality, etc.

2. Bandwidth and Internet Connectivity

   The bandwidth needed to consume premium-quality video content depends on the size of the screen you are using. If the screen size increases, the quality of the videos will decrease automatically until and unless your internet provider supports the usage of higher bandwidth.

   One solution to have a temporary fix for this issue is adaptive bitrate streaming. The streaming platforms can encode the videos into video chunks of multiple resolutions. The server will automatically pick the video quality that suits the bandwidth availability of the users during streaming. Popular OTT solutions like Muvi One offer this feature.

3. Content Piracy and Copyright Infringement

   Stealing and piracy of OTT content have become serious causes of concern in recent years. Most leading OTT streaming services have faced such issues in recent years. That is why security-based OTT technology, like multi-DRM and digital watermarking, is growing popular daily.

   Multi-DRM is crucial for secure streaming, as it prevents unwanted users from accessing OTT platforms. During encoding, the content is locked using a key and hence can only be decoded using a suitable DRM key.

   Digital watermarking helps protect against screen recording attempts. Dynamic watermarks keep floating across the screen and are difficult to remove from the screen recordings.

4. Content Licensing and Rights

   Content licensing and copyrights make any streaming service the legal distributor of any video. The streaming services can stream only the content for which they have legal rights.

   In recent years, the value of content licenses for premium content has skyrocketed. As a result, multiple disputes have emerged over streaming such content.

5. Competition and Fragmentation

   Over the years, the devices used for streaming OTT content have diversified. In the beginning, smartphones were predominately used for streaming OTT content. Hence, most of the streaming platforms focused on mobile devices only.

   But currently, smart TVs and tablets are quite popular video streaming devices. However, only a few streaming platforms have OTT apps for smart TVs. That is why such platforms are leaving their competitors behind.

   Another major challenge is device fragmentation. Even smartphones and smart TVs run on multiple OS, each with multiple versions. Hence, you must frequently create OS-specific applications and upgrade them to higher versions.

6. Content Compatibility

   Is your content compatible with the OTT platforms? To ensure that, please follow the specific video formats and encoding profiles. Though many video formats are available, you must choose between MP4, MKV, AVCHD, and AVI for an OTT platform.

   Some very good OTT Platforms like Muvi One let you upload videos in any format. Their built-in encoder and transcoder convert them into the MP4 format.

Latest Market Trends Relating to OTT Platform

In recent years, new streaming ecosystems like streaming sticks, IPTV boxes, gaming consoles, and wearables like VR headsets have given a new dimension to streaming. Also, the language boundary is slowly fading, as most of the online video content is now localized in multiple languages. As a result, the demand for original content is increasing in all languages across the globe.

1. Expansion of Streaming Devices

   Streaming devices have expanded rapidly in the last few years. This expansion is multi-lateral. The already-present streaming devices like mobile devices and smart TVs have developed in terms of improved OS version, UI, and UX. Along with that, devices like gaming consoles have presented opportunities to stream OTT content through them.

   Also, the global cord-cutting trend has led to a rapid increase in the popularity of streaming sticks, streaming cubes, and IPTV boxes. Fire TV, Apple TV, Roku, and others are quite popular nowadays. All these streaming ecosystems run on different OS and need different forms of OTT applications.

2. Global Expansion

   As internet access expands globally, more people are inclined towards OTT content. Now, the content is not limited to a specific region only. Audiences from across the globe can access it. The subtitles help people understand the content easily.

   Also, people are now using voiceover services to content the audio of the content into other languages, keeping the video intact. These types of content are becoming quite prevalent globally.

3. Increased Advertising Opportunities

   OTT advertising has come a long way. Currently, OTT advertising forms the major proportion of OTT revenue every year. In 2024, OTT advertising revenue is expected to reach US$ 176.60 billion in 2024.

   This increase in revenue is running hand-in-nad with advancement in ad insertion techniques for OTT videos. Nowadays, many OTT platforms are using SCTE markers for ad insertion.

4. Original Content Production

   Earlier, people used to watch remade content happily, But nowadays, people are inclined towards original content only. Streaming platforms have started producing original and unique content to rapidly fulfill the viewer's demands.

5. Increased Availability of Content

   With the rapid increase in content creation, the availability of content has increased manifold. The best part is, nowadays, ample content is available in multiple languages, catering to multiple genres.

6. Partnerships and Bundling

   Bundling refers to those SVOD or TVOD content pricing plans that offer access to a specific collection of content. For example, a streaming platform might have a separate SVOD bundle for superhero movies, giving access to all the superhero movies available.

   Many OTT platforms enable content creators to do partnerships with other content creators. In doing so, the content partners can publish their content on the platform developed by the content creators. Hence, both parties get a platform to generate revenue from their content.

What is the Cost of OTT Software?

If you are looking for an OTT platform software that caters to specific solutions like CDN or video player, you might get what you want at lower prices, starting from US$ 20 onwards.

But, if you are looking for an end-to-end OTT tool that lets you develop your own OTT platform and streaming applications without coding, you might need to pay a higher price. The cost of such over-the-top software starts at around US$ 200. 

Conclusion

Amid the rapidly growing trend of cord-cutting and the popularity of original content, OTT platforms have become the need of the hour. This OTT platform list provided here will help you choose the right software to create your own streaming platform and stream premium videos across the globe in multiple languages.

Do verify the features before choosing one, as every OTT tool has pros and cons. But in general, you must choose a platform that offers built-in CDN, DRM, the ability to build streaming apps for multiple OS environments, and a well-organized video library with analytics.

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