What should you consider when scaling your OTT offering?

The video industry is evolving rapidly. Consumer’s appetite for new offerings and content is growing, which has led to many new companies entering the market. Considering how fast the dynamics in the ecosystem have been changing, it’s no longer enough for service providers to maintain the status quo to remain viable to users; instead, an ever-increasing focus on optimization is required. With a robust foundation, your OTT service can continue to grow and differentiate itself from the competition.

A few key things to note when scaling your OTT offering:
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1. Own the platform migration process

Integrating various tools from different vendors is a tedious process - even more so if you plan to migrate to an entirely new platform. This task is made even more daunting in that potential failure in delivering a good end-user experience can directly lead to subscriber churn.

For example: A seamless migration of subscription management is paramount so that your subscribers can continue to access their content. The same also applies to video content migration, so that content discovery remains easy for the user.

All the above mentioned processes are intertwined - and adding or replacing different tools can be expensive and time-consuming. The Accedo One Marketplace is designed to simplify this, allowing video service providers to switch between third-party vendors without impacting the end-user experience.

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2. Make better decisions with data analytics

Making the most of your analytics tools to gain performance insights is the first step to data-driven decisions. As your OTT service grows, understanding how changes to user experience affects consumer engagement, or which content recommendations lead to increased viewership, will guide your optimization decisions for different parts of your service. 

To help you in this quest, we have developed Accedo One Insights - our in-built analytics tool allowing you to gain fast insights into your users' viewing habits.

Many analytics tools provide high-level metrics on your video service's  performance. Although these tools lack the ability to recommend practical optimization tactics, the metrics will allow you to form hypotheses for experimentation. You need responsive systems in your infrastructure that allow you to make quick adjustments, such as the powerful content management features in Accedo One Editor.

When a significant change is implemented - such as adding a new feature or replacing a third-party vendor - your OTT data analytics tool should have the flexibility to measure the impact on consumer engagement to drive further actions.
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3. Ensure quality and stability

In an increasingly competitive market, offering a video service of high quality and stability is the baseline expectation of your end-users - as even a minor drop in quality could lead to subscriber churn.

An easily overlooked, but highly impactful, benefit of improving video quality is the decreased cost of customer support. Recently, Accedo worked with a client to replace their large in-house development team with the Accedo One SaaS platform. We achieved high rates of end-user satisfaction and engagement scores by delivering a stable and high-quality platform while handling a complex migration process. This directly resulted in our client saving nearly 1 million USD/year due to a 75% reduction in customer support calls.
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4. Optimize the user experience

Most OTT service providers recognize that their content will continue to play a crucial role in attracting new users. But, content will only take a service so far. Customers tend to return to a  service when it provides an intuitive and engaging user experience. Often, service providers fail to place enough focus on end user experience while evaluating new vendors.

Providing a high-quality service goes beyond adding new features and functionalities to your platform. It involves understanding your user’s journey, how they interact with your app, and the paths they take to discover the content they desire.

Understanding how your users behave can equip you with opportunities to enhance your service, stay ahead of the game, and entice your customers to return.
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5. Scale your service over time

As you grow and scale your service, you are likely to integrate with third-party vendors that facilitate evolution. If your underlying infrastructure isn’t set up to handle the level of scale you desire, your service might end up falling short of consumer expectations - eventually losing subscribers to a competitor. Cloud-based infrastructure and ease of integration are two key points to consider for scaling over time.

Our team at Accedo has worked on several migration projects for services ranging from 50K to over 1M subscribers. A successful project goes way beyond careful planning; it involves managing partner relationships for a frictionless end-user transition. Accedo One Marketplace is built to support video providers in their technology choices and business decisions.

Accedo One empowers your service to thrive, enabling you to swiftly upgrade your platform whenever the market conditions demands - while ensuring an enriching user experience.

Learn more about how our powerful SaaS platform can guide you to scale your service. Book a demo with one of our platform experts.