The trend towards online video distribution shows no signs of slowing down. Pay-TV operators and TV networks are extending their services to reach more viewers with streaming apps. Studios and sports leagues are going Direct-to-Consumer (D2C) to get closer fan engagement, making ad-funded streaming platforms pop up continuously across the world. Offering content via Over-the-Top (OTT) distribution is becoming increasingly popular among video entertainment providers as they seek to differentiate themselves and attract new subscribers by combining the most desirable content with convenient and personalized services at reasonable prices.
But should all these efforts be enough to maintain sustainable development for your platform?
Content is still king, and substantial investments keep going into producing high-quality of it. As the number of viewers streaming content increases, so does the potential for monetizing that valuable content.
Yet, attracting subscribers with excellent content is not enough. Video entertainment providers must also prioritize providing an exceptional user experience to retain and grow their audience base. A crucial aspect of delivering superior user experience is implementing a multi–Digital Rights Management (multi-DRM) solution to enable secure and undisrupted content distribution to subscribers anywhere and on any device.
Whether you are introducing a new streaming service, updating your OTT platform to facilitate international expansion, or venturing into live sports streaming on your OTT service, selecting the most powerful multi-DRM solution is one of the most critical aspects of building a successful OTT streaming platform.
A multi-DRM solution must be reliable, scalable and secure, offering simple integration and management as well as global support “round-the-clock” to stand out from the competition and deliver an unmatched user experience.
Based on years of experience supporting media companies and deploying successful OTT video services globally, we have identified the top 5 factors to consider when selecting a multi-DRM solution to maximize the performance and revenue potential of your OTT service.
The multi-DRM solution must enable pay-TV operators and media streaming services to quickly introduce new and attractive monetization models, supporting all business models, including subscription, transactions, advertising or Free Ad-supported Streaming Television (FAST), to differentiate from competitors.
Additionally, implementing capabilities such as DRM-based Concurrent Stream Management (CSM) and Geo-enforcement empowers you to address new customer segments and grow your OTT services’ average revenue per user.
Ensuring the right license delivery throughput and latency is vital to meet viewers’ expectations and provide a premium user experience, especially during high-profile events. The ideal multi-DRM solution should offer a high license delivery throughput (e.g., higher than 100K request per second) and a low license delivery latency (e.g., below 50ms) to help you manage the explosive growth in streaming, while guaranteeing platform scalability during high peaks.
To meet security requirements and access content from premium studios and sports rights holders, the multi-DRM solution must guarantee secure distribution on all devices by supporting the leading DRM technologies (e.g., Microsoft PlayReady, Google Widevine Modular, Apple FairPlay Streaming).
Most of the time, DRM-based-only security is not enough. The multi-DRM solution must be seamlessly integrated and supported by additional layers of security, including watermarking technologies, piracy detection mechanisms, geo-restriction services, anti-fraud services, session sharing preventing, app protection, VPN and proxy protection and CDN tokenization to mention a few.
High-profile events are the ultimate test for any OTT service. The multi-DRM solution must therefore empower your OTT service with the required reliability and availability to perform at its best.
If an OTT service goes down for even a few seconds during an important event, the impact on your business can be catastrophic. For this reason, the multi-DRM solution should offer high service availability with 24/7 operational supervision and support to guarantee broadcast-like reliability and accessibility of your stream.
The ideal multi-DRM solution must be easy to integrate and manage, flexible to adjust to each operator’s unique needs and able to continuously evolve to meet technology developments and viewers’ needs. It should support all packagers, players, devices and DRM technologies to adjust to any environment, requiring minimum integration and offering the lowest Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and Time to Market (TTM) when deploying your OTT service.
Offering top-notch content alone does not guarantee a great streaming service. But when it’s combined with a well-functioning platform, protected content and operational flexibility, your stream is on the right track to succeed.
To ensure the success of your streaming service, choosing the most powerful multi-DRM solution is key!
Get in touch with us today to learn more.