OTT or “over the top media” is the process of streaming media content (audio, video…) using the internet directly to viewers. It bypasses the traditional content distribution using cable/satellite. You can access OTT content using a website or an app through a media player and you require a mobile device, computer or smart TV.
OTT is the future of the entertainment industry including:
VOD or “Video on Demand” is a service that allows users to choose / play back video content that they can access online and is available any time, any where.
Within VOD, there are 3 services that are delivered via OTT:
OTT is part of “VOD”. OTT is a channel used to deliver VOD. VOD can also be delivered via cable. However, OTT is also used to stream live videos and online live sports. Below is an infographic that can clarify the difference:
A ” CDN ” or content delivery network are a group of servers distributed in various geographical area to ensure a fast delivery of content online. Companies have been serving content using CDN services, including VOD platforms.
These VOD platforms either use in-house CDN solutions or use third party services from providers such as Anevia.
Today, Video streaming represents a large portion of Internet traffic & in 2022, online videos will account for 82% of all consumer internet traffic.
Whether you provide live steams, user generated content or video on demand service, your consumers demand the best viewing experience. They expect consistent high quality video across every device, operating system and player all the time. Poor user experience is no longer tolerated.
Therefore, Traditional video CDN has been employed to minimize buffering delays, and long latencies and to improve the website’s overall performance. Yet, it has become a necessity that business who are looking to deliver the best digital content experience implement a multi CDN strategy to meet their geographical expansion, avoid outage, minimize risks and to benefit from specialized features.
Today, as video traffic grows, businesses should take their CDN strategy to the next level. P2P (peer to peer) CDN upgrades your streaming infrastructure to address your business challenge of scalability, costs and quality. P2P CDN does not replace traditional video CDN thus no investments are lost but rather optimize its performance. P2P streaming will enable viewers to consume and share the steaming at the same time. This reduces bandwidth costs and provide faster delivery, and instant scaling that is a must for live streaming and handling viewership strikes.
For example, below are 2 Nordic companies who are growing rapidly in terms of viewership & subscribers. They are competing with global streaming services like Netflix.
Viaplay subscribers rise 25% in 2019 & its top priority is to drive long term value.
NRK is competing with global OTT as Norwegians spend more on OTT than any other country in the world & 25% of Norwegians use OTT video every day.
It is a know fact that number of hours allocated to watching traditional TV is dropping & being replaced with online videos. Users access online videos from various devices with focus on mobile & computer. And Online streaming is more common than watching TV among young (15-25) in Nordic countries.
Thus, according to the info above, these two companies are focusing on building a platform that is scalable, supports various devices & video players and delivers quality video content to meet expected growth and fierce competition.
Growth will result in increased viewership & cost along with an increase in end user demand to quality which is provided by their global competitors. Thus, they need to focus on developing new technology & of course employing the right CDN solutions in their platform to meet the above challenges.
The global Video on Demand (VoD) market size is expected to grow from USD 38.9 billion in 2019 to USD 87.1 billion by 2024. Although, choosing the right CDN solution is a complex process and requires the input from various key people (operations, product development, tech director..) in different departments within the same company to evaluate the technology, security, and cost as well. Yet, deploying CDN services is a must to ensure performance growth.
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