How to Start a Successful VOD Platform in 2022

Do you love watching movies on Netflix? Or, Amazon Prime?

Well, then you must know about the growing craze for VOD content such as movies, series, original shows, and others. Being easy to monetize and with the ability to reach a wide audience base, people have been opting for White Label VOD Platform to start and grow their VOD businesses.

As stated in a recent market report, the global VOD industry is expected to grow to US $87.1 billion by 2024 from its benchmark of US $38.9 billion in 2019 while growing at a CAGR of over 17%.  Almost all the leading streaming services are now VOD and are utilizing VOD platforms at their best – Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, and Hotstar, to name a few. 

As VODs are replacing the traditional TV content rapidly, more and more businesses are opting for it. At the same time the rising demand from the audience has made VOD content high on demand for a while now. With the increasing audience inclination towards watching VOD content and the availability of VOD service providers, this sector is set to grow further in terms of viewership, revenue, and volume in the coming years.

If you are planning to start your own VOD business, then it’s the most suitable time to launch your VOD platform to grab the low hanging opportunities and excel further. In this blog we will guide you through how to start a successful VOD platform in 2022. 

Guide to Start a Successful VOD Platform: Steps to Follow

1. Research and Plan

A well-researched and well-planned business idea is easier to convert. The VOD industry is huge with the average revenue of over US $50 billion as of 2022. As predicted by a recent market report, the number of VOD users is expected to reach 2.298 billion by 2026. These figures imply two main factors to remember while planning your VOD business – 

• The market potential is high

And

•  The competition is strict

Just starting a VOD business won’t take you anywhere unless you have planned and prepared well to take it to the right direction.  This first step is what makes the foundation for your business and here are the pointers to crack it right. 

• Do a thorough market research with special emphasis on the region you will be operating in. For instance, if you are starting in the U.S. market, then a crystal clear picture of all the market growth factors, restraining factors, key players, demand graph and others will help you get off on the right foot
• Do a regional as well as global competition analysis as at some point of time you will consider scaling your business up/globalizing it
• Understand the strategies, target, performance, and audience of the leading/dominant players
• Have an in-depth understanding on your target audience – their demographics, behavioral pattern for VOD consumption, demand, and others
• Identify the pain points in terms of content, pricing, and other factors as you must include some solutions for that in your business that will be your USP (Unique Selling Proposition)
• Analyze the business models and pricing models of your competitors as well as understand their unique strategies that drive customers to their business

At the end of this step you should have a transparent business plan and well-defined sets of solutions that you will offer through your VOD business. 

2. Produce Your Content

‘Content isn’t king. It’s the Kingdom.’ None of your hard work and investment will make any difference if your content is not good. Here the definition of ‘good’ is tricky – your content has to be unique, appropriate, and competitive at the same time for all your audience. 

Here are our handpicked professional tips for you to do this right –

• Always keep a variety of content in terms of genre, language, length, type and others. Because even if your target audience is not that broad, it will help you cater to all of them more efficiently
• Emphasize on the regional content of various languages and genres apart from the generic content
• Produce more original content like original movies, series, documentaries etc. As such content will be exclusively available on only your VOD platform, it will help you acquire and retain more customers
• Keep the provision to personalize your content based on the user search/watch history, likes, dislikes, ratings etc. so that each of your audience can browse through a personalized home page on your VOD app or website. AI-based recommendations can do wonders in this case and you should check whether your VOD platform provider offers this solution. We are going to discuss more about how to choose a VOD platform provider in the next section

3. Opt for a VOD Platform Provider

This step is crucial and often determines how successful your VOD business is going to be. As you can understand, a quality VOD platform is everything for a VOD business and here are what features/solutions to look for while choosing one –

• Offers your own branded website and app
• Lets you easily launch native iOS and Android apps to leverage the growing iOS and Android ecosystem
• Comes with chromecast streaming support that lets the viewers watch via connected browsers or offline
• Provides customizable online audio and video player to help you with customization, branding, cross-device/browser compatibilities, code embedding and many more
• Lets you implement strict biometric authentication for your end-users easily
• Has easy social media integration and SEO optimization tools
• Enables you to personalize user experience through AI-based recommendations

And 

• Offers multi-DRM protection including secure content storage, visible and forensic watermarking, protection from screen recording, and others

Security, content storage, content management & content delivery – these are some of the main focus areas while going through the features of a VOD platform. Additionally, always give attention to avail more for competitive advantages such as – multiple monetization models, analytics & insights, how easily can implement promotional offers etc.

Another important factor to focus on is – what’s the process to launch your VOD platform. Do you need good technical knowledge or require in-house developers? Or, the VOD platform provider takes care of everything? A top-notch VOD platform provider will let you launch your VOD platform without any technical knowledge and you should always go for the one that offers so. Also, ensure that the maintenance, update and other activities can be done easily as you won’t want to assign developers or invest extra for that. 

In a nutshell, go for a VOD platform provider that offers all the above-mentioned solutions, lets you launch your platform without needing much technical knowledge and provides 24/7 support.

4. Start Marketing

Include all forms of marketing in your strategy like digital marketing, content marketing, and email marketing, to name a few. Always start your marketing campaigns like social media campaigns, email marketing campaigns, notifications, and others before launching your VOD platform.

Every form of marketing has its unique advantages and not only should you do marketing at the initial phase but it is a continuous process to optimize your business growth. Research says that email marketing has 4400% ROI on an average while 72% online marketers claim that content creation is their most effective SEO tactic and your VOD business is not an exception in this case.  Starting marketing at an early phase will help you in brand recognition and better brand positioning in the VOD market.

5. Analyze & Optimize

It is recommended to analyze the key performance indicators (KPIs) mainly related to revenue, and viewership such as recurring revenue, average watchtime, peak hours, bounce rate and more. The good news is that you won’t need any additional tool/system for this provided you have chosen the right VOD platform where this solution comes in-built.

Start and Grow Your VOD Business with Muvi

Muvi, an all-in-one VOD platform provider, meets all the requirements your VOD business may have. Equipped with all the above-mentioned features and solutions and even more, Muvi lets you launch your own branded VOD platform easily and also offers unlimited add-ons for competitive benefits.

Take a 14-day free trial today and launch a successful VOD platform (no credit card needed)!