OTT or Over The Top content is directly available to you on the internet via mobile devices, computers, and smart TV. Many video hosting services also provide OTT, VOD, and Live video streaming under one single platform. Netflix, HBO, Amazon Prime, etc, are examples of a few OTT platforms.
Providing your content on OTT is much better than doing that on YouTube for the following reasons:
- Control: Using OTT gives you more control over your brand, content, monetization, data, and user experience.
- Ad-free experience: OTT enables SVOD and TVOD monetization strategies. If you use AVOD, OTT can still provide control over your inventory, campaigns, and direct sponsorships.
- Direct reach: You can directly contact your target audience and deliver a premium content experience that you can control. It’s also possible to receive immediate user feedback via direct engagement.
You should choose an OTT service by keeping in mind the CMS, site builder features, and whether or not you need a web platform. That said, let’s look at the best OTT platforms available in the market.
OTT Platform #1: Uscreen
Uscreen is a compelling VOD and OTT platform that lets you monetize your content along with fulfilling your hosting and marketing needs. It’s a valuable and more useful alternative than Youtube as you are not restricted to earn via the number of subscribers and ad-based videos
that yield unstable profit.
It has an intuitive interface, however, the website builder is less than average with limited customization options. The video monetization and marketing features of Uscreen, such as
coupons, try-again trials, etc, are handy and effective for better conversions.
Key Features:
- It offers a responsive HTML5 video player that works on all devices.
- You get a customizable website builder with built-in marketing tools such as abandoned cart email sequences, churn reduction tools, and many more.
- Several powerful monetization tools include subscriptions, PPV bundles, free trials, lifetime access, etc.
- It uses Akamai CDN for highly scalable performance, storage capacity, and an uninterrupted streaming facility for the audience.
- You also have the option to own OTT applications on both android and iOS and smart TVs such as Roku, Android, Apple TV, and Fire TV.
Price: It has three pricing plans :
- Basic: $149/month with 300 active subscribers
- Pro: $299/month with 1000 active subscribers
- Custom: The price depends on the number of subscribers and the apps you want.
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OTT Platform #2: IBM Cloud Video
It is a scalable, cloud-based OTT platform that offers VOD and live stream solutions. It gives API access and white-label services for subscribers and viewers of your content. IBM’s services include a CMS with an online video editor to trim, cut, edit AI-driven closed captions and manage video content.
Key Features:
- It has a built-in multi CDN delivery and offers real-time video analytics.
- You can use it for OTT video monetization and TVOD, SVOD, and AVOD revenue models.
- It provides AI-driven live stream captioning.
- They provide live chat Q&A, mobile compatible player, live playlist with looping, and more.
- IBM offers security and privacy in the cloud by adhering to industry and global compliance standards.
- You can customize your page to align with your brand and highlight vital information for the viewers.
Price: There’s a 30-day free trial that offers 500 GB storage, and the pricing plan starts at $99/month.
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OTT Platform 3: JW Player Live
JW Player has a live streaming platform that claims to be the quickest and easiest way to broadcast your events. Large and small companies can benefit from its marketing and monetizing tools to scale their business.
Though the technical support is below average with a long response time, the JW player works well with all exchange, server, and ad networks.
Key Features:
- It has a customizable, buffer-free HTML5 video player for a seamless playback experience.
- The article matching feature pulls the videos to the written matching content from the library.
- You can also monetize your videos using Freewheel, AdX, Google IMA, Google DFP, and SpotX.
- The Recommendation engine feature pulls content from the ad and network to create a curated list for the users.
- It provides a 360 video stream, custom gallery setup, and VR.
- JW Player supports industry-standard DRM and other systems such as Clearkey, Widevine, Fairplay, and PlayReady DRM.
- It has a secure SSL certificate and allows RTMP streaming.
Price: There’s a 30-day free trial, and the pricing plans start at $10/month.
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OTT Platform 4: Vimeo Livestream
Vimeo is a B2C video-sharing platform that has a live stream sharing provider called Livestream. This platform offers OTT and VOD services and offers professional-grade features that you don’t find on Vimeo’s regular platform.
It’s a fit for a high-end TV station with a heavy budget.
Key Features:
- Vimeo Livestream offers tons of customizations on its higher plans with the ability to personalize players by changing colors, layouts, themes, styles, adding stickers and logos for branding.
- It has an integrated paywall for subscription payments and other monetization tools.
- The premium plan offers unlimited viewers and streaming hours.
- Vimeo has powerful monetization tools, including subscriptions, transactions, advertising, etc.
- You can run simultaneous streams on the Enterprize plan.
Price: There’s a 30-day risk-free trial, and the pricing plan starts at $7/month for a single user.
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OTT Platform 5: Wowza
Wowza is a VOD and live streaming platform that also offers OTT streaming and broadcasting services. It has an adaptive bitrate streaming that ensures the best quality for viewers on all devices. The robust SDKs and APIs help building a highly customizable streaming setup.
The software also allows video transcoding, live-stream DVR, text-to-speech technology, and real-time video analytics that help you track consumption.
Key Features:
- It’s possible to stream 360-degree videos in high and HD 4k quality for all purposes.
- You can use the Wowza mobile app to start instant live streaming.
- The DRM technology offers third-party integrations of Digital rights management tools.
- You can track the progress and manage the production of your videos remotely.
- It allows you to integrate with services like Roku, powering Chromecast, etc.
Price: The basic cloud streaming starts at $99/month, and the streaming engine plans start at $145/month.
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OTT Platform 6: Kaltura
Kaltura lets you host webinars, virtual classrooms, along with live content on OTT streaming. It is suitable for learning management systems and Live TV solutions and offers VOD and live SAAS solutions for sales, marketing, and collaboration.
The cloud TV platforms offer all the services maximum uptime and integration with third-party services. It uses DVR modular and scheduler to schedule content meetings and allows you to add translations, captions, and transcription to the video to enhance discoverability.
Key Features:
- With multi DRM, you can watch video playback in offline mode.
- Kaltura player lets you customize the viewing experience.
- The mobile app lets you create and upload podcasts directly.
- Analytics lets you track the viewer activity and their interaction with your content and so on.
- Audience engagement tools are available for you, such as in-app popups, SMS, email, etc.
- You can create, embed, and share the personalized videos using interactive features like collaborative whiteboards, breakout rooms, and quizzes.
Price: Kaltura offers different pricing packages for the following packages, and each of them offers a 30-day free trial.
- Learning and development
- Communication and collaboration
- Marketing and sales
You can contact the sales team to customize your pricing package.
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Final Thoughts
Each platform offers some unique features and basic capabilities that allow you to run OTT and video streaming services. I have carefully curated the above list with the best OTT platforms to help you decide the one that checks all your boxes.
