Month: February 2017

Roku is one of the fastest growing platforms in the market today. With over 15 million devices sold and counting its no wonder why broadcasters want their own channel on ROKU. Its quite a better alternative to paying a satellite or cable TV subscription as well. Overall if you want to compete in the Internet TV world having a channel on ROKU is critical.

Roku development can be tricky and its always better to leave it to an expert. Your Roku developer would be familiar with the languages used to develop on its robust platform. However in the world of ROKU development just having the written code is not enough. There are many pieces of the puzzle that you need for your ROKU channel. Besides the actual physical channel you will also need a CDN (content delivery network) to delivery your channel to ROKU’s platform. A CDN is a network of specialized video servers that are tailored to video delivery through the internet. In other words they are configured specifically for the task of thousand of people watching your channel at the same time without the buffering or the crashing. Without a CDN you can not possible have a ROKU channel or any internet TV channel for that matter.

Is there a cost to be on ROKU? There is obviously a charge from your CDN and a charge for your ROKU development but to be listed on their system there is no charge for them to carry your channel. As an example there is no charge to be on the internet….but if you want to be on the internet you need to pay a hosting service to host your website, and a internet provider to access the internet…so in essence there is no charge to be on the internet yet there is a charge. Just like ROKU there are requirements that must be met for you to be included on their platform and that includes having a ROKU developer develop an app that will meet their quality standards and a CDN that will be able to deliver the video efficiently and effectively to their platform.

Download our Free Ebook on how to start your own Internet TV and ROKU channel to learn more now.

Roku development can run into the tens of thousands and that’s why here at tvstartup.com we developed templates that we can re-brand for your company. This means that you can get started for very little overhead verses spending thousands. You can simply pick your template send us your logo and company information, and then we can publish it onto the ROKU platform quickly. We also have our own data center and CDN so that your channel runs smoothly and tens of thousands can watch it simultaneously. You can learn more about our roku channel by clicking on our internet TV page. We can also develop customized Roku apps for far less than most because our developers are in house verses most companies who have to freelance their development.

So the bottom line is if you want to save thousands and thousand of dollars on your ROKU project use a company that can provide you templates to choose from instead of custom development. You can not go wrong with your own ROKU channel!

Large media companies, TV networks, cable and satellite Conglomerates are beginning to crumble because of the internet. Its both been a blessing and a curse for these large corporations, but as internet speeds continue to increase and production costs continue to fall, their empire begins to crumble. There are many at the bottom picking up the pieces and making their own entertainment channels.

What Does OTT Stand For?

It stands for “Over the Top” which means you do not have to go through a cable or satellite network to reach your audience (as you did in times past). You can bypass them and go directly to your audience via the internet. So maybe the proper term is “OTT Solutions” but many still refer to it simply as “Internet TV”. Well in fact that’s exactly what it is; delivering your channel through the internet to your audience.

So now that we know OTT is Internet TV now what? If you are looking to start your own OTT service then I think its important to first make a few choices upfront. First you have to decide what platform(s) you will want to use to reach your audience. In today’s world there are many choices however the most popular is ROKU, Amazon FIRETV, iPhone, Android, and Apple TV. In fact if you have an app on all these devices then the better off you are because almost everyone has access to at-least one of those devices.

IPTV Vs OTT

You may have also heard of IPTV, which stands for internet protocol television. IPTV is a broader term that describes the greater picture of internet video distrubition methods.

There are also a number of Live video streaming services which focus specifically on Live video broadcasts on the web and social media.

The key difference between these and full-service internet TV providers like www.tvstartup.com is these service providers offer the full spectrum of live streaming, VOD, monetization, ad, and subscription options, and more, distributed on all of the popular platforms, not just the web and social.

Download our Free Ebook on how to start your own Internet TV station to learn more about OTT solutions now.

After you choose your platform(s) then you need to decide how you will get on those platforms. Unless you are hiring the service of a turnkey OTT provider such as www.tvstartup.com (one of the oldest companies in the business) then you must start from scratch. This is easier said than done because many components go into making your internet TV Network. You need several developers that can develop both on iPhone, Android, Roku, Firetv, Apple TV and more. Then you will need to decide on who will be your CDN. If it is subscription based you will need to decide on how you will secure your streams and VOD content. You will need either cloud hosting or dedicated servers to serve up your files for your apps and website. As you can see the pieces are quite a few and it can be quite expensive if you are doing it all yourself.

My suggestion is to use a services that already has all of the pieces fit together for you. Literally this will save you tens of thousands of dollars in development and hundreds of hours in “know how”. It is important that your OTT Solution fit the needs of our audience and working with professionals that have done this in the past will certainly help improve your bottom line over the long run.

So whether you call it a OTT solution or Internet TV its all the same, and if you are looking at getting into the market for the first time and want to make sure your video content reaches the right audiences it sure helps to know the different terms.

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