Credibility and Status = Unmeasurable Monetization

I will start with the least known Monetization benefits of having your own Internet TV network.
Lets talk about the most hidden Monetization effect. The fact that you have a Internet TV network on platforms such as ROKU, Amazon FireTV, iPhone, Apple TV etc… give you and your organization “credibility” and “status”. Few people on this planet can boast they have their own network. This benefit of this alone is hard to be measured because its not always obvious that was the reason someone decided to do business with your company. Whenever people are deciding to do business with your business, decide if your church is the right church for them, decide to list their house with your real estate company……many things weigh into that decisions including how they feel about the credibility and status of your organization. So keep in mind that just having your Online Network alone can generate in-direct revenue.

Digital Add Injection

AKA Dynamic Ad Insertion is something that is new to the digital landscape. When I say “new” I do not mean that it started yesterday, but that the technology is not yet perfected. It is ongoing process to evolve and perfect. However it is far enough a long that we can do two critical steps;

1. Inject paying advertisers adverts
2. Track the amount of viewers per add

Both of these steps allow a total to be calculated monthly so that your channel can get a check every month.

This makes your goal obvious; Create or obtain great content people want to see and promote it. In other words build your content and viewership. That is of course the name of the game for any TV network but this is definitely the core concept of success when it comes to getting big advertising checks.

To thrive in the Internet TV world you the Content Owner, TV Broadcaster and/or OTT Operator need to optimize ad revenues and make the most of the latest shifts in technology that are available today in order to increase monetization potential. This is why you should require a platform that can precisely target the right audience and accurately insert relevant ads across connected TV channels and multiple screens.

The components of add injection:

Dynamic Ad insertion – Our solutions make sure that the right ad is ready to play every time there is an ad break and can seamlessly scale to television-sized audiences.
Multiple Triggers – you the broadcaster can trigger the ads, or you can pick one of our algorithms that automatically inserts them for maximum revenue potential (example 16 mins of ad breaks per hour)
Guaranteed Ad views – Even if the stream is paused the Ad is not skipped when the stream resumes.

All of these components work together to create a nice revenue stream for your channel.

Subscription Model

The obvious money maker for online TV is charging a subscription fee. This is a big money maker especially if you have a lot of content. Netflix is making BILLIONS (not millions) from this subscription based method. However of course they have a ton of content so this subscription model makes since for them.

You can charge for a day, month, quarterly or annually. You can give free trials and a host of other options to make revenue easier to generate. For smaller broadcasters subscriptions make a lot sense if your audience is a niche. For example if you specialize in a particular content geared to a language besides English or other small niches like ball room dancing etc…. Subscriptions excel in these type of situations because the audience is eager to obtain content that is not catered to in today’s mass media.

Other models that work well is charge a subscription fee for an ad free version of your network. This is a common “up-sell” for many networks. This allows you to leverage both ads and subscriptions.

YouTube Monetization – First and foremost the #1 reason our customers want to acquire their own Internet TV network is so that it can be “self branded”. In other words it has nothing to do with YouTube (facebook or any other 3rd party) and when promoting your channel this keeps your network looking professional. However there are more critical reasons why its important to have your own network and not rely on 3rd parties such as “YouTube”.

1. For the most part it is difficult to make money off of your YouTube videos. That does NOT mean that there are no YouTubers making good money. There are some, but for the majority it is a known fact that channel creators (even those with hundreds of thousands even millions of views) struggle to make even a hundred dollars in a month. YouTube is not in the business for the benefit of the content creators but for the benefit of themselves.
2. Youtube now “censors” content they don’t like. This means you are no longer in control of your network. This is important to understand because they censor content they deem “controversial”. However they define what “controversial” is. They are now changing algorithms hiding videos and NOT notifying your subscribers (on new video posts and live broadcast) for groups that have opposing political positions of you tube (owned by google) shareholders.
3. YouTube has new rules that makes it difficult for new channels to monetize any content.

The fact is, you have absolutely no control over your subscriber base when you’re on YouTube. You don’t have their names, you don’t have their email addresses, you can’t take them to another platform. That’s a huge issue. This means you can not run email campaigns, promos, and that YouTube could shut your channel down (as they are known to do without giving a reason) without a given notice. YouTube is built to make YouTube money and not to make the broadcaster money. In fact its built to enslave you to their system. Building a YouTube audience is a waste of time and money, unless it is to promote your other platforms which is where you make your real money. YouTube may have some professional videos on their platform, but it is NOT a professional platform. When you have your own online network you can make hundreds even thousands of times more money than you can on Youtube controlling your own advertising or subscriptions. I am not saying YouTube does not have its place, but it is built with the idea for sharing videos and not monetizing them.

YouTube has its place and like I said before, there are some earning money on the platform. However the majority of serious YouTubers earn next to nothing. Plus at a moments notice YouTube can cancel, censor or demonetize your channel (or videos) so that your viewers can not find it in a search or a related video. Same thing is occurring with Facebook live broadcasts….You can NOT monetize them and you can be shut off for breaking one of many many rules they have. Facebook and YouTube should only be used in order to support your main Independence channel. That is the purpose of using these social platforms, to SUPPORT your business not to use them AS YOUR business. Insuring against a Facebook or YouTube decision they know longer like you, if your channel is independent they cant SHUT you down.

For further tips read How To Make Money From YouTube

TvStartup

Tvstartup allows you to broadcast your content to the world in the same way a Traditional TV station does but on STEROID’S.

– Your playlist(s) will play on time because you can create and schedule your playlists based on your local time zone.
– Its easy to run your station cause you can schedule playlists months in advance.
– Increase your audience size by broadcasting simultaneously your channel to your network, plus Facebook, YouTube, and Periscope
– Display archived live events by using our “Live Record” feature which records your Live Stream for archiving
– Give Viewers with slower internet connection speeds the access to you channel using adaptive bit-rates and give viewers with faster connection the best possible video quality their connection can handle.
– Handle thousands of simultaneous viewers without buffering and fast video load times because we are our own CDN
– Receive monthly checks from advertisers using our digital “add inject” technology.

What is Internet TV?

Years ago Internet Tv was considered a website with a video player. Today it encompasses so much more. Today internet TV/OTT/Live Streaming Services encompass not just the standard world wide web but also many different platforms each with its own unique audience.

To name a few:
Roku, Amazon FireTV, xBox, iPhone, Android TV, Apple TV, Smart Tv’s and more…

Each platform has its own unique audience. This is because certain people get accustomed to certain devices. Those that consume internet Television each have their preferred device to consume it. Not one device will represent the entire spectrum of viewers. This is why you will see large internet TV corporations with a app on each platform. They understand to reach the max amount of people they need to have their app (aka internet TV channel) on as many platforms/devices as possible.

Basic Components of Internet TV:

CDN
If you been in the OTT world for long then you are familiar with what a CDN is and bandwidth. A CDN is a connected network of high powered computers in a data center that specializes in video delivery. 

A CDN does two things; first it stores your video content and second it delivers the video to your viewers seamlessly without buffering or shutting down. A CDN has the proper server set up and configuration for video play out and delivery to tens of thousands simultaneously.

Your bandwidth is what people are using to see your videos. For example if you have 100 viewers viewing your Internet TV station at the same time and your video is let’s say 500 MB long each of those viewers is watching that video at a certain bit-rate. For example let’s say 500 kB a second; Then there is a certain amount of bandwidth that has to be used in order for that video to display properly to all 100 customers at the same time. People naturally think that the bandwidth is coming from the viewers Internet service provider. Well that’s true but the video also must be delivered to the Internet service provider. In other words there is specialized video server providing the heavy lifting to create a constant video upload to the viewer who is downloading the stream. So if you do not have a proper CDN and server configuration then the upload of the video content to those 100 simultaneous viewers will not take place, or if it does take place it will cause most of the viewers player to buffer continuously until they just close your site/app.

Playlist Creation is the ability to take your videos and create a playlist where it will play one video after the next. These lists can then be “scheduled” to create the look and feel of a real TV channel. With our control panel we allow you to drag and drop the videos in the order you want them to play, name your palylist and then schedule your list. The beauty of this is that while one list is playing you can create and schedule multiple lists allowing you to set your schedule weeks in advance. 

Most of our customers create a media library inside their account by uploading all of their video content to their control panel and then using the media library to create playlists.

Encoding is one of the most important aspect of a Internet TV network although it is the least understood by beginners. There are many tools these days to do your encoding but you need to understand two critical point of encoding:

Point 1. Trans-coding

Trans-coding sometimes referred to as Trans-sizing is the process in which we change the frame size. For example you have a 1920 x 1080 and you transcode it to 1280 x 720. Or vice versa. Why is this necessary?

Although there are many examples let me give you a common one:

Lets say you are trying to broadcast a live stream or a playlist both on to your website (or your ROKU, Firetv etc…) and Facebook Live at the same time. Well FB Live only allows 720 and does not allow 1080. So if you are broadcasting at a 1080 Facebook will not re-stream this. Instead you will get an error. You either need to make sure your source stream is 720 or you need to have your 1080 stream Trans-coded on the fly (in real time) so that you have two outputs (streams) one for 1080 and a second stream for Facebook at 720. The transcoding on the fly is taking your original source stream of 1080 and creating a duplicate stream but at a lower frame size and bit rate that matches Facebook Live requirements.

Point 2. Encoding/Compressing Bitrate also known as Trans-rating:

Lets first define what a Bitrate is: Bit rates is a very misunderstood topic. Many people confuse a bit rate with a “resolution” of a video. They hear the term “HD” and they think that describes it, however HD is a “video dimension” and not a indication of video quality. Put very simply the bit rate is the amount of data dedicated to a second of video. So, the higher the bit rate, the better the video quality. The higher the bit rate, the more bandwidth is needed to play back the video. And the higher the bit rate, the more data storage is required per second of video.

Bitrate is the rate in which bits are transferred from one location to another. It is the measurement for how much data is transferred at a given time. The higher the bitrate of a video the faster the internet connection needs to be to both transmit and receive that video.

Encoding is really the compression of the bit rate. Meaning taking a higher bitrate that is not suitable for the internet and compressing it to a lower bitrate that is more suitable. This can be done on the fly (while broadcasting a live stream) or when preparing a video for upload to use on a VOD platform. Video coming out of a camera is anywhere from 10Mbps to 100Mbps. These files are much to large for standard internet connections. The average connection speed in the USA is 18.7 Mbps (and much lower in other countries). So your videos need to be much lower than this or you will get buffering. Encoding compresses the video bit rate to a much lower bit rate (usually between 1.5 Mbps and 6Mbps) that is much more suitable for the internet. This makes it possible for viewers to see your videos.

Multiple Bit Rate and Adaptive Bit-rate      

Multi Bitrate – With MBR, a few different streams, all with different bit-rates, are made available to the user. As the user clicks Play, the system performs a test to determine which bitrate is best suited for their situation. Once selected, however, the system will keep using that bit-rate even if the internet connection or bandwidth fluctuates. So in essence the system has several streams available, some for slower connections others for faster connections, the system does a quick speed test and provides the best stream/bit rate for the job.

Adaptive Bit-rates: With YouTube or Netflix, as opposed to pay-per-view, you select a video and watch
it right away. Upon initial viewing, you may get one bit-rate and as the internet connection fluctuates (kids, friends, other YouTube videos), the quality changes and usually becomes worse if the internet connection is heavily used. It will then change again minutes later once the internet connection is freed up (kids, friends have left the house). The streaming service detects the bandwidth fluctuations and automatically changes the bit-rate for you so the movie continues without buffering. This is called ABR

Many times companies will advertise they have multi bit-rate included in their service, preying upon the ignorance of consumers, however mutli bit-rate is NOT ADAPTIVE bit rate that can fluctuate on the fly based on your viewers connection speed.

Live streaming: Your “live stream” can come from a “playlist” or a “live” event. Either way it is still considered a “live stream” because it is NOT a VOD. This is important to understand because many people associate the word “live” meaning that it is happening now. However the term “live stream” refers to the fact that the stream is coming live either from a playlist of videos or a live event and not a VOD.

Streaming live is a service we specialize in. In fact you can have a playlist running and then interrupt that playlist with a live event stream, then when your live event has finished our servers will detect this and continue the playlist. This allows you to interrupt your playlist with a live event any time you please.

Live Record – This tool is great for live broadcasts. This allows you to record the live broadcast in real time as you are broadcasting your even live. The recording of the live event will then appear in your online control panel. From there you can add it to a playlist or make it available via VOD. Great for archiving past events. 

Push Publish – This tool very few have but its very powerful. This allows you to broadcast simultaneously to your own online TV network (your website, Roku, FireTV etc..) and to Facebook, YouTube and Periscope. You can either broadcast your playlist or your live event. Either way this allow the MAXIMUM amount of exposure for a your channel and allows you to promote it across multiple platforms simultaneously.

Add injection – We have partnered with ad agencies to create a digital injection of ads based on your viewing audience statistics. Meaning that we only show relevant ads based on viewer demographics. The more people watching your ads the more you get paid. This lets you concentrate on just making great content without having to find advertisers.

 

Once you are a customer of Tvstartup you will have access to your own online control panel. You will have access to all of the features listed above and more. Our control panel is your 1st step

toward your own online TV network. In fact your control panel is where your journey begins by building your online library of video content. From there you can create playlists and begin

broadcasting on your website, and/or build your own online TV network using our Roku, FireTV, Apple TV, iPhone Tv app, Android mobile apps and Smart TV aps.

The more platforms you are on the larger the audience you can reach and the better opportunities to monetize your content.

TvStartup

Internet TV Is taking off like a rocket! There’s no stopping it and for some that means big profits! 10 Years ago the thought of internet TV overtaking satellite and cable combined was a far fetched idea; Today its is reality. The industry calls it “Cord cutting” – that is when a cable or satellite subscriber decides they no longer want to pay the monthly fees associated with their cable subscription.

Major pay-TV providers are reporting dramatic declines in subscriptions services and some of the losses were more than double what Wall Street analysts expected (according to Fo

rtune.com). Stocks for major TV providers have also taken a nose dive.

The news may be bleak for Pay-TV services but for streaming services times couldn’t be better. Netflix, Hulu and many smaller internet based streaming services have seen incredible gains.

In fact millions of Americans have already scrapped and pulled the plug on cable TV making it look as if it is a mass exodus. In 2018 more than 33 million Americans are now considered cord cutters. This is a huge revenue loss for cable and satellite TV.

In fact the trend is even stronger among young adults as 6 in 10 young adults use online streaming as their primary way to watch and consume television (as of 2017).

For years many believed that live sports would prevent many subscribers from canceling their cable subscription, but this has proven false. Now with ESPN and other sports services online there is little to hold subscribers loyalties.

What does this mean? This means the power now lays with those that can create content. No longer do large corporations dictate what the masses will watch. Anyone with a creative mind, a camera, and their own online TV network can compete with the big boys. As the cable market crumbles there will be small business and video entrepreneurs to pick up the pieces and build profitable streaming models.

Here’s the big picture, when you have a mass decline in one area of a business then it is only logical you will have a large increase in another. In other words the undoing of the cable and satellite industry is a HUGE potential for those that can capitalize on it NOW. Today is more like the wild west of Internet TV and when the dust settles those that fought for viewership will be the next leaders in content and viewership.

In fact Internet TV also called OTT is expected to climb to a 30.6 Billion dollar revenue by 2022 (study done by PricewaterhouseCoopers ). Internationally similar growth is expected as high speed internet becomes more available in developing countries. Overall internet TV is one of the fastest growing segments on the planet and making an investment into Internet TV is not only a wise decision but a logical one.

More and more baby boomers are following in the foot steps of millennial’s and transitioning to a subscription video service via the internet. And to be fair there are more viewers than the statistics show; that’s because most stats don’t account for shared accounts.

In the past older adults might of watched one or two of these video services occasionally with a friend or relative, but today its becoming a part of their ruglar entertainment diets” said Chris Bendsten, senior forecasting analyst at eMarketer.

With more than 250 million smart TVs sold monthly around the world, and connected TV devices (With just Roku and Firetv alone accounting for more than 90 million viewers) its becoming easier to watch both live TV and on demand video.

The online video landscape is growing as a whole because of the availability of so much original content from an array of producers who in times past would not of had the opportunity to distribute their original video content.

“Consumers don’t seem to be price sensitive to adding multiple services because they don’t want to be the only one in their family or friends group that hasn’t seen the latest hit original show, now matter which platform it’s on,” Bendtsen said.

Overall you have more younger and older adults tuning in to internet TV with the newer generation almost completely detached from cable, You have a crumbling infrastructure of traditional cable and satellite TV operators, and a growing revenue for internet TV operators. All of these factors blowing in the wind only SPELLS one thing for content creators; OPPORTUNITY.

TvStartup