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OTT, IPTV, Live Streaming Solutions – What Does It All Mean?

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 it’s 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 distribution 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.

 


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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