READ MORE: Operational Scale is Essential for a Successful Streaming Business (Edgio)
The evolution of streaming has come full circle, from being complementary to traditional TV to providing a superior viewing experience than broadcast. And as viewer preferences continue to change and shape the industry, providers will need to offer services that those viewers demand.
To be successful, technology vendor Edgio’s Kim Ferar believes streamers need to deliver consumers a fault-tolerant and always-available service.
“An outage or failure of a critical feature from ad insertion to the CDN can be catastrophic to a content owner’s business on any given day, which is even more amplified when streaming a significant live event,” Ferar says.
“As streaming audiences grow and evolve, streaming providers must work with a technology partner that can also scale their streaming operations without degrading the viewing experience with buffering or ad slate.”
Ferar has identified four “essential components” to ensure a streaming business can scale. These are: dynamic personalization, rich API integrations, FAST channels, and support.
On the first, she says personalization is crucial as no two viewers are the same. “Even though they may be tuning into the same content, they’re likely in different locations, using different devices, experiencing different network conditions, as well as having different interests, viewing behaviors, and more.”
The ability to dynamically change or customize for each viewer opens numerous opportunities to tailor the experience — including personalized content and ads, time shifting, blackout rules, content replacement, and content protection, as well as optimizing the viewer experience with refinement tools and comprehensive data for monitoring and troubleshooting.
FAST channels have soared in popularity because viewers don’t want to be locked into cable TV-like contracts and don’t want to take out a raft of monthly subscriptions either. Ferar advises streamers to look for a tech provider that has capabilities for a highly efficient, automated way of creating and distributing FAST channels. This includes the ability to schedule live and VOD content with ad insertion and to be able to extend your audience reach to multiple endpoints, including Facebook and Twitch or vMVPD and OTT platforms.
“As streaming audiences grow and evolve, streaming providers must work with a technology partner that can also scale their streaming operations without degrading the viewing experience with buffering or ad slate.”
Kim Ferar, Edgio
A typical streaming workflow consists of multiple vendors — piecing all the parts together, ensuring they work in unison. Maintenance and troubleshooting are critical for success. APIs are the key here and to automating workflows, allowing businesses to integrate with vendors and partners across their streaming ecosystem and scale operations.
The pressure rises when supporting live events, since this adds a new layer of complexity to streaming. Audiences scale up quickly, often to millions of concurrent viewers watching across multiple devices and geographies. Ferar urges prospective clients to select a partner that offers managed services like onboarding, preparation, acquisition, and live event and post-event services, as well as one that can develop custom solutions.
Streaming experts gathered for a round table discussion hosted by The Wrap said they expect the looming recession will push consumers into FAST, “long stereotyped as a haven for a financially struggling Gen Z audience.” As premium services pivot to include ad-supported tiers to offset subscriber churn and slower-than-predicted growth, FAST services like Pluto, Tubi and Amazon’s Freevee are well-positioned to begin including premium content into the mix. Watch the entire conversation in the video below:
