News for OTT/IPTV providers

Africa Tech Festival 2024

Nov. 4, 2024 ▪ by moTV.eu

OTT Solutions for African Telcos

Services for operators and broadcasters

• Rising Mobile and Internet Penetration
  • Africa has over 500 million internet users, with mobile internet being the primary access point.
  • The expanding reach of 4G networks and the ongoing rollout of 5G infrastructure are creating an enabling environment for OTT services.
• Demand for Digital Content
  • Growing demand for entertainment, especially video streaming, sports, and music.
  • Consumers are shifting towards digital platforms for content consumption, with platforms like YouTube, Netflix, and Spotify gaining popularity.
  • There is a rising interest in local content, which provides Telcos with the opportunity to offer regional and culturally relevant content.
• Data Consumption Growth
  • Video streaming is one of the largest drivers of internet data consumption.
  • OTT platforms are responsible for a significant share of global internet traffic, and by offering OTT services, Telcos can stimulate data usage growth.

Proposition for African Telcos

• Boost Internet Data Consumption
  • Offering OTT services will naturally increase data consumption as users stream videos, music, and other digital content. This directly increases revenue from data packages and subscriptions.
• Diversify Revenue Streams
  • OTT services provide multiple monetization options, including subscription fees, pay-per-view events, and ad-supported content.
  • By bundling OTT platforms with data services, Telcos can create attractive, high-value offerings for consumers.
• Capture Local Content Demand
  • African consumers increasingly seek local content that reflects their cultures, languages, and experiences. Telcos can leverage partnerships with local content creators and producers to deliver unique content.
  • This differentiates Telcos from global OTT platforms and creates a strong connection with users.
• Enhanced Customer Retention and Acquisition
  • Bundling OTT services with existing data plans can reduce churn and attract new subscribers. Users are more likely to stay loyal if they have access to exclusive content and a seamless entertainment experience.
• Improved ARPU (Average Revenue Per User)
  • OTT services can increase ARPU through content-related upselling (premium subscriptions, pay-per-view events), targeted advertising, and higher data usage.

What to watch out for when running a cloud based OTT service?

Feb. 07, 2024 ▪ by moTV.eu

Working on larger projects with Tier 1 operators brings one common question to the table: Is it possible to run a fully cloud-based OTT operation and enjoy the “freedom” that the cloud service provides? The short answer is YES. Having everything hosted in the cloud is possible, but there are a few things that have to be done right.

The idea of leaving all the hassle with hardware, server rooms, installation, etc., to a cloud provider sounds very promising. But keep in mind you still need someone to take care of the virtual software and, most importantly, understand how it works. Negotiating the correct terms of the cloud hosting contract for the hardware is crucial. Since most OTT services transcode using GPU cards, you will need robust and likely expensive hardware hosted on the cloud. This will bring a monthly cost to the table that you need to account for. When talking about a monthly cost, it is very important to negotiate a reasonable rate for the cost of bandwidth. When moving to OTT, you will need great distribution to your end-users.

Operators tend to think that a cloud-based OTT means externally managed OTT. A cloud-based solution is the same solution you would have installed on premises. That means you still need to have the proper training to set everything up, service the system, and manage the subscribers. The only difference is that you don’t have to worry about the hardware, and you can focus on operations. For operators that are not yet 100% sure how to handle operations and need assistance, we provide an optional operation service that will help you set up and manage the whole OTT system. This is available for both on-cloud solutions and on-premises solutions.

When launching a full cloud OTT solution, all the content (live TV multicasts and VOD) has to be delivered from the headend to the cloud provider. If we take an example of 100 channels, each with a bitrate of 8 Mbps before transcoding, we get an 800 Mbps upload stream to the cloud that will be used to bring the content to the cloud. There, the content will be transcoded and stored, and after that, it will be distributed to the front-end devices (clients). For this example, we will use an operator with 150,000 users. Let’s say only 10% are using the system at the same time, so we get a number of 15,000 concurrent users. Even when using ABR and doing the calculation with the lowest profile of 400 kbps (400 kbps x 15,000), we end up with 6 Gbps. This is again considering the lowest ABR profile in SD. If we look into the same use case with HD, we get a bitrate of 2500 kbps per user, so the total traffic (2500 kbps x 15,000) would be 37.5 Gbps. If you have these numbers in mind and have negotiated the correct conditions for your bandwidth distribution, then you are ready to launch a cloud-based OTT platform. Based on our experience in the industry, it will be a challenge to negotiate reasonable conditions for the cost of hardware and bandwidth so that everything makes sense on paper. Cloud providers and cloud CDNs are not yet ready to offer a reasonable price per bandwidth that will make sense for an OTT provider. With the cost per Gbps as it is today, it doesn’t make sense to offer a full cloud-based solution for any client. The bigger you are, the higher the cost will be, and you will have to pass the burden of these costs to the end-users. This will increase your service price and lower the overall demand.

When it comes to the return on investment for hardware on premises compared to a cloud solution, you will usually see that in a couple of months (4-6), you will have the investment back. This will give you the margin that is needed to provide an OTT service and focus on marketing and operations.

What does make a better sense, and we have a lot of experience with, is running a hybrid model cloud-based solution. This is great for larger countries that have a cloud server present in the location. When this is available in your location, you can install the middleware, database, and Subscriber Management System on the cloud while keeping your transcoding and CDN (distribution) on premises under your control. This way, you have control over the traffic, and you don’t have to worry about the bandwidth. The control part of the system takes just a little bandwidth. This is an ideal solution for operators who are covering multiple areas, have different locations with different content while running a fully redundant transcoding and storage solution.

For operators targeting one region, we strongly suggest a fully redundant on-premises solution. This will give you not only full control of the system but will also provide your customers with great feedback, latency, and responsiveness.

Advantages of an OTT cloud setup:

• Scalability: Cloud platforms enable seamless scaling of resources, allowing providers to accommodate fluctuating demand and sudden spikes in viewership without the need for significant upfront investments in infrastructure.
• Global Reach: Cloud OTT distribution eliminates geographical constraints, enabling content providers to reach audiences worldwide. This democratisation of content delivery contributes to increased market penetration and revenue opportunities.

Disadvantages of an OTT cloud setup:

• Bandwidth: The success of cloud OTT distribution relies heavily on robust and reliable internet connectivity. Adequate bandwidth is crucial to ensure high-quality streaming experiences and minimise buffering issues. Negotiating great terms is crucial for deployment.
• Quality of Service (QoS): Maintaining consistent QoS across various devices and network conditions is a challenge. Adaptive streaming technologies, such as ABR (Adaptive Bitrate), helps to optimize the viewing experience by adjusting the quality of the video based on the available bandwidth.

OTT White Label - Next Generation

Oct. 24, 2023 ▪ by moTV.eu

Why is it gaining popularity?

Today, the difficult task of getting content rights has not been resolved, and as many have had issues with the number of users being too low, OTT rights, and what DRM will protect the content, all this together makes it very difficult to acquire and negotiate quality content for operators and small ISPs

I like to use an example of an operator in the region we currently work with, they were able to negotiate the content rights and use our OTT/IPTV platform as a white label, today it has grown to 1.4 million end users with more than 100 ISPs and small and medium cable operators connected to their platform, all this was done in less than 4 years. This is the ideal scenario, but do you think you are ready to make that jump-start?

The task of becoming a White Label is not as difficult as many people believe, first, you will need content rights, and local servers with our specifications that can support our platform.

To start, let's talk about what is a White Label.
Here I give you an example that I read recently from a Marketing company that I have been following for a couple of months now, Innovan.do:

“What is Ibuprofen for you apart from medication? private label, main brand? In the case of ibuprofen, we are talking about the fact that it is the technical and real name of a molecule that is used in pharmacology. In the pill that we take when prescribed by the doctor, it usually comes with other products mixed to enhance its effect. But what matters here is not a brand. In fact, if you have a container on hand, you will see that behind ibuprofen, as a last name, it usually has the name of the laboratory that makes it." 1.

As you can see, a White Label is the CORE of the business, the interesting thing is that the costs can be seen as a joint venture and that each added vendor becomes a partner in the project since the main client's investment would be in Capex, this can be easily monetized and resold to ISP's or Cable Operators as an Opex model, offering a full end to end solution, making your ARR steady per customer added to the platform. The more end users grow, the more it becomes a win-win for everyone.

I like to use the example of the 20 000 licenses:
If the Capex model is worth around 160 000 USD including the cost of the software and the 20 000 licenses, but let's say you manage to partner up with 5 clients who use your platform with the content included, and you charge them 5 USD per license, it will leave a monthly income of 100 000 USD, not only do you recover the investment in the third month, but additionally it becomes an extremely lucrative business.

This business model is becoming more and more popular In Latin America, the main Operator will solve the problem of the small and medium-sized companies, not having to negotiate directly with the programmers and saving in the initial setup.

With our White Label you can achieve this and much more, we not only reach ISPs or cable operators, but we also reach content creators, universities, and hotels with the Hospitality model.

Capex vs. Opex, Which financial model best suits your company?

Sep. 22, 2023 ▪ by moTV.eu

Are you ready to make the most important financial decision for your company? In this article, we will resolve some doubts about which model is best suited to your needs, your capital, and your long-term financial vision.

Multi-vendor service

Jan 02, 2020 ▪ by moTV.eu

Cloud service to other partners, who are interested to offer their customers Pay-TV with all the features you have.

Add advertisement to your live channels

Aug 21, 2019 ▪ by moTV.eu

moTV advert plug-in ingests targeted advertisement across all platforms in web TV / STB / Android, iOS app anytime and anywhere. Ui management of this plug-in is through the web browser for the PAY TV OPERATOR AS well as for advertising agency.

Business model is based on revenue share.

Recommendation / Discovery of new content tailored to the viewer's interests

Aug 15, 2019 ▪ by moTV.eu

Advanced content discovery and recommendation solution, delivers personalized content based on your user's interests and viewing habits.

The system collects relevant data about customer's assets, users, and business requirements and in return delivers metadata enrichment, personalization, and data analytics services.