It would be an understatement to say that the global video-on-demand market is booming. It is projected to reach $159 billion by 2027 and will grow at an astounding rate. VoD is a way of accessing video content online from traditional channels without the traditional playback. The traditional channels and media outlets forced consumers to watch content on their schedule, but the VoD services let audiences access the video at their time and using any device.
VoD streaming is very different from live video streaming as it is earlier recorded. These platforms allow users to choose what videos they wish to watch at any time, provided there is an Internet connection. These can be streamed using various distribution methods, and this is powered by OTT technology. The process uses various streaming protocols to compress and decompress files to stream over the internet. You can use the best video-on-demand platform providers to get more reach and show your content to the audience.
How to Choose the Best Video on Demand Platform?
When you are choosing a video-on-demand platform, you must check that they provide some very important features:
- Allows you to tag your content with categories and subcategories so that searching is easy and would allow users to look for the video they want. This makes sure that users can watch content longer and magnify the content’s impact and audience.
- Must allow users to automatically view content at the best quality and can be viewed on various devices without you having to create different file types manually.
- The platform must offer monetization methods that fit your needs. But, remember that all kinds of content on the platform need not be monetized.
- Find a platform that offers a white-label solution and provides the ease of use of a third-party platform with more flexibility.
- The video content must be protected from the time it is uploaded to the time viewers watch it.
Conduct a thorough analysis of all the video-on-demand platform providers before choosing one for your business. The most crucial thing in choosing a platform is seeing options parallelly and seeing what would suit your business better.
7 Best Video on Demand (VOD) Platform Providers: 2021
1. Brightcove Beacon: Best OTT VOD Platform of 2021
Brightcove Beacon is an excellent platform provider and will help you grow and retain global audiences using their flexible layouts, monetization options, and unmatched reliability. It is an all-in-one, an industry-leading solution that helps you to grow your audiences with coupons and trial offers, thus, empowering your audience the way they want to pay. They have flexible subscriptions, are ad-supported, and have transactional pay models that will help maximize your revenue. It helps deliver a premium experience your viewers expect with speed and ease. You can develop and launch easy-to-navigate apps for web, mobile, Smart TVs, and connected TVs. Post-launch, you can promote audience loyalty using their flexible pay models and consistent experiences across all devices.
Features:
- Helps define viewer app experiences on a mobile, tablet, connected TV, and smart TV to deliver a consistent experience across devices.
- Helps curate and deliver content for your audience segments and automate the curation of playlists and carousels to securely store and deliver content with DRM support for live and on-demand content across all devices.
- Offers to automate content availability windows by time, geography, and device and helps configure your VOD and live content offerings for the demographic changes that occur throughout the week or day.
- Offers flexible monetization models: SVOD, AVOD, AuthVOD, and Freemium. Additionally, combine monetization methods to create unique offers that can be transacted in local currencies and payment methods, including QR codes and e-wallets.
Pricing: They offer customized pricing based on your needs.
2. Dacast
With Dacast, you can host, manage, and monetize your live and on-demand content, scaling your VOD business. Using a secure, unified platform, you can organize your video content to make streaming easier for your viewers. It helps create categories, subcategories, and playlists to present your content in an easy to navigate way. It lets you customize the video player with your logo and colours to put your brand front and centre.
Features:
- Helps monetize your VOD platform with various monetization features and use the SSL secure paywall to monetize with TVOD, SVOD, and AVOD models to run ads on your content to collect ad revenue. It allows you to offer coupon codes or packages with bundled rates.
- Protects content with passwords, domain and IP restrictions, HTTPS delivery, and more. Their API gives you the ability to choose which privacy and security feature you want or need.
- Helps broadcast your content to viewers around the world with the help of our network of reliable content delivery network partners.
Pricing: They offer a 30-days free trial and then pricing plans starting from $39, $63, $188, and their custom plan.
3. Uscreen
With Uscreen, you can launch your branded streaming service in just a few simple steps, using video website themes and templates. Their themes are designed to dazzle and convert, and you can make them your own with coding and unlock the true potential of your videos with Uscreen’s built-in marketing and automation tools. Th3i4 marketing and community features help supercharge your reach. You can leverage the built-in sales and analytics reports to track your success. Their experts teach you how to maximize the use of the built-in retention tool and help you build a stable, sustainable and scalable business.
Features:
- Allows you to set up subscriptions, rentals, or one-time buys for access to your VOD and live streams and helps create exclusive experiences for your subscribers with coupons and promotions.
- Helps you generate profit and set up complete sales and marketing funnels with ease using the Uscreen built-in marketing tools and integrations and generate leads and convert your audience into paying subscribers.
- Helps schedule events in advance & build excitement with a countdown overlay.
- Helps create a five-star streaming experience for your audience on any device.
Pricing: Their Basic plan starts from $49 per month. The Amplify plan will cost you $399 per month. Additionally, there is a $0.50 subscription cost per subscriber and a one-time sales fee of 5%.
4. CONTUS VPlayed
The world’s best video on demand platform, CONTUS VPlayer, has 150+ streaming features and 6+ monetization models to create and deliver truly immersive video experiences across any device. It stands out in the market for its enriched features, customizations and an in-house team to build your media platform.
Features:
- Helps build your customizable video-on-demand platform according to your requirements with a VOD solution having great headway streaming features.
- Helps repackage to sell your videos carrying your own logo, features, irrespective of having any technical background knowledge, so you can get standalone easily in the on-demand streaming business world.
- Helps get your VOD streaming platform with a source code license and take lifetime ownership to upscale success forever.
- Helps harness the power of world-class streaming technology and operate your VOD platform on your secured on-premises hosting server or on cloud-integrated servers.
- Helps produce maximum ROI with 6+ video monetization models like SVOD, AVOD, TVOD, etc.
- Allows you to leverage any third-party service integrations like Google Analytics, Payment Gateways, Ads Insertion, etc., to save time and diligently have add-on extensions to enhance your VOD platform.
Pricing: You have to connect with their team for a customized pricing quotation.
5. Innorelay
With Innorelay, you can host and manage your videos on demand securely, with the best playback quality across any device. They help you launch your own platform with end-to-end customization. It provides a consistent and robust OTT streaming solution and helps manage end-user subscriptions to create the best streaming experience for your users with our video solutions fully controlled by your needs.
Features:
- Provides the best cross-browser compatibility for the best playback quality across any device.
- Allows blocking partial/entire content based on country/region.
- Gives your users the flexibility to download and view videos without internet connectivity
- Helps create a complete white-labelled video-on-demand platform with no mention of Innorelay anywhere.
- Ensures the best viewing experience with very little buffering.
- Helps track and analyze all videos on your subscription-based VOD platform and provides user-level aggregated data to help you understand what’s working and what’s not for your platform.
Pricing: You have to connect with their sales team for a customized pricing quotation.
6. Castr.io: Best VOD Platform for Live Video Streaming
Castr is a professional live video streaming platform for both businesses and individual streamers. With Castr, you can stream, host, schedule and monetize your live videos in high-quality 4k resolution using Akamai CDN. Their constantly dedicated tech support helps your live event go smoothly. It helps stream buffer-free and lag-free not only to 30+ social platforms but also to your own website or app simultaneously.
Features:
- Helps deliver your video content anywhere and embed videos and stream to your own website or over-the-top (OTT) platforms using the Castr Embedded Player.
- Helps boost your views and grow your audience, and broadcast live videos into multiple social media platforms and streaming destinations all at the same time.
- Allows you to monetize your live videos and on-demand videos just the way you want. Castr doesn’t take any commissions from you.
- Turns live streams into on-demand videos (VOD) so that your viewers can re-watch, pause, skip, rewind, or fast-forward your shows however they like to.
- Allows you to pre-record your videos and broadcast them as live streams and avoid mid-broadcast issues and reach your viewers when they are most active online.
Pricing: They charge an all-in-one entry that starts at $450/year and allows you two concurrent streams and 6TB of bandwidth. The ‘Plus’ plan will cost you $750, and the ‘Premium’ plan will cost you $1250 for 12TB and 24TB bandwidth.
7. Vixyvideo
VIXY provides access to hundreds of video API services. It helps integrate all processes, from video management to publication, into your own website, mobile apps or your existing workflow. They make it easy to create your own video-on-demand channel. With their API, they offer the option to offer your videos safely and securely. It is important for organizations looking to offer e-learning packages, train their employees, create a corporate communication channel or start their own streaming service.
Features:
- Helps optimize your campaign and achieve a higher CPM. VIXY It works with the most important supply-side platforms (SSPs) in the market and guarantees that you will obtain higher profits per impression.
- Allows you to integrate VIXY and a payment provider like Stripe or Adyen into your website or app and start your own video-on-demand service.
- Helps turn spectators into shoppers with calls-to-action in your video players, such as clickable buttons, links, products, contact forms, and brochures.
- Helps improve results with insight into your best-performing content, viewing behaviour, and conversion ratios with our comprehensive video analytics.
Pricing: Their plan starts from Euro 349/monthly for their Startup plan and goes to Euro 499/monthly for their Professional plan.
Roundup
There are a plethora of VoD platform providers in the market, and all of them offer varying features and pricing. You must take time to consider your target audience and the kind of content you wish to deliver to them. Selecting the right platform is based on the features you need to achieve your broadcasting goals. Study our list of the best video on demand platform providers properly and make a choice.