In today's fast-paced OTT market, staying ahead of the curve is crucial but can naturally be a resource-heavy, time-consuming task. Balancing intensifying competition, rapid technological evolution, shifting customer expectations, and the pressure to innovate with operational obligations like content acquisition, data management, and regulatory compliance is essential. Standing still is generally not an option, so video companies need efficient strategies to accelerate and streamline their services’ growth trajectory while remaining focused on delivering excellent quality of service. 

Finding this balance can be especially tricky in an industry where technological advancements present both an opportunity and a challenge. While new platforms (and upgrades to existing ones) naturally represent routes to further growth, they can also lead to added pressure with regard to quality assurance and evolutive maintenance. Every new platform added to your service's repertoire means yet another long list of certifications, continuous improvements, and frequent resubmissions to the app stores. In a competitive landscape where users have grown accustomed to top-notch quality and frequent updates, keeping pace can certainly be challenging. 

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Ensuring optimal OTT service quality

Performance is the lifeblood of any OTT service. However, determining the optimal focus areas and benchmarks to implement and assess the impact of improvements can be daunting without the right expertise. To stay one step ahead of the game, it is crucial to identify performance gaps through regular assessments of streaming quality, user engagement metrics, and content recommendation algorithms. Establishing realistic benchmarks based on industry standards and historical data will help you set clear goals and measure progress effectively.

The next step is to devise a strategic roadmap for improvement, focusing on key areas for enhancement and outlining actionable steps for each. For instance, optimizing streaming quality may involve investing in technologies and practices that enhance video quality and reduce buffering, such as upgrading encoding techniques or adopting adaptive streaming technologies. Improving user engagement could involve refining user interfaces and personalization features and regularly reviewing and adjusting content recommendation algorithms to keep users engaged.

With this comes a need to manage stakeholder relationships and coordinate with potential third-party vendors to ensure a cohesive approach. Most, if not all, OTT services leverage a plethora of technologies that very often come from multiple providers. In order to provide a smooth running service, both today and as things evolve, video services need to stay on top of all the pieces making up their tech stack - something which may sound easy in theory but that can be quite difficult to do. 

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Streamlining future growth for your OTT service

Ensuring quality of service is one thing, but equally important is a steadfast focus on growing and evolving your offering. This is about ensuring that your service is not just up to date with the latest platform and device updates but also set up to continue its growth path as user preferences and market dynamics change. Enabling this requires both steadfast focus and a willingness to experiment, as well as an agile tech stack which is set up to scale.

Adding new features such as personalized recommendations, improved search algorithms, or more interactive user interfaces is an obvious route to evolving your service. However, expanding it to newly launched devices and emerging platforms - such as VR headsets, smart home systems and in-car entertainment - is another way to differentiate your offering. While most of these next-generation devices are yet to be adopted by a mass audience, video service providers are wise to at least start thinking about them as part of a not too distant future.

If ensuring quality of service requires solid processes and close collaboration between teams, evolving the same service often calls for investment in R&D paired with a willingness to experiment. While most video service providers would likely agree that a focus on innovation is desirable, the reality is that not every video business has the luxury of putting it at the center of its operations.

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Can Managed Services help you stay ahead of the competition?

A Managed Services engagement model empowers video businesses to delegate service management and optimization responsibilities to an external team. By offloading service delivery, quality assurance, and ongoing maintenance, they can redirect valuable resources toward enhancing other Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) related to, for example, Marketing and content acquisition. The model offers more than just operational support; it provides continuous, expert-driven oversight that aligns with industry best practices and is based on the provider's experience in having done exactly this for many other companies just like yours. 

At Accedo, we officially rolled out a Managed Services offering in March this year, but the reality is that we have been doing this for numerous clients in different forms over the past decade. We don’t just offer an end-to-end technology solution but function as a strategic business partner who works closely with our clients to drive long-term service success on their behalf. Our commitment is ongoing, and we work to continuously monitor, evaluate, and challenge the existing roadmap, identifying opportunities for service optimization and leading transformation in both technology and operations.

If you are interested in learning more about how we can help you streamline the growth of your service, please reach out to our team.