On-Demand Video Streaming App Development – Cost and Key Features

I can’t move. My mind’s like a dance hall fire, a crowd of terrified voices all screaming instructions at once. – Alan Moore

2021 is pretty dynamic for the on-demand video streaming industry. The VOD (video on demand) system attained so much prominence that today cable subscription is a lesser preferred option as viewers get irritated watching repeated commercials that are played in between the running movies.

Statistics show immense growth of live and on-demand video and it has successfully surpassed all expectations, making the businesses in the arena gleam with joy. It is registered that more than 83% of customers watched the on-demand video, while Netflix gained 69M subscribers all across the world and one UFC event generated 1.1M live pay-per-view purchases.

Getting excited about the stats and want to know more? Read the entire blog where we have covered deep researched facts and functionalities for video streaming apps. So, let’s get started.

What Is an On-demand Video Streaming App?

On-demand video streaming (VOD) app is a platform where a variety of video streaming content is available for the subscribed users to enjoy at their choice of time. Users can view the videos on any device like mobile, laptop, iPad, or TV. Users have many choices to watch on this platform including movies, shows, and genres from the library. This is a far better way compared to the traditional video playback device.

Market & Growth Stats

The on-demand video streaming app development offers unlimited access to the world of streaming online content and libraries for various subscription packages. You want to build the scope of similar OTT for your brand, check out the important market research. This will impact your growth in the industry.

• The topmost subscription on-demand video streaming applications are Netflix and Amazon Prime.
• The current revenue of on-demand streaming in the Singapore market is $92M with a growth of 26.6% in the year 2021 and is forecast to grow at $166M by the year 2025.
• The average revenue per user (ARPU) is estimated at $62.85 in 2021, the number of users expected to reach 2.2M by the year 2025.
• User penetration of 24.7% in 2021. While Singapore has the highest percentage of 147 of the total population of mobile phone users.
• Like the Google search engine, people inside Singapore have searched for “movie” keywords as their third most searched query in 2020. As per the GlobalWebIndex, age group between 16 and 65 years watch online videos.
• Viu is the best app used for video streaming with a revenue profit of $54M by the year 2024.
  Some of the best OTT platforms used by Singapore are StarHub and Singtel.

OTT/VOD Vs TV

The market of streaming video is a new trend nowadays. Although some people are yet fond of traditional ways to watch videos and serials on TV, there are new platforms available for the users to watch the video at their pace of time. Video-on-demand apps are broadly categorized as OTT/VOD apps and live-streaming apps.

OTT (over the top)/ VOD (video on demand):

This is the top way to enjoy the experience of watching the videos on an online platform. Users can watch their choice of videos without any disturbance of commercial ads. Videos on demand give the users the flexibility to pay only for the videos which they want to watch. There are many subscription offers for the users to choose from as per their range and choice. Live streaming is the other way to watch videos in real-time as Instagram live, or Facebook live. Big names like Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, Zee5, and Hotstar are the top VOD platforms across the world.

TV (Television):

It is the traditional setup to watch videos using the cable or set-top box. This method is not convenient to watch videos. During the bad weather, people are not able to watch their favorite shows. The purpose of TV was to offer videos via antennas to the people. The owners of the cable operators earn from commercial ads on the TV. Once if any of the videos or serial is missed then people have to wait for a long time to watch the same thing again.

Major Factors to Keep in Mind for Video Streaming App Development

Facts reveal that numerous entertainment businesses around the world are keenly investing huge sums of money in video streaming mobile app development. They are looking for skilled and expert mobile app developers in this arena to attain big success in the VOD industry and make great revenues. However, often it happens that businesses find it tough to understand the functionality and features of the app development. So, here we will discuss in-depth Video Streaming App Development challenges.

Read Also: On-Demand Music Streaming App Development Cost & Features

Seven major factors need to be considered before starting with the development of a multi-platform live video streaming app. They are:

1. Scalability: Keep the back-end architecture scalable so that it can smoothly manage the increasing number of app users, in real-time.
2. Security: Out there on the internet, videos often get stolen and get plagiarized. Hence, ensure access control, Digital rights, encryption, and other safety measures.
3. Flexibility: Look for a video solution that successfully supports all devices as well as platforms.
4. Storage of data on a large scale: Video streaming is a big platform. For the continuous throughput of data flow, the need for huge data storage is very demandable. Streaming data continuously generates data from hundreds of sources. This needs a high-end repository or cloud solution as storage.
5. Live & On-Demand Video Streaming Apps: Live and on-demand video both could suffer a lot of challenges for the service providers. Both of the concepts are different. In the on-demand video, users can watch the videos whenever they want, while live videos occur for a small period. This could be a big challenge to lure both the services and maintain the budget low.
6. Content Transcoding: This method converts the compressed video source into a different format. Content transcoding could be a challenge while keeping the quality of video and expenses of the transformation in the budget.
7. Content Distribution Analytics: Analytics is the way to keep an eye on the platform activities in real-time. Service providers must use good analytics software for better clarification of the content distribution analytics. This method could be a little expensive.

Steps to build a powerful Video Streaming App:

Every application is enticed with a lot of services and functionalities. What are the important working steps that should be introduced in the app listed here? Let’s catch up.

Pick up the right team:

Your team must be well experienced in building the same platform applications with the quality of deliverables. Choose a team while keeping the cost in mind. Find out the best regions where your budget meets with the team without any compromise with the quality. Asian countries like Singapore are best in offering low-budget video applications.

Choose a perfect content delivery network:

The best user experience is what every company wants. To serve a better user experience to the user on your video streaming platform, CDN (content delivery network) is the best option.

Have a suitable hosting platform:

You will never want a platform that will interrupt after some time or when many users are watching their videos. The user will never pay their money for facing any bad experience. Deliver them with quality video delivery with strong and reliable hosting platforms like Amazon S3.

Good Storage capacity:

We have already discussed the importance of large data storage for video streaming services. Good storage ensures the users the best video streaming experiences.

Add best optimal features:

Attractive design, responsive interface, and quality content are the topmost features introduced inside the app. It is well-aligned with the MVP model to optimize the price of the app. Beautifully designed apps invoke people and remain in their minds for a long time.

Prototyping is a must:

Once the application is completed, it should be tested as per the industry measures. Prototyping is the must-have part of every app. It removes any redundancy or errors from the app and assures the quality and sustainability of the app.

These all are the essential steps for building a video streaming application. Although for establishing the unique presence in the mind of users you can add on more exciting features in your app.

Let’s come up to next more about the different categories of video streaming apps.

Different Revenue Models for the Video Streaming App Opportunity

Video-on-demand app development offers plenty of opportunities to generate more profit for the service providers. Now let’s understand different ways to earn revenue in the industry.

1. TVOD – In the Transactional Video On-demand distribution model, the app user pays for every specific piece of on-demand video content.
2. SVOD – Subscription business model is used in Subscription Video-On-Demand services. Here the subscribers pay a monthly charge. Once done, they are directed towards an unlimited set of videos. Platforms offering these services are Netflix, Videoland, HBO Go, Amazon Video, Hotstar, Hulu Plus, and CuriosityStream.
3. AVOD – It is an Advertise-Based VOD model which users can use for free. Like, they will be paying with their views instead of paying with money. For instance, YouTube, which is in actuality a hybrid model with it being a mix of all the three models.
4. Featured Listing – These videos are mainly curated to trigger interest in the users. These premium videos are short in length and placed at the top to attract users.
5. Ad Management – This method helps to generate a big amount of money by placing the ads on the most user engaging pages on the platforms. Home pages are the most viewed pages and help to earn a lot of revenue.

Market Leaders

There are prominent leaders incurred in the on-demand video streaming world. They are best to provide a wide range of online streaming videos, series, and many more in real-time. We have made a list of the best market players for you, to get a brief overview of them one by one.

1. Amazon Prime: It is one of the topmost on-demand streaming applications available on the Play Store. There are different categories available on the platform including on-demand videos, series, original content, live streaming of matches, documentaries, etc. Users with a small subscription fee can play different genres of videos on this platform. 117M of the net user presence available worldwide in the Amazon Prime platform and is expected to reach 180M by the year 2026.

2. Netflix: It is considered to be the first OTT platform, offering a maximum arena of services to the users. Netflix has contributed to the online video streaming platform in various ways. It delivered 13k+ unique titles and was responsible for 15% of the global traffic share in watching the online videos. Netflix reached $25B in revenue in the last fall of 2020. With this application, people have the option to pay just for their choice of content. It offers different subscription plans to its users as mobile, devices 4k, UHD, and FHD. This streaming platform has a huge variety of content shows, movies, series, original films, and many more. In the coming months, they plan to launch an offline streaming facility for their users. That must be a great part of the experience for the users.

3. HBO Now: HBO Now stands for the ‘Home Box Office’ and is one of the OTT platforms that offer premium satellite online viewing options to their users. It had estimated subscribers of 141M worldwide. Users can enjoy fresh content on the platform with a range of premium plans.

4. HULU: Launched in the year 2007, with a global presence of 99M in 2021, is marked as one of the best content providers for online videos. Here, users can watch recent aired series or shows for free. However, there are more plans for the paid subscribers.

5. YouTube: One of the most likable apps for video streaming in 2021 for free subscribers. There are a plethora of channels available inside the platform just to deliver you the quality of content you want. Users can post their videos, create their channels, make new followers and earn money via this platform. YouTube has a maximum reach of 2.1B users or 74% of the total on its platform in 2020. The app has been downloaded more than 10B times on Google Play Store and more than 3billion times on the Apple App Store. YouTube offers premium plans for its users without any advertisements. Recently it has launched YouTube music.

Sections & Features of On-Demand Video Streaming App

User Panel:

• User Registration: It is a crucial part of an interactive Video-On-Demand system. The user must be offered with multiple options for registration and login. Like, they can opt for an email login, Facebook sign-up, or verify OTP. Also, there must be an option for password recovery, in case the user can’t remember his/her credentials.
• User Profile: Offer an option for editing and personalization of user profiles. From that mobile application developers can gain a lot of useful information like user subscribers, videos watched, saved, most replayed & a lot more.
• Privacy Settings: Most users are keen on sharing their watched stuff on social networking sites with their friends but sometimes they might seek privacy as well. Hence, allow them to toggle privacy options. This way, users have the privilege to pick friends and social media platforms on their own to share what they desire.
• Search functionality: The search feature allows users to find and play a specific video of their choice. However, for that, they have to look through the entire database. Hence, it would be rather helpful to insert a filter to search via location, broadcast data, topic, most-watched, video length, language, genre, etc.
• Interactive User Experience: Implementing a superior UI design, with the video player would work wonders. Users should be able to customize it the way they desire, whether to make it full-screen or half-screen, to decrease or increase the volume, or to adjust the brightness.
• Review & Ratings: This section is essential as it allows the app users to rate and review the app as per their experience. Hence, it allows the app users to know the audience’s response and enhance the app according to their needs and preferences.
• Comments Option: Two sections use this feature, i.e. the broadcaster & the audience (user of the app). The broadcaster receives the public review or questions in comments by the app users/audience and accordingly, the broadcaster answers the user queries. Comments option is a powerful means to receive feedback from the audience so that the video streaming quality can be further enhanced.
  Geolocation Tracking: Using these features users can select broadcasts as per the region they are in. It allows users to pick which broadcasts they want to view from the map itself.

Admin Panel:

• Video Streaming: Implementing every single detail in this section is vital after all this is the main purpose of this type of mobile app. Streaming should be done from an external server, so it is important to keep the app lightweight. The broadcasting stream passes through the server and is then directly showcased onto the user device. It then stays there till the time the user watches it. Post usage, it gets deleted automatically from the server-side.
• Stream Quality: In the arena of the VOD system, this feature has a significant role to play. Ensure good stream quality so that the videos can be watched by users even when network bandwidth is down. Set the lower option for video quality to 144p while 1080p or 4K is a higher option. Hence, as per network flow, the app will automatically pick the video quality.
• Subscriptions & Revenue Models: Pretty useful, this feature enhances user engagement, as users are connected to the mobile app even when it is not open and they receive updates in case a new video from their favorite artist or band is released in the app. In the case of subscriptions, if any broadcaster doesn’t offer a free subscription, then the app should redirect users for in-app purchases.
• Multiple Payment Modes:
  Braintree, PayPal, e-Wallet Apps, Credit/Debit Cards
  Multiple Currency Support
  In-app Purchase model
• Push Notifications: This is one essential feature in every mobile app nowadays. It keeps the user updated about the latest videos and the content released.
• Analytics: Analytics & QoS/QoE Monitoring is the most important of the admin section. It allows analyzing live audiences and the broadcasters graphically. The admin is in the knowledge of real-time insights of the app usage as well as controls the previous usability app standards as well. This way, they can decide on further business operations to be taken.

Additional Features:

• Supports Hybrid Platform
• For enterprise-level protocols, there is maximum render fluidity & adaptability
• Play in custom media player with Live feed of URL
• For trans-coding, qualified encoder & decoder
• For Webcasting there is social casting & support
• Live monetization ads

Read Also: Best Cross-Platform Mobile App Development Frameworks & Tools in 2021

Tech Stack for on-demand video streaming app

• GWT – for Powerful Programming
• Datastax – for Data Management
• SMS, Voice, and Phone Verification -Nexmo, Twilio
• Mandrill – for everything related to emails
• Push Notifications – Google Cloud Messaging Service, Twilio, Push.io
• Payments – Braintree & PayPal, Stripe, EWallets
• Streaming Media System – Helix Universal Server, Wowza Streaming Engine, Nimble Streamer
• Database – MongoDB, HBase, Cassandra, Postgres, MailChimp Integration
• Debian – the Universal Operating System
• Real-time Analytics – Hadoop, Spark, BigData, Apache Flink, Cisco, IBM
• Cloud Environment – AWS

Required Team Structure

To develop an exceptional app, it is vital to have a proficient team. Here are the key personnel who will be needed to create an online video streaming app:

• Project Manager: An expert in the arena with immense knowledge of the subject and possess excellent managerial skills. Must be updated about all the in-depth market analyses and trends to provide product suggestions.
• Designers: Mobile apps are all about what meets the eye, hence they should be able to appeal to the users as they use inside the app. Your app designers are brilliant in matching some of the advanced color combinations and elements to give a surreal experience to the users.
• Developers: Developers are the backbone of any app. They are well experienced with the plunge of technologies for the development of the mobile app. Most mobile app platforms are Android and iOS with the different orientation of programming languages enticed in it. Hire the best one for your project. Further, some front-end developers would come in handy.
• Testing and QA Team: Before launching the app in the market, it is vital to test the app and ensure it is of good quality. A team of good testers is needed to find bugs, and check if it crashes. Once identified, inform the developers, so that the bugs can be fixed.

Cost of Development

Video-on-demand applications must be highly optimized with cost and time efficiency. The use of ML and AI technologies drives the right ROI for the business. Balance all such parameters, depending on the app’s complexity and if there are any additional features. The cost to develop such an app depends on the Mobile App Development Company, as the price differs based on the region and time taken to create an app. Here are the rates, as per regions:

• US-based developers costs – $50 to $220 per hour
• Singapore-based developers costs – $30 to $120 per hour
• Indian developers costs – $10 to $80 per hour

Adding up entire costs, a basic on-demand video streaming app will cost somewhere around $30,000 to $50,000 for either Android or iOS platform. Meanwhile, one can launch the app for free and offer an in-app purchases option for the premium version, which is excluded from ads.

Conclusion

The world of online video streaming is wider than ever. The market is full of scopes and opportunities for the new service providers to come up with some unique concepts for the power pack experience to the users. The main aim of the industry is to serve their users the best quality and content video.

If you are planning to keep your place in the industry and offer something wide outside the angle then you should start your planning today. Octal Info Solution can be your partner in serving all of the aspects of VOD app development to its users for the best viewing experience.