Media companies are looking to achieve quick, easy, and reliable OTT service launches to establish a market presence and build audiences. Time-to-market and user experience have a huge impact on profitability. When launching a streaming service, brands face a choice: build internally or partner with a vendor. Disney’s CEO, Bob Iger, faced this dilemma with Disney+. Without having spent $3.8bn on BAMtech, Disney+ would not have been able to launch as quickly as it did, and it might have missed out on the tremendous growth it experienced in its first year. Overnight, Disney became a tech company and set new precedents for streaming tech being moved in-house.
Managing complexity at scale
Owning tech doesn’t automatically fuel business success; having great content remains at the heart of business results. Nevertheless, having internal expertise in streaming technology offers numerous benefits. Leading media companies require customized solutions throughout their workflow, making in-house, tailored streaming tech a good option. That doesn’t mean companies should close the door to vendor relationships.
Different media companies’ tech stacks may be stronger in some areas than others and larger organizations may need to take on the role of a system integrator for a full, end-to-end stack. External partners and system integrators can provide valuable thought leadership to optimize 1st and 3rd party workflows and technical integrations. In other cases, deeper relationships with technology partners are crucial for companies seeking a robust, end-to-end solution based on existing upstream systems and workflow. The truth is, taking tech in-house means taking on a lot of complexity, and it often leads to delays and budgetary issues.
Flexibility in a challenging market
Flexibility is essential in today’s streaming world. Audiences may not be willing to pay for the multiple subscriptions that they were a couple of years ago, so media companies need to think smarter about the best way to deliver and monetize their content — for example, offering tiered subscription/advertising models. The landscape is evolving so quickly that they must have flexibility built into their tech stack from day one to enable them to adjust strategies at short notice. And they need a trusted partner to help them devise and deliver new and evolving strategies.
The cost of content is increasing at a significant rate, which means efficiencies must be found elsewhere if companies are to compete on the content side. This, coupled with huge complexities, added costs of technology development and potential delays means media brands are moving away from taking tech in-house in favor of a more agile, cost-efficient, partner-driven approach.
Uplynk provides a simplified and scalable workflow to power your streaming business.
We offer a trusted, flexible solution that reduces complexity and helps media companies bring services to market quickly and cost-efficiently – empowering brands to focus on their business differentiators, audience growth, and content strategies. Uplynk provides the key foundation to stream the highest quality linear, live, and on-demand video experiences to any global viewer while harnessing any monetization strategy and scaling with minimal resources. Uplynk has handled hundreds of thousands of live events, and in 2022 alone generated 2.4 billion event views, 3.3 billion hours of streamed video, and 220 million hours of advertising.
Contact us today to learn more.
Meet us at IBC
We’re delighted to be exhibiting at IBC Amsterdam for the 10th time! We look forward to showing visitors at our stand how Edgio empowers media companies to maximize the value of their content by providing a simple route to market, extending audience reach, and increasing monetization.
Whether you’re looking to deliver the highest quality OTT experience, the lowest latency live video, interactive streaming experiences to a global audience, or sub-second page loads, Edgio is your end-to-end solution for fast, secure, and frictionless digital experiences.
Learn about our award-winning media platform and book a meeting now with our Media Delivery Expert Teamu
