Generally, when you talk about live streaming, the picture you get is of brands going live on social media platforms like YouTube. The problem with these social platforms is that it won’t fulfill your unique streaming needs. Each brand or video content creator has different streaming requirements, whereas sites like YouTube comes with their own norms. The reason you use YouTube to sell your videos would be due to the exposure you get. However, when you consider a majority of other factors, including revenue, you feel there are better options out there.
Live streaming solutions like YouTube is not always the right solution for brands due to security issues and specific business requirements. Also, these platforms are better for recorded videos, not for live streaming. With this, you can customize everything starting from the content that goes live on the site and all of that could increase productivity. You might ask, why to build a private live streaming platform when there are ready-made solutions. The answer is simple- They are brands and they have their own terms and advertising and of course, full control over their product. Most are not aware of the other platforms by which you can showcase your content. The best way is to have your own video streaming platform to sell your videos.
Before going into how to sell video content online, let’s explore the advantages of streaming your videos in your own platform instead of relying on other streaming platforms like YouTube.
Pros of streaming your videos on your own website
Streaming to your live streaming platform can be a great business tool. It is a great solution for Video Content Providers who wants to follow the business model or popular live-streaming platforms like Hulu and Netflix where people pay a fee to access your content. It is also a great option for anyone who wants to stream content that is not ‘ad-friendly”. Content creators with clear political options also cannot thrive in platforms like YouTube. Such content would be removed with no prior warning. Leveraging a private live streaming solution saves content creators from this kind of censorship and demonetization. Here are the advantages of live streaming videos in your own platform.
-You have full control of the content you publish on your live streaming website.
-Your content would be uncensored.
-No third-party interruptions.
-You can charge people to view the videos or sell ads.
These services come with all the restrictions the major platforms have with extreme types of content. However, having your own live streaming solution also comes with some cons like high costs. Some solutions are very technically challenging, making it difficult for everyone to give it a try. One solution for Streaming Video Content providers is to use any SaaS solution to develop the platform to do it is an affordable way.
How to stream to your own Live streaming platform
To stream to your own website, you as Streaming Video Content providers have to use some backend video technology. Let’s quickly get into how live streaming works. To start with, there is the ingest server, a piece that receives the live stream you are broadcasting. Then your video has to be transcoded. Transcoding is a process that multiplies the copies of your live video stream for different connection types and screen resolutions. Then the feed must be distributed across a network of the websites to be viewed on. A player on the platform decodes the data and convert it into a watchable form. If you choose to stream on a free live streaming platform, all these setup is made available to you. However, in your own video streaming platform, you have to build and pay for all of this.
Here are the different ways to create your own live streaming platform.
Using a turn-key solution
A turnkey solution is essentially ready to use piece of software that can be customized to any levels to suit your business needs. Using a turnkey solution allows you to save on costs and get a product with tried and tested features. For example, if you are going for a YouTube clone script, it will have all the features and functionalities of YouTube and can be customized as well.
Build your own server
If you choose to build your own server, you have to build the essential infrastructure to stream your content. This would require you to have your own data centres in different locations with supremely strong internet connections and hundreds of physical servers. To develop a full-fledged video streaming site, it takes a lot of hours of programming, brainstorming for cool web design, testing and performing, etc. You also have to face many inevitable problems that are a part of the process. This is a very costly affair that would cost you a fortune. If you wonder, not even sites like Netflix use this type of solution.
Build your own live streaming solution and lease the infrastructure
This is what most of the live streaming giants use. Most of the solutions use the public cloud as it gives control and flexibility. The cost involved varies according to the usage which means the costs will increase as the size of your audience grow. A popular example of these types of solutions is Amazon Web Services (AWS), that allows you to scale your live streaming solution to almost any level.
Monetizing your live streaming platform
The reason you wish to start a live streaming platform of your own is to earn a good revenue out of your content as a Streaming Video Content provider. Not surprisingly, YouTube offers content to users for free, making it a cheap way to view content but not to sell content.
While YouTube earns revenue through ads, other platforms like Twitch monetize through ads and paid subscriptions. If your content is unique and demanding, you can follow subscription-based models to earn more revenue. However, when you start with, the focus must be on gaining a good user base of consistent users who visit your website often. You can start with any revenue model like advertisement models and then later switch to more profitable business models.
You can also add a small monthly fee to the subscription, which allows your subscribers to freely watch the content without any interruptions like ads. You can also add affiliate programs to attract streamers and that allows them to contribute to your platform and make a decent amount of earning. If you want to build a platform like YouTube, think about the different ways to offer additional benefits to users that they lack in YouTube.
To build a successful streaming platform, you have to consider all the details of creating an incredibly supreme product. In addition, to make a good amount of income from it, you must be able to satisfy the needs of your customers. It must have all the essential features required by a live streaming site like live chat feature. While building a live streaming platform, think ahead of time and contribute towards server scaling. That means you must develop a platform which will scale at any level.
Conclusion
The best part about building your own Live streaming platform is that once the setup is complete, live streaming becomes quite simple and easy. For most solutions, you will end up with Real-Time Messaging Protocol (RTMP) server and stream key just like YouTube. The private live streaming solution works excellent with multi-streaming services that will allow streaming your video to multiple locations at the same time. Many Video-on-demand content providers use to stream to sites like YouTube and to their private website simultaneously. With the right choice and some planning, live streaming your content to your own platform gives you the amount of security, flexibility and control you require.