Platform strategy now spans four business models at once: OTT, SVOD, AVOD, and FAST. This category covers recommendation engines, content discovery, CTV app experience, player SDKs, and the subscriber engagement data that tells you whether a feature actually worked.
Twitch has updated its sexual content policy and content classification system, now allowing previously prohibited content such as illustrated nipples and 'erotic dances,' while still restricting human underboob and requiring content labeling. The changes aim to clarify guidelines, prevent inconsistent enforcement, and address past disproportionate penalties against female streamers. Content with "Sexual Themes" will not be promoted on the Twitch homepage.
The article explains that most smart TVs use Automatic Content Recognition (ACR) technology to collect viewing data for targeted advertising, citing an estimated $18.6 billion spent on smart TV ads in 2022. It provides specific, step-by-step instructions on how to disable ACR and personalized ad targeting on Roku, Samsung, and LG smart TV platforms, noting the varying number of clicks required for each. The Markup positions this as a guide for consumers to gain control over their privacy settings on these devices.
Tubi has made over 600 episodes of 'Classic Doctor Who' from before the 2005 revival available for free streaming in the U.S. and Canada. The content includes 'Classic Doctor Who' and 'Classic Doctor Who: The Lost Animated Stories,' accessible on-demand and via a dedicated FAST Channel. The first serial, "An Unearthly Child," is not included due to rights disputes.
The article defines live streaming, detailing its technical workflow from content capture and encoding to segmentation, CDN delivery, caching, and playback. It highlights the benefits of live streaming including global reach and audience interaction, alongside challenges such as bandwidth issues and security risks. Key technologies like capture devices, encoders, streaming protocols (RTMP, HLS, SRT), CDNs, and video players are also explained.
VPlayed, a video streaming solution provider, promotes Subscription Video On Demand (SVOD) as a profitable monetization model for businesses, predicting significant growth in SVOD revenues. The company highlights its own platform features designed to help clients implement and manage SVOD services, including custom plans and integrated paywalls. The article also differentiates SVOD from AVOD and TVOD and lists successful SVOD market players.
This article compares Apple TV and Roku, highlighting their user bases, features, and target audiences. Roku has grown to 80 million active accounts, while Apple TV has an estimated 50 million global users, with the article contrasting their hardware, ecosystems, pricing, and streaming capabilities.
This article analyzes Apple TV and Amazon Fire TV as content distribution platforms, comparing their ecosystems, monetization models, operational complexity, and analytics capabilities from the perspective of content owners. It highlights Apple TV's predictable governance and subscription alignment versus Fire TV's high reach, ad-supported flexibility, and rapid iteration for AVOD and FAST services. The piece concludes that the choice between platforms depends on a content owner's distribution and revenue strategy, with many leveraging both.
Experts identify Crunchyroll as the leading anime streaming service globally, citing its deep content catalog and long-standing presence, making it difficult for competitors like Netflix, Disney+, and AMC to challenge its market position. These larger streaming companies are noted for their increasing investment in the lucrative anime market to attract younger audiences.
Netflix's TechBlog introduces Marken, a scalable annotation service designed to attach metadata to various objects across different domains within the company. This service functions as an internal tool to manage and categorize data for Netflix's operational needs.
This article provides a preview of TiVo OS, highlighting its smart TV capabilities designed to streamline the streaming experience. The operating system aims to make sense of the various streaming options available to users.
This article from VPlayed serves as a guide for content owners on developing a Roku TV app, highlighting Roku's ecosystem with over 32,000 apps and 63.1 million active users. It outlines the benefits of creating a Roku channel, including audience reach and monetization opportunities via features like Roku Pay. VPlayed positions itself as a provider of dedicated engineering resources for building and maintaining custom Roku channels for clients.
VPlayed published a guide for developing Android TV applications, detailing UI/UX requirements like D-pad support and design principles. The guide emphasizes customized OTT solutions, various monetization models, and utilizes projections like 307 million domestic SVOD subscriptions by 2025 to highlight market opportunity.
This article explains linear TV, its characteristics (rigid schedule, real-time engagement, limited viewer control), and its contrast with OTT. It highlights Nielsen data showing linear TV viewership dropped below 50% in July 2023, while streaming reached a record 38.7%. The piece concludes by discussing the transformation of linear TV operators like Vodafone and Viacom18 to cloud-based infrastructure to integrate digital targeting and personalization.
This article from VPlayed, a white-label OTT solution provider, analyzes Netflix's business model and revenue streams, including SVOD, AVOD, content licensing, and live events, to highlight monetization and growth strategies for other OTT platforms. It details how Netflix maximizes revenue through tiered pricing, regional variations, password-sharing monetization, and scalable tech infrastructure like Open Connect. The article ultimately promotes VPlayed's platform as a solution for building a Netflix-style streaming service.
Amazon has acquired licensing rights from Sony Pictures Television to stream classic Norman Lear series, including "All in the Family," "227," and "Maude." These shows will be available exclusively on Amazon Prime Video and IMDb TV, with some titles streaming for the first time ever, such as "Maude" and all nine seasons of "All in the Family."
Roku is launching "Premium Subscriptions" within The Roku Channel, allowing users to discover and subscribe to 25 partner streaming services directly through Roku's interface with one-click signup and unified billing. This new feature aims to simplify the subscription process for consumers and will debut in late January, offering a minimum seven-day free trial for all participating services.
VPlayed published a guide detailing the technical infrastructure and monetization models required to build a Video-On-Demand (VOD) website, including multi-DRM security, global CDN delivery, and hybrid monetization. The guide outlines a 10-step process for developing, launching, and growing a VOD platform, citing projected global VOD revenues of $786.10 billion by 2032. It also estimates the cost of building a custom VOD website between $25,000 and $100,000+.
Multiple streaming platforms and media companies, including NBCUniversal, YouTube, Warner Bros. Discovery, Disney, and Netflix, are focusing on advanced ad technologies and creator-driven content during their upfront presentations for 2026. This includes leveraging AI agents for ad businesses and emphasizing live events and Super Bowl placements to attract advertisers.
