They say in business that it is who you know, not what you know. This has never been more true than in the ever more competitive world of OTT. Online video streaming continues to innovate, and those starting out on that journey, as we have seen, can be anyone from traditional broadcasters, production houses, to an operator, a telco, ISP, sports federation, start-up, really anyone and everyone has or is looking at the platform. We at Magine Pro refer to a triangle of success: great content, great tech, and clever marketing. This white paper focuses primarily on the latter. 

Traditional marketing remains incredibly important, digital marketing equally so, but evermore relevant is that the success key comes down to strategic partnerships. Partnerships is a very broad term; as you will have read, it can cover everything from aggregator partnerships, content partnerships, and partnerships with those in different market verticals that already have an audience – such as banks, film festivals, e-commerce, and even supermarkets and book clubs. 

Many rights deals are now constructed based on partnership revenue share. Indeed our own commercial model with our partners is not dissimilar. It is important, of course, to partner with the correct organisation to achieve your individual and mutual goals. It should be a symbiotic relationship, and in theoretical terms, it is a simple one – there is a hungry audience out there for quality, exclusive, premium, or just ‘interesting’ content. It is just about where to find it, through whom, and without breaking the bank of the respective audience. 

So what is the future of partnerships in OTT? The Omdia report tells us that the market is becoming ever more competitive and that viewers have multiple options to buy or view their content with ads. So our advice, in line with theirs, is to look at strategic partnerships to build viewership. And look at partners who already have a route to market, those with an audience, and those that look toward loyalty schemes or branching out. The reverse is also true; if you have a great OTT service, look to enhance that with supplementary content or other brands to enable stickiness and devotion to your services. 

Here at Magine Pro, we believe that content is king and continue to work with our multiple clients on the tech that acts as the enabler to great innovative thinking and business disruption. Together we achieve great success. 

You can download our latest white paper, which features Luke Boyle’s reflection now, Advancing OTT audience capture: how strategic partnerships provide avenues for growth. The white paper also includes original research by Omdia, highlighting why strategic partnerships are key to delivering sufficient online video growth and, specifically, the impact of bundling and aggregation partnerships with the likes of telcos and Pay-TV operators. Insights from Magine Pro partners also feature, as they share their experiences on how partnerships have improved their service discoverability, acquisition and growth.

Learn more about Magine Pro’s flexible OTT solutions and how we can help you build and launch a successful OTT business here. And head to our experience page to check out our partners and case studies.

You can also subscribe to the Magine Pro e-newsletter to stay up-to-date with our latest news, partners, and products, and to find out which industry events we’ll be attending next.