The online video streaming market has expanded exponentially in the past few years. Increasing high-speed internet penetration and the availability of cheaper mobile devices have added more viewers to OTT streaming services.
From enterprises and news channels to entertainment channels to moviemakers, everyone is leveraging online video streaming to large a large number of viewers at a global scale cost-efficiently. To enable faster, efficient, reliable, and secure online video streaming services, it has become essential to have a capable OTT platform.
Companies are using OTT platforms to make money and create high-quality broadcasting services. Choosing the best OTT channel for your organization can be overwhelming, so we will compare the best OTT services for streaming video content.
Most OTT providers offer tools for storing, managing, and delivering content to viewers online. To create a streaming site like Netflix, you’ll need a good OTT platform.
Best OTT Platforms in 2024
Here, we have collated the list of top 10 OTT platforms around the globe to help you make an informed decision.
1. DaCast
DaCast is designed to deliver an end-to-end SaaS approach. One of the leading OTT platforms is popular for rendering ease to use functionalities. It also offers OTT video streaming and live online video streaming capabilities across platforms and devices without any compromise on quality.
It offers pay per view tickets and enables the audience to pay online within the video player to access online live videos. You can also leverage third-party ads to monetize your videos. It also offers white labeling capabilities and you can customize the video player by changing its color and embedding your own logo as per the branding guidelines of your business.
Through its API, developers can easily build a highly customized video streaming solution.
DaCast is capable of recording all the live videos automatically that it makes available to the audience for video on demand (VoD) instantly. You can also render audio-only streaming on the platform for viewers using the service on slow internet.
2. Brightcove
Brightcove offers VoD, OTT Flow, and Marketing Suite among others. It is powered by HTML5 player and offers end-to-end live streaming capabilities
It offers both integrated monetization features and the ability to leverage third-party monetization solutions. You can leverage its adaptive bitrate streaming to ensure smooth playback on devices running on a slow internet connection. Its developer API enables broadcasters to develop custom apps and software around their streaming service.
Leverage its real-time analytics to gain insights about the performance of your live streaming and VoD content. You can also post clips from your live stream on social media channels in real-time to boost engagement.
3. Livestream
Livestream was recently acquired by leading video streaming service Vimeo. The OTT platform is a popular choice among businesses to facilitate live video streaming and VoD services in a secure and efficient manner. It offers centralized delivery and seamless management of videos.
Its monetization options are only available with its enterprise package that includes the pay-per-view system. You can easily customize the player by adding skins and leverage live chat during the live stream for greater engagement.
Livestream also allows broadcasters to deliver password protected broadcasts. You can measure the performance of your content by analyzing the views counter and engagement metrics delivered through real-time analytics.
4. StreamShark
StreamShark offers an efficient and innovative video streaming solution that can be delivered to multiple platforms and devices. Its online streaming capabilities include an enterprise-grade platform and live streaming solution to meet different requirements of businesses.
It is powered by VPAID and VAST ads to easily monetize your live streams. It offers a global CDN to enable you to deliver content anywhere in the world. You can also moderate questions on its live chat feature to maintain the sanctity of the platform. You can fully customize the platform and restrict other websites from embedding your videos.
It is also one of the few platforms that offer live streaming of 360-degree videos in 4K quality. You can also control its encoders remotely to control the quality of your live stream across the world.
5. Vimeo Premium
Vimeo is a familiar name that offers an easy set up to run an OTT service efficiently. The platform is capable of delivering videos all over the world. However, it doesn’t offer end-to-end security to OTT players.
You can only use custom ads to monetize your videos and embed third-party solutions to leverage pay-per-view models. You can easily restrict domains to block the embedding of videos on different websites.
Its player can be customized by changing its user interface, colors, and logo as per your branding requirements. Apart from China, its services are available all over the world.
6. IBM Cloud Video
IBM is one of the credible names in the OTT industry. It offers multiple VoD and live streaming solutions on its platform. Its OTT solutions are designed to offer efficient GPU computing and storage capabilities. You can easily manage, upload, and deliver video on demand through IBM cloud video.
It offers the monetization of content through inserting third-party ads. You can easily customize your channel and showcase live-streamed videos, upcoming events, and VoD services. To boost engagement, you can leverage its live chat feature. IBM also enables broadcasters to enforce strict copyright rules to avoid broadcast of duplicate content.
It also automatically saves live streams and delivers them as VoD instantly for viewers.
7. Wowza
Wowza is a capable OTT platform that offers VoD and live streaming capabilities. The platform is equipped to efficiently deliver audio streams, HD videos, and low latency videos on multiple devices and desired scales. It is popular for offering responsive and reliable customer support.
You can leverage pay-per-view models and custom ads to monetize your video streaming. You can also delight your users with immersive 360-degree video streaming delivered in 4K quality globally. Wowza enables broadcasters to leverage IP cameras in mobile platforms to render live streaming without any encoder. You can also use its mobile apps to stream videos over 3G, 4G, and wi-fi.
Its developer API can be used to offer third-party integration and customization of live streaming solutions. You can also leverage live support during your live streaming to fix any issue in real-time.
Its CDN is capable of delivering video streams all over the world and adaptive bitrate streaming makes it capable of delivering a smoother experience on slow internet bandwidths.
8. Panopto
Panopto offers a simplified yet efficient OTT solution to deliver live streams and VoD efficiently. It is powered by a modern content streaming architecture to efficiently deliver videos in HD quality on multiple devices including smartphones, tablets, and desktops. The OTT platform offers capable security features and great customization options.
It offers live DVR controls to enable viewers to pause, rewind, and play live streams at any point in time. Its virtual waiting room is built to cater to users to log in early to a live stream. Panopto offers a separate monetization tool known as InPlayer to efficiently leverage pay-per-view and paywall among other monetization options. You can easily gauge the reach of your videos through real-time analytics that provides information like the number of views, location of users, and minutes of viewing among others.
Its HTML5 player is capable of streaming videos online on devices of any size. You can also leverage its iOS and Android mobile apps to view live videos. To make the experience more engaging, Panopto offers Q&A sessions, threaded discussions, digital notes, and comments.
You can also easily restrict video streaming access based on users and departments for compliance control.
9. Stretch Internet
Stretch Internet is an OTT solution that is designed to deliver the live stream of sporting events efficiently. It is capable of adding multiple events at one go, editing events at any point in time, and geo-restricting the content as per the requirement. It offers a simple and intuitive user experience to maximize efficiency and usability on the OTT platform.
Its algorithm is capable of rendering adaptive bitrate streaming to ensure smoother delivery of live streams on varying internet speeds. You can easily play video streaming on a smartphone, tablet, or desktop.
Stretch Internet also offers score and sports stats of live streaming to help gauge its reach. You can leverage pre-roll ads, pay-per-view ticketing, and PPV features to efficiently monetize your live videos. It commonly offers a 50:50 revenue sharing model on PPV arrangement.
You can also efficiently live stream the sporting event from multiple locations in real-time. Through its picture-in-picture format, you can render two screens at the same time. Easily collect audio and video clips to share on social media during your live stream.
10. Phando
Phando is one of the leading OTT platforms that offers capable online video management and monetization solutions. Its end-to-end cloud-based video streaming solutions offer reliability, scalability, and efficiency in a highly secure manner.
You can leverage paywall, pay-per-view, custom ads, and subscription models to monetize your VoD and live streaming offerings. It offers robust analytics to help you gauge the performance of your video content and calculate RoI.
Phando’s HTML5 player enables video playback on any device or platform and leverage mobile-ready encoding to render flawless streaming. Phando also offers the unique feature of video conferencing that runs smoothly on slow internet connections.
In Summary
That was all about the 10 best OTT platforms in the world. Each platform offers some unique and some common features to cater to different business requirements. For instance, Phando is best for businesses that need a reliable and secure solution instantly. And businesses that need to cover live sporting events can go with Stretch Internet to render intuitive live videos from different locations.
Judiciously compare the features of each platform against your requirement to select the right OTT platform for your business.
