Between us, we all watch the same streaming service and the same series, but we may all have a different experience. One of us receives a trailer for the next episode of a new comedy series, another for a new action film.
This is becoming more possible as streaming services now use data, AI and personalisation to create experiences designed specifically for the viewer.
The Shift From One Experience to Many
In the now-historic television universe, all viewers were to watch the same program, commercial, and schedule.
And now your OTT service can personalise nearly everything you see. For the same piece of original content, your recommendations, advertisements, thumbnails, subtitles, and promotions can all be tailored to your preferences.
Because it is streaming on an OTT platform, it can be more customised to the audience using data like audience views, genre preferences, language and behaviour.
Personalised Recommendations
An explicit example of this is recommended content.
AI-based streaming platform can analyse the content that a viewer streams and use AI content recommendations to recommend what they may want to see next.
For example, if a viewer is watching a detective series, they might be shown other detective series, whereas a viewer watching sitcoms might be shown comedy movies.
This makes larger content collections more navigable.
Different Thumbnails and Promotions
You even have the ability to choose your own display style of a title.
Images may vary from one viewer to the next. An actor's picture may be visible to one viewer while another may see a view of a scene.
These slight differences could impact the user preferences of the different piece of content.
Personalised Advertising
Something similar can be witnessed in advertising.
A FAST channel platform, for instance, can monetise by offering more audience data and therefore more targeted and relevant ads to a channel they've made "free".
Similarly, streaming companies can utilise OTT monetisation such as advertising combined with paid subscriptions, premium content, and other revenue streams.
The Role of Data and Analytics
Personalisation depends heavily on understanding viewer behaviour.
Watch time, click rate, completion rate, searches, and clicks on an OTT product are just some of the metrics an OTT analytics platform can analyse.
The data enables businesses to figure out which programs are favoured by different segments of the audience and also the kinds of activities that viewers are engaged in while they are on the website.
Now, an OTT CMS can assist teams in compiling content, metadata, promotional assets, and content variants.
Does Personalisation Change the Actual Story?
You can offer the viewer a different experience without changing the story.
Yet the next generation of technology may actually allow for more interesting content. The audience may be able to choose other splash pages, along with page videos, other languages, and optional paths through content.
A VOD platform could offer different versions of a programme tailored to different viewer tastes with interactive elements that educate viewers about different parts of the story.
Live Content Can Also Be Personalised
Personalisation is not limited to on-demand programs.
A live streaming platform could recommend events based on viewers' interests (e.g., the sports streaming platform offers games featuring a sports team, player, or competitors for one or multiple viewers)
Therefore, the user might locate real-time occasions that match last-minute needs without browsing the entire timetable.
The Technology Behind Personalised Experiences
White-label OTT platforms can help organisations harness the power of tech for creating branded streaming services with personalisation and analytics features.
You need a strong OTT architecture to enable seamless content delivery while handling huge customer data.
Today, OTT app development knows how to provide a personalised experience for your smartphones, tablets, web, and smart TV. With connected TV, you can do the same experience but on a big screen.
One common platform for OTT content management and publishing allows you to serve your clients with complete coverage of all content formats and streaming devices.
The Benefits and Challenges
A more familiar reason why personalisation can make streaming easier is that it removes the videos that a viewer doesn't want to see and shows them what they are looking for faster.
Platforms need to be aware of aspects of privacy, transparency and user choice. Where do we want to use personal data? Is the end user in control of their individualised experience?
The intention should be to make the streaming more usable without making it seem more invasive.
Conclusion
The OTT Future Won't Be About Showing Everyone Their Own Version Of The Show That has been the future of streaming thus far. The OTT future will be about contextualised content for the masses – you and me – via recommendations, discovery, advertising, search and promotion. It's a future in which we harness a mix of analytics, AI, and flexible streaming technology to better understand audiences and better control your streaming audiences. Businesses are testing the waters of personalised OTT & streaming.
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