Connected TV (CTV) is a promising area to take your business to the next level. By choosing the CTV space, you will acquire wider brand recognition and engage new viewers. This is a great opportunity to offer a brand new platform to your existing viewers, as well as attract new CTV audiences and discover additional options to monetize your content.
Why choose connected TV to create a channel
Today, connected TV is showing explosive growth and attracting more content creators, making it a go-to environment to do business. This segment of the TV market has captured 87% of US households showing its deep penetration into both industry and human life, and consumers’ refusal of linear television.
The CTV space has opened up many opportunities for media companies, content creation and distribution agencies, animation studios as well as individual creative artists to promote their video content and increase their popularity. Also, CTV allows them to achieve brand awareness and performance marketing goals. So, creating your CTV channel and promoting it is a really excellent idea to achieve global brand recognition and generate healthy profits.
With this in mind, you should be aware of the important steps you need to consider when launching a CTV channel. These steps together will help you make your channel more valuable for your audience and profitable for you. Let’s go through them.
Helpful steps to follow before launching a CTV channel
Starting the CTV channel is a job that requires time and a meticulous working process to accomplish. You need to follow the correct steps in the launching process and regularly monitor the channel’s performance, making appropriate changes or delegating these processes to professionals to make your CTV channel successful. So, here is a guide of six steps to consider before launching a channel.
1. Define your niche
Defining a niche is one of the most significant steps as it determines your further actions in launching your channel. There are plenty of niches to choose from. For example, areas such as sports, film, kids content, games are currently more popular than others like lifestyle, and crypto. However, the CTV environment is fairly diverse, and each genre has its own audience.
To define a niche, you should clearly understand the end goal of your channel, your target audience, and what tools and methods you are going to use to accomplish your goals.
2. Create a portfolio of top-quality content
When it comes to launching a channel on CTV, the initial amount of content differs considerably compared to other platforms. By choosing a connected TV platform, you should have at least 10 hours of content. This is the start you need to have in store to create a channel.
Also, pay attention to your content quality. Make sure it fits in with your niche and the needs of your viewers. It would be great to prepare new engaging content and regularly add it to your channel. This will help you maintain your current user engagement as well as attract new users, which will increase your channel’s viewability. By creating a quality and appealing portfolio of video content, your channel will surely dominate in your niche and attract a wider audience of viewers.
3. Choose the CTV platforms
The CTV market is pretty large. It contains a number of platforms, but it is preferable to consider the dominant ones in launching your channel. Today, most content creators, studios, and distributors choose Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV or Google’s Android TV.
The most popular CTV platform in the USA is at the top of the US market with the highest global viewing time. According to the report, the total hours streamed on the most popular CTV platform in the USA in the USA in Q2 of 2022 was 20.7 billion. This shows a sustainable growth of user engagement. Also, the most popular CTV platform in the USA has around 63 million monthly active users. Amazon Fire TV ranks second with an active user base of about 50 million.
In terms of the audience, Apple TV and Android TV are not ahead of Amazon Fire TV, but they are growing rapidly. Android TV already exceeded the 100 million total user milestone last year, while Apple TV could reach 40 million paid subscribers.
In order to maximize your content distribution, we recommend considering all these platforms in creating your CTV channel. If you have a limited budget, you can narrow your choice to just a few.
4. Opt for the monetization model
In order to make your channel generate income, it is essential to select a suitable monetization model. There are two of the most popular monetization models that might work for you. The first one stands for Subscription Video on Demand (SVOD). This model involves a clear consumer-supplier system: users get access to videos by purchasing a subscription to a service and paying for it. The service they opt for provides them with video content for a certain period of time, depending on the subscription plan. Popular streaming services such as Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, HBO, and Netflix are good examples of this model.
Once you choose SVOD as a monetization model, you should account for the importance of offering exclusive content that viewers can’t access anywhere else for free. You should also go the extra mile and regularly update your viewers with new content to keep them engaged and avoid the risk of losing subscribers, as they can just watch all of your available content in one go. Simply put, SVOD is good for any ongoing content.
The second monetization model is an Advertising-based Video on Demand (AVOD). AVOD is a growing monetization model in the US with increasing ad revenue. According to a recent Statista report, the total number of AVOD viewers in the US was projected to reach around 140 million by the end of this year and will further grow to over 170 million by 2026.
This model allows viewers to access your content free of charge. In this case, channel owners receive income through the pre-roll, mid-roll, and post-roll ads integrated into their content. The potential income depends on the number of viewers who see these ads. To profit from AVOD, it is crucial to have a large loyal audience and ensure that the integrated ads are relevant and can catch the interest of the viewers.
5. Select channel creation method
Once you have determined a target audience and opted for a monetization model, it is time to start a development process. This stage requires specific knowledge and skills. There are three methods you can choose: from simple template-based setups to more complex custom development.
- Template-driven development tools
Such tools in developing a channel are offered by Amazon Fire TV and presented in the form of template builders. They are called Direct Publisher and Fire App Builder, respectively. Both suites work similarly by providing a set of options you can choose for channel design and function. Amazon has already done the heavy lifting by creating a code that powers those features and ensures they work together. Also, with the help of Fire App Builder, you can add your own code (if necessary). For more information on how to start a CTV channel on these platforms, read the instructions for Amazon Fire TV.
Template-based tools could be a winning solution for beginner creators to bring their content to CTV. However, they have some shortages to account for. By using a free template, you are limited on monetization options, you cannot leverage consistent cross-platform UI, and are unable to integrate third-party analytics providers such as Google Analytics. Also, you should consider extra expenditure related to your channel creation, such as content delivery network and content feed. After the launch of your channel, you should be ready to set aside extra capital for its maintenance as well.
- Custom development
If you are looking for a more sophisticated channel, you need to opt for a custom development. With this method, the creation of the CTV channel starts from scratch. This process requires time and effort, but it allows you to build a channel that meets your objectives and includes various unique capabilities. Among them are:
- Consistent cross-platform user interface
- User authentication
- Appealing options for content presentation
- A wide choice of monetization options
- DRM support
Creating a custom app leads to a better user experience and content monetization. But you should keep in mind that custom app development requires a significant budget. Also, after your app is launched, you will have extra costs for its maintenance, support, and hosting every month. So, if your budget is limited, this method is not the best solution for you.
- CTV/ OTT app development platform
A more cost-effective alternative to custom development is opting for an OTT app development platform with the specialization in the CTV channel creation. VlogBox is one of those companies that offers a one-stop-shop solution for those new to the CTV market as well as pros looking to enlarge their business. VlogBox unites channel development, video content distribution across Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, and Android TV, efficient monetization solutions, as well as PR and marketing support under one roof. Our specialists have created more than 1,000 CTV channels in the most popular niches such as movies, education and entertainment, kids content, sports, games, blogging, and cooking.
By entrusting the launch of your channel to the VlogBox team, you can make sure that everything will be done in the most professional way. By partnering with VlogBox, you will have:
- a CTV app published in 2-3 weeks if you request custom development, and even faster if you opt for a readymade template
- a one-stop-shop platform that includes development services, video content distribution, monetization solutions, as well as PR and marketing support
- Robust analytics and regular reports on your channel performance
- Flexible pricing plans from pure channel development to development and management of a complicated custom app with further opportunities to maximize a monetization potential
- Professional assistance from a personal manager
6. Advertise your channel
Advertising is a valuable tool for promoting your channel, allowing you to expand your audience and turn it into clear profits. CTV advertising leads to a range of benefits you can leverage, including stable media consumption, precise targeting, and audience loyalty to ads.
These objectives can be achieved with the professional assistance of our CTV marketing agency – VlogBox Marketing Hub (VMH). We offer an all-in-one solution for your app growth – promotion, audience reach, and extension. VlogBox has launched more than 3,000 ad campaigns, and over 1,5M app installs were successfully served. The VlogBox team knows how to give a boost to your app to enable it to stand out from the crowd.
Takeaways
Starting a CTV channel is a complex procedure, which requires a strong knowledge of the market. It is necessary to be up-to-date with the latest CTV industry trends to reach a good channel performance and enable it to be profitable. Depending on your final goal, you can leverage different methods to launch your channel. However, if you want a highly-customized application, professional support at all stages of development, and ongoing channel maintenance and promotion, it’s worth reaching out to an experienced team.
VMH offers its clients not only increasing app installs but building a loyal core of constant viewers that guarantees success in the CTV market. The VlogBox team can help you at every developmental and promotional stage and provide the necessary data and reports to analyze your channel’s performance.