Curating Niche Content to Attract Specific OTT Audiences

Creating niche content platforms starts with understanding the topics and genres covered by mainstream services. Most OTT services cover major interests like horror movies, crime TV, and child-friendly shows, but there's plenty of niche content that is underrepresented or hard to access. To attract audiences, OTT platforms can reframe content by focusing on education, accessibility, and diversity.

Fitness content is a niche that helps audiences build healthier lifestyle habits and improve access for audiences who don't have or can't afford gym memberships. Fitness platforms can range from yoga and Pilates classes to advice on how to build the best resistance training routine. Platforms may consider developing fitness content for people trying to lose weight, older individuals, or people with disabilities who can benefit from alternative exercises for strength training.

Cooking content is popular on social media and usually well represented by mainstream media. However, today's cooking content tends to focus on the competition element for entertainment value rather than instructions on how to make dishes. Platforms can consider throwback segments to develop basic cooking skills, teach the science behind cooking, and help audiences gain the confidence to cook complex dishes. Cooking stations can also teach essential skills like how to shop for ingredients.

OTT platforms can also explore content for other hobbies, like gardening, woodworking, and crocheting. These hobbies are often left out of mainstream platforms despite a growing interest in these activities from younger audiences. Platforms can develop instructional content to help hobbyists at every level of expertise learn new skills and start new projects.

Animated media from Japan and China are seldom accessible on mainstream streaming platforms, particularly older movies and shows that aren't easily found online. OTT platforms can create channels for different genres of anime so fans can find shows that match their taste that may be underrepresented by current platforms. Romance anime, sports anime, and horror anime all have a specific audience.

Niche content can also be geared toward specific demographics, such as creating a platform that builds a community for Asian, Black, and Latinx communities. For example, while K-dramas are becoming popular across the globe, other K-media like variety shows, singing competitions, and movies are often overlooked. There are plenty of Chinese, Thai, and Indian movies and shows that can build a sense of community for Asian audiences.

Influencers have a big share of the social media market, so it makes sense for OTT platforms to create influencer-led stations to engage audiences. Creating a platform around a specific influencer or content creators that appeal to the same demographic can help both the influencer and the streaming service build a relationship with passionate fans.

Curating streaming content to meet the needs of niche audiences is a great way to diversify platforms and keep audience engagement high. Contact Lightcast to learn how to deliver your content on every screen.