How OTT Media Offers Increased Flexibility and Consumer Choice

OTT (Over-the-Top) content offers consumers a world of increased flexibility and consumer choice. Audiences can stream content on a platform of their choice when they choose to do so. The flexibility of OTT media offers a growing opportunity for content creators and advertisers to engage with active audiences.

5 Ways OTT Media Offers Increased Flexibility and Consumer Choice

1. Platform Choices

Users can decide for themselves: are they more of a Roku person or FireTV? Maybe they just love watching videos on Facebook or believe there's no reason to learn a platform beyond Google Play. Today, content creators and producers easily distribute their work across multiple platforms, meeting consumers where they choose to be.

2. Location Independence

When Friends first aired on broadcast TV, people needed to be at home on time in order to watch it. Today, audiences stream some of their favorite content from their phones while they ride the bus home from work. They stream in between phone calls at work on their work computers. When they can, they stream on their television in their home living rooms or from tablets while lying in bed.

Audiences can stream content wherever they are and with whatever internet-connected device they have. This offers more flexibility and choice than ever before.

3. Programming Recommendations

Great media sites provide relevant content recommendations to their users. When an audience finishes a documentary about birds they are recommended five more relevant documentaries. This offers a lot of easy access to relevant content for users to choose from.

For content creators, it means improved organic reach to relevant audiences. It's a great reason to have content on as many platforms as possible, taking advantage of their recommendation engines.

4. Audiences Have More Choices About Ads

Audiences grew resentful of traditional television commercials. The commercials play for an unknown period of time and they aren't personalized to the audience's interests. If audiences wanted to ignore the commercials, their only choice was to make a rough guess on how long the commercials would be.

Today, streaming audiences watch targeted advertisements that are relevant to their interests. Moreover, audiences know this and are more actively interested in what they might be shown. There are also more interesting ad placements, like pause ads that appear on the screen when a video is paused. Audiences can pause an ad, see how long it will play, and have more flexibility in how they experience advertisements.

5. Costs

OTT audiences have a lot more freedom with their spending choices. They can watch great programming on free ad-supported streaming services. Alternatively, they can choose to pay for subscriptions, and they can choose which ones they want. This is in stark contrast to purchasing a satellite TV package with 300 channels.

Sports fans are finding a lot to love about OTT content. Instead of paying for a bundle of channels they don't need, they can pay to live stream global events or something local. They can also participate in community streaming events or other interactive content. They're choosing what to pay for and what is valuable to them.

Audiences are bypassing traditional broadcast options for the choices they get to make with OTT content. Creators and advertisers are moving as fast as they can to meet audiences where they're choosing to be. Contact Lightcast today to learn how you can leverage our OTT network to reach the right audience.