IPTV/OTT-based services offer content creators a lot of capabilities. For example, you can go live and connect with your audience in real-time, or you can offer on-demand video content.
It is up to you to decide. But both ways provide you with their advantages and disadvantages. Let’s give them a closer look.
If you want to create your video streaming platform and monetize your video content using it, we recommend you contact Setplex. Their solution offers great monetization capabilities and both live and VOD functionality.
What Are The Pros And Cons Of Live Streaming?
Live streaming is popular in different industries. It is a tool to promote your business in various ways. Here are the pros of live streaming:
1. Users Can Communicate With You In Real Time
They can ask questions and share their worries in real time. And you can answer them immediately. Both of you have just been engaged in a small conversation.
It is close to face-to-face communication, but you have more listeners. People will be glad to have an opportunity to communicate directly with you.
At some point, live streaming helps you achieve transparency. Such live streaming for governments can be quite beneficial.
Authorities are often those whom people trust the least. That’s why live streaming can be helpful for them in achieving transparency with their citizens.
2. People Can Attend Your Stream From Anywhere
It is what we like about live streaming the most. Viewers can attend the meetings they want from any place where there is an internet connection and a compatible device.
Sports fans and church visitors appreciate live streaming for that. There is no need to spend time moving to another location when you can enter a platform and enjoy the stream.
3. There Are No Do-overs In Live Streaming
It is one of the downsides of live streaming. There is no opportunity to redo or edit what you have done or said on camera. That’s why you need to be prepared for live streaming and understand what you are going to talk about with your viewers.
4. Your Viewers Will Probably Be Located In Different Time Zones
If your service is available worldwide, you will likely have viewers who have a time zone different from yours. It can occur that when you have a live stream in the evening, some of your viewers will have an early morning.
What Are The Pros And Cons Of VOD?
1. VOD Subscriptions Tend To Be Cheaper Than Cable Or Satellite Television
Cable or satellite television subscriptions can cost up to $50 and more, while VOD services can cost $10 a month. It is five times cheaper than traditional TV. Of course, viewers save a fortune.
Moreover, there are different types of VOD services, and they can require different payment methods. For example, there are SVOD services that offer a monthly or yearly subscription. Viewers pay once and get unlimited access to videos.
There are AVOD services that don’t charge a fee at all. The AVOD system generates money by advertising third-party services or products. And the TVOD system requires payment for every piece of content.
2. VOD Is Available When Viewers Want
Video-on-demand is about videos that are pre-recorded and stored on servers. Viewers can access them anytime they want. That’s why people love streaming services like Netflix or Hulu.
They have varied content available when you are in the mood to watch it. There is no schedule and no need to wait for a video to air. Viewers enter a service and press to play a video they want.
3. Videos Can Be Edited
VOD means that a provider creates videos, edits them, and publishes them on the platform. They are stored on servers, and users need to request them to watch.
Before the video is published, providers can create, recreate, and edit the video as many times as they want. They can publish a video they like, while live streaming doesn’t give such an opportunity.
4. Content Can Be Unavailable In Users’ Locations
A lot depends on the providers. They can ban some countries from accessing their content. But content can also be unavailable due to other reasons.
For example, something may happen on the server, and your service won’t operate. And users won’t be able to watch content.
Final Thoughts
Live and VOD are different, and that’s why they provide you with different capabilities. You are to decide what kind of platform you want to create – whether you are going to launch only live events or create videos available on-demand, or you will benefit from both options.
Ella Marcotte
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