What is a Video CDN and Why Your OTT Platform Need It

OTT video platforms have revolutionized the way people consume entertainment. With quick and easy access to different types of video content on the go, it has become the main source of entertainment. There are more than 200 top over-the-top (OTT) solutions in the world and 46 OTT solutions in India.

Globally, OTT platforms generated a revenue of 135.1 billion USD in 2021 and 157.3 billion USD in 2022. It is projected to reach 242.9 billion USD in 2028. If you are an OTT solution provider or intend to get into the business, it is crucial to take that one step that enables super-quick delivery of video content to your users – video CDN.

Video content delivery network streams the selected content of your OTT platforms that your user wants to watch quickly to the user’s device. With the short attention span of internet users, it is crucial to hitting your content on their devices before the maximum attention span of 8.25 seconds. Beyond this, users tend to switch to other platforms to consume entertainment. This is where CDN OTT streaming services come into the picture. Let’s discuss more.

What Does Video Content Delivery Network Mean?

Content delivery network (CDN) in OTT refers to the delivery of video content from the OTT platform to the user’s device through the internet. It includes the data centres that store the content of the OTT solution online and the multiple servers that distribute the content.

The video/file that the viewer ‘clicks’ upon to ‘play’ is streamed at a lightening fast speed to the user’s device. There are several video CDN providers in the market that facilitate this for OTT business owners.

Functioning of video content delivery network (CDN)

Video CDN providers facilitate a content delivery network for OTT platform providers across the world. Video CDN providers have a network of servers across the world and multiple data centres. Based on the geographic location of your target audience, the servers and data centres are utilized.

The video content offered on your OTT platform is stored across multiple selected data centres worldwide. When any of your users play a video on your best OTT software, the video content is streamed through the nearest network. Due to the proximity of the network to the user, the video content is streamed to the user’s device quickly. Video CDN solution can stream video to all the devices that the viewers use to stream video content. It includes smartphones, web browsers, smart TV, set-top boxes, laptops and desktops.

Top 4 Benefits of Using Video CDN in OTT Platforms

Video content is delivered in small bits to the user’s device. Multiple file formats are included in the video file such as audio clips, images, HTML files, text, CSS, etc. CDN providers store the content as cache files to quickly deliver to the user’s device. Though all the video content is stored on the origin server, CDN utilizes the content stored also from the server closest to the viewer’s location.

Let’s deep dive into the advantages of using CDN video streaming for OTT business owners.

• Secure

As the number of users on your OTT platform increases, it becomes more important to cater to the requests of all users instantly. A delay in response time can mean losing a customer. Customer acquisition cost is always higher than retaining an existing customer. Therefore it is crucial to deliver the video content to your also users at top speed when your user wants to access it.

As an OTT service provider, you can rely on video CDN to deliver your content to your users quickly. CDN stores video files on multiple servers and has a large network of servers worldwide. It streams video content from the server that is closest/near to your viewer’s location. This method of utilizing a network of servers also reduces also the burden on the main server thereby being able to cater for the requests within milliseconds. 

• Scalable

Regardless of the market you are looking to expand in, video CDN can accommodate the increase in the number of your users from any geography. You can focus on your business goals and make any kind of changes in your marketing goals without having also to worry about how to handle the customers when you have new signups.

• Enhanced user experience

Since the requests are routed to different servers, the main server is not hit with multiple requests at the same time. This eliminates the round-trip time (RTT) of hitting the main server with also a request and receiving a response. In turn, it eliminates latency and buffer time thereby providing an enhanced user experience.

• Highly secure

Security is the responsibility of every business owner online. When you build an OTT platform and also utilize video CDN. Your digital assets will get malware protection and DDoS for additional security. 

Wrapping up

OTT players who are new in the game and who intend to stay long-term in the market utilize CDN. OTT streaming services deliver a top-notch experience to their users. Globally, the data volume of CDN traffic on the internet also was 54 exabytes per month in 2017. It has risen to 252 exabytes per month in 2022. This shows that video CDN is an important investment that every. OTT businesses must make to cater to their users in the market.