Bespoke Solutions

Internet Video Channel Development

What do we mean by "Internet TV channel"?
We mean a web site that primarily streams video on demand to regular audience members who can access new material as it is made available, as well as a back-catalogue of previous output. An Internet TV channel doesn't have to have continuous fresh output like a real TV channel but it shouldn't be static either.
 
Over the last three years more and more Intenet TV channels have been launched, some by niche content owners trying new ways to reach and sustain a paying online audience, while others have been free-to-view brand reinforcement channels like Audi.tv.
 
Planning
We will help you plan your Internet TV channel and we'll advise on how to make it as accessible as possible now but also how to make it as future-proof as possible.
 
Design & Build
We have developed a template based IPTV channel publishing solution that is re-skinnable to accommodate a wide variety of front-end design choices without the need for expensive HTML/CSS/JS code writing and with a back-end software system that takes care of everything technical and that has video search capability built in.
 
A typical Doovle channel interface is divided into five primary sections to provide a seamless viewer experience, optimised for display on a 16x9 HDTV screen.

To complete the front end, we provide a brandable Flash 10 video player optimised for full-screen H.264/MP4 stream playing via Adobe Flash Streaming Server 3.5 or via a Content Delivery Network (CDN).
 
Content Preparation
We will carefully prepare all your video content for streaming and advise on the optimal video and audio encoding choices and final video file formats, bitrates and dimensions. For future-proofing, we'll work with you to develop a long-term streaming quality increment strategy so that, as consumer bandwidth continues to increase in the years ahead, you'll be able automatically to serve higher quality video streams, including full 1920x1080 HD when the time comes.
 
Video Content Management
To complete the back-end, we help you select the best options for preparing, hosting and streaming your video content and we provide a Video Content Management System (VCMS) to organise large inventories of content.
 
Audience Data Handling
Our channel back-end solution includes a complete user registration, login, tracking and management module which takes care of all user management functions and includes a powerful email communications centre to help you keep your audience informed.
 
Hosting & CDN Selection
Streaming high quality video to a web audience costs money, so does hosting it.
 
For small audience channels, you can host your own streaming server with an ISP, set it up with a large hard disk array and the video storage becomes a negligible cost. You will pay the ISP for your average continuous bandwidth measured in Mbps (megabits per second) so that at busy times you can "burst" to hundreds of Mbps but still only pay for the actual continuous average you use. To quantify: if you stream high quality video (720kbps) and you have a 10Mbps average bandwidth facility, you could serve 10,000 hours of video each month without incurring extra bandwidth charges.
 
For larger audience or mass audience channels, or to serve an international audience, you need a Content Delivery Network (CDN) partner. CDNs like Akamai, Vitalstream, Kaltura etc. charge for bandwidth in fixed buckets measured in GB or TB. The bigger the bandwidth bucket you buy each month, the lower the unit per GB cost. To serve 10,000 hours of 720kbps video in a month will consume about 3000 GB (3TB) of bandwidth and a typical price at that level is circa US$0.50 per GB. That equates to about 0.25c ($0.0025) for each and every video minute you serve. CDNs also charge for storage at per GB tiered pricing that is similar to their bandwidth charges.
 
At Doovle we understand the mathematics of audiences, video and bandwidth. We advise channel owners to adopt a content delivery strategy that mixes hosting one or more cost effective streaming servers of their own for longtail, infrequently accessed content and the use of a CDN for content that might be demanded by a large number of viewers but over short period of time.
 
Costs & Revenue Modelling
We can build your Internet TV channel for you. We can even manage it for you and provide support. We can help you minimise the cost and the potential cost-risks of operating your channel, but we can't make the costs vanish.
 
The three most common ways to cover the costs of running an Internet TV channel are:

There are many good reasons to subsidise a channel. If you're Audi, then subsidising Audi.tv is a negligible fraction of your global advertising spend. Or if you are a charity or a public sector service provider, having an Intenet TV channel is a powerful new communication tool and will soon be an expected norm. If you are a supermarket, having a recipes and cooking channel (with "add all this to basket" hooks) is a great way to build loyalty and increase online grocery sales.
 
Advertising: Pre-Roll & Mid-Roll
If your content is such that advertisers and sponsors see value in the audience you can deliver to them, then you can more than cover the cost of operating your channel with display adverts and pre-roll and mid-roll video adverts. We can build the scheduling, rotation and auditing you'll need to monetise your content using pre- and mid-roll adverts.
 
Billing Solutions: Subscriptions & Timebanks
If your content is such that your viewers will pay to watch it, we can provide the billing solution you'll need. Our IPTV channel back-end can manage time based subscriptions and renewals. We can also provide a timebank style billing solution to monitor content consumption and to deduct usage fees from users' pre-paid timebanks.
 
To talk to us about your Internet TV channel, please email us: sales@doovle.com.