Overview Coditude is a digital content creator focused on producing original programming for the young generation of Indian viewers. Its offerings span a wide range of topics, including politics, lifestyle, and social issues. Although it began as a humble YouTube channel, Coditude has since emerged as one of the leading OTT platforms in its segment.
Initially, Coditude planned to rely exclusively on the YouTube model. However, after experiencing significant traction and success, the company decided to explore the OTT model. Currently, Coditude employs a hybrid content distribution strategy, utilizing both OTT and YouTube platforms. Premium content is released exclusively on the OTT platform, while other content is distributed across both platforms.
Objectives
- Build an intelligent and user-friendly OTT platform.
- Develop a comprehensive solution for video editing, publishing, and management.
- Increase the number of subscribers and generate revenue through dynamic business models.
- Implement features that enable the identification of user behavior patterns to create an engaging user experience.
- Provide responsive content on a wide range of media devices available in the market.
Solution The OTT platform's solution comprises a suite of cutting-edge tools that work together seamlessly to provide users with a seamless and engaging experience.
Coditude was tasked with engineering an entire OTT platform from scratch, enabling the distribution of video content for a media and entertainment startup. The platform was designed to achieve higher reach, discoverability, and monetization, with multiple user-focused plans and subscriptions. Coditude oversaw development from the very first stages of experience design to the 24/7 management of large-scale infrastructure.
Robust and Flexible Back End
The OTT platform boasts a robust and flexible backend capable of handling critical functionalities, including personalized content recommendations based on real-time analytics. Advanced search functionalities further enhance the user experience, while state-of-the-art security ensures the protection of sensitive payment and personal information. The platform's scalability allows it to cater to sudden rises in viewership, providing seamless performance even during peak periods. This powerful backend allows for the platform to adapt and evolve with changing consumer demands while maintaining high levels of functionality and security.
Integrations Ecosystem
To capitalize on the popularity of its content and leverage user behavior and consumer data, the OTT platform relies on a dynamic monetization model. To support this model, Coditude integrated a range of state-of-the-art software tools, including marketing and analytics tools, behavior pattern analysis, notifications, payment gateway integrations, ad engines, exclusive merchandise sales, and session recording tools. This comprehensive integration ecosystem ensures that the platform can offer a seamless user experience while providing valuable data and monetization opportunities for the company.
Cloud Infrastructure
To support the tremendous bandwidth required for video streaming, Coditude required modern cloud infrastructure for scalable computing, storage, data processing, and the hosting of hundreds of other functions. AWS was chosen as the provider due to its ability to provide uninterrupted, high-quality streaming of videos. Video content is stored in Amazon S3 and cached using AWS CloudFront to reduce latency and ensure smooth playback.
To distribute videos across different channels, Coditude used AWS Elastic Transcoder to convert videos into various formats optimized for screen size, resolution options, and network quality. This ensured a consistent viewing experience, which was crucial in light of rapidly changing consumption patterns in India, driven by the widespread availability of cheap smartphones and internet access.
Video Development CMS
The Video Content Management System (CMS) was a critical component of the overall OTT solution as it allowed the client to centralize the management of all their video content. The CMS included features such as video management, metadata management, advanced search, playout, and content delivery.
To ensure a seamless user experience, Coditude's engineering and UX teams worked closely together to create an easy-to-use CMS that could manage multiple video assets in various formats, categories, personalized playlists, recommendations, and genres, while also providing user access roles and workflows. Multiple iterations were carried out to ensure the CMS was intuitive and efficient for content managers to use.
Challenges
Ensuring the discoverability of the content and achieving higher engagement by progressively optimizing the recommendation and search algorithms was the biggest challenge.
Identification of the user behavior and creating audience segmentation based on usage to provide engaging user experience.
Ensuring responsive and immersive viewing experience on most of the media devices available in the market which includes various sizes of mobiles, tablets, laptops, and large screens.
Learnings
The entertainment industry has long struggled with piracy, and even major production houses are not immune to this global problem. Not only does piracy damage a brand's reputation and content, but it also puts sensitive personal and payment data at risk, causing significant financial losses. Managing the risks associated with hacking and piracy is a big challenge, especially for consumer-facing portals. To address this challenge, Coditude used AWS IAM and other DRM solutions to secure digital assets and ensure cybersecurity for the OTT platform.
The OTT business model revolves around monetizing the platform through various means such as ads, subscriptions, and more. The key to success lies in finding the right monetization model that resonates with the users, based on in-depth user analytics.
Project Results
Engineered the entire OTT platform from scratch to manage a portfolio of 5000+ videos.
Delivered seamless video experience across all viewing devices and easy content accessibility, resulting in higher than expected customer experience.
Experienced multi fold subscriber growth since the launch of the platform.
Implemented a tailored recommendation engine as a key differentiator, ensuring higher customer retention.
