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Published On April 25th, 2025
This blog walks you through everything you need to know to create a streaming service successfully from identifying your niche and sourcing content to choosing the right monetization model and technology stack. Discover how to turn your vision into a scalable, revenue-ready streaming business in 2025.
Entertainment has become a crucial element of everyone’s life. With the unprecedented rise of technology and the internet access to movies, songs, and games is accessed by everybody online.
The video streaming business models play a major role in substantiating the lucrative multi-billion dollar entertainment services.
Netflix has become today’s equivalent to renting a blockbuster movie in the 90s. Definitely, we’ve come a long way with super efficient personalized on-demand or live entertainment consumption.
Yes, it’s still not too late to be part of the success that best video streaming services like Disney+, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu and Apple TV+ are reaping..
Did you know that the entertainment market is estimated to reach $3.4 trillion by 2028!
There are also several production houses and media companies that are launching their own subscription streaming service hosting their exclusive content on a video streaming server and delivering it through their TV networks.
Moreover, the latest report on OTT Platform market indicates its worth which was $121.61 Billion in 2019 will rise up to $1.039 trillion by 2027.
These stats give us a clear picture on the huge success rate of a video streaming platform. Indeed, this begs the question of how to start a movie streaming service. In addition to this, it is also necessary to know how tough the competition is inside the market.
For instance, the quote here sheds the light on what is video streaming says..
“ It turns out that all Netflix streaming peak on Saturday night can fit inside a single fiber optic which is the size of one human hair – Reed Hastings ”Now let’s look more closely at them in detail..
Table of Contents
What are subscription streaming services?
Subscription streaming services are online video platforms that deliver on-demand entertainment like movies, music, TV shows, and sports over the internet to users’ devices (mobiles, smart TVs, computers), with popular examples being Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, HBO, Disney, Spotify, Discovery and Apple TV.
Industry Growth Insights: How Popular is Streaming Video?
Streaming video is growing fast across entertainment, education, media, e-commerce and healthcare industries. The potential is huge, the market is expected to reach $184 billion by 2027.
Netflix, Amazon Video and other platforms have grown so big that subscribers have surpassed traditional cable. For video content creators big or small, the key question is when to start a subscription service, not if.
Video-on-demand solution is at an all time high with over 800 million users subscribed globally. New services like Sling TV, Disney+, AppleTV+ and many more have emerged and are doing really well in the industry.
So, from the market perspective, it is the best time to learn how to start a streaming service like Netflix for video streaming.
With these facts, we can conclude that the market will see huge growth in the coming years. So, businesses are asking how to make a streaming service that will delight and be loved by users. As you read this chapter you will learn everything about it.
How to Create a Streaming Service Like Netflix?
To create a streaming service, you need to define your niche, identify the target audience, pick a business model, choose a video platform builder, integrate core streaming features, curate your content library, design an easy-to-use interface, and implement multiple video monetization strategies to grow your online subscriptions platform or channel.
1. Identify your niche and Target Audience
Finding the niche where your target audience is interested in, pays for your product or service. While creating a streaming service, you must analyze your target audience and deliver solutions for their problems with similar Online video platform.
2. Select Your USP
Once you have narrowed the niche.
Your unique selling point establishes your brand uniqueness and the platform value. Study the content metrics and reviews under streaming analytics. In addition, it sets the direction of your OTT service to the viewers, guides content selection, and lets your audience know what they are going to consume.
3. Focus on Diverse Content
Without a doubt, content is the foundation of any online subscription streaming service. After all, it is why people pay you their hard-earned money and stay subscribed to your service.
Choose the preferred options: whether it would be live webcasts from TV broadcasts, video on demand, or time-shift broadcasting.
4. Choose Your Monetization Model
What is video monetization this question holds the secret to start a profitable on-demand or subscription streaming service.
Your revenue model should align with your medium and long-term objectives and the consuming habits of your subscribers.
Monetization models are primarily subscriptions, advertising, and pay per view models. If you’re creating a local service, add payment systems supported in your country.
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5. Enable Intuitive Streaming Features
Ensure your video streaming solution has a built-in notification engine to update your users on new content arrivals and send other customized notifications.
Then, add some engaging integrations for streaming media automation with full online TV internet broadcasting that’s on par with conventional over-the-air streaming.
6. Create Your Own Streaming Platform
For your content to sell, balance the following characteristics on your streaming platform, build a streaming platform of your own using streaming platform providers like VPlayed.
Discuss your platform’s ability and content delivery strategies with the platform for a unique streaming service network. Enabling different features by reading your competitor’s platform
7. Determine Supported Devices And Platforms
Find the devices and platforms your users want to access your content, like Roku, Apple TV, Google Chromecast, Amazon Fire TV, etc.
However, your service must be available across multiple screens and devices to maximize your audience base.
How to build a Streaming Service With VPlayed?
VPlayed empowers content owners, broadcasters, production houses, and media-based companies to stream any type of content in the online space across Web, Mobile and Smart TV.
It assures them with complete freedom to personalize the platform with 150+ features and showcase numerous content around the world.
Some of its noteworthy features are:
1. Customization
Get a chance to fully customize your subscription streaming service to any length with opportunities to stream on-demand or live content that can be inbuilt in an all-in-one broadcasting platform.
2. Lifetime Ownership
Increase the value of your streaming cornerstone by purchasing the entire best online video platforms infrastructure with lifetime platform ownership support. Endlessly stream to reap the benefits of gaining revenue completely.
3. 3rd Party Integration
Integrate 3rd party services to increase the ROI of your organization. Give an appropriate chance to your collaborators by offering them space and gain profitability.
4. White label Platform
With a white label video ott platform you can choose to convert your services into a broadcasting brand and encompass the copyright ownership value by monetizing from them.
5. Multiple Content Delivery Network
The combination of reliable video streaming protocols and CDN will ensure to provide streams with flexible bandwidth and low probability of lagging. If you add video in 4K resolution you should equip your service with a stable or high bandwidth.
6. Security
You should protect your service from any unwanted intrusions so you need to think of implementing special security measures like Multi DRM, token security, domain restrictions, SSL, AES video encryption, geo-restrictions and more.
7. On Premise/ On Cloud Hosting
Businesses can now leverage flexible platform integration opportunities from VPlayed for their VOD platform by opting on-premise or on cloud hosting.
8. Transcoding
Ensure to convert an encoded digital file into an altered set of files that better meets your hardware needs. It particularly ensures content can be viewed on the widest range of devices.
9. Cross-platform Support
Each device and operating system will have its own streaming interface for dealing with apps. Manipulating these can help IT-based systems run effectively in different virtual environments. One of the best cross-platform support from VPlayed deals with cloud computing or wireless network environs.
10. Video CMS
Video CMS is a software application that is in-built to store, organize, manage online video content in a centralized dashboard. It allows users to get an intricate scalable video ecosystem.
11. HLS Video Player
The feature of best HLS video players provides the ability to adapt the bitrate of video to pair with the actual speed of internet connection. It facilitates buffer-free viewing and optimizes the quality of experience.
12. Video Analytics
They provide assistance in real-time monitoring of audience viewing trends right from analyzing previous data to geographic viewing patterns that answer business-related questions for upscaling growth.
How Much Does It Cost to build a Streaming Service?
Cost to start a subscription streaming service depends on the approach you take. Developing a platform from scratch can be very complex and expensive, can cost between $100,000 to $500,000 or more depending on features, scalability and infrastructure required.
But an alternative and more affordable option is to use a white-label solution, where you can build your platform with pre-built software that can be customized to your needs.
A white-label solution costs between $50,000 to $75,000 and gives you flexibility in design, functionality and integrations at a fraction of the cost of developing from scratch.
Here are some factors that affect the cost:
- Platform (Web, Mobile, Smart TV): Developing for multiple platforms will increase the cost. A single platform app will cost around $10,000 to $25,000, while a multi-platform service will cost more than $50,000.
- Features: Advanced features like personalized recommendations, offline viewing and multi-language support add to the cost.
- Licensing and Content Acquisition: If you plan to stream licensed content, purchasing rights will cost between $1,000 to $50,000 or more depending on the content.
- Storage and Bandwidth: Depending on the user volume, you will need sufficient cloud storage and bandwidth which will cost $5,000 to $15,000 annually.
All in all, using a customizable white-label solution gives you the balance of affordability and flexibility to launch a streaming service without the big cost of building from scratch. If you are thinking of White label solution then VPlayed can provide the platform to you to create a streaming service.
To Sum Up:
Launching a streaming platform is a smart move for a company because there is a rising market for new entertainment services. You can make a streaming service profitable by giving careful thought to both the functionality and the monetization plan. And If you choose to launch a streaming service, your project will go through the development stage, networking with businesses that offer content licensing or content creation services, marketing and promotion, and future expansion planning. Once you have an idea, this is the best time to start building a streaming service platform.
If You Already Have An Idea To Start A Subscription Video Streaming Service, Schedule A Free Demo With Us And We’ll Get You On The Road To Video Streaming Success
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ):
To create a subscription streaming service like Netflix, you need to choose a content niche, build a streaming platform, set up monetization models, enable secure payments and partner with legally acquired content to avoid copyright issues.
Choosing the right OTT provider for your streaming service means comparing features, scalability, monetization options and device compatibility. Once you have done that, consider cost, customer support, security, and user feedback.
The key features that should be on the consideration list are security, flexible membership management, device compatibility, multiple monetization models and secure payment system. Also you need to have a smooth user interface with easy navigation and support for high quality video streaming. Don’t forget to include analytics to track viewer engagement.
Cost depends on the size of the project, infrastructure setup, licensing, maintenance and marketing. Smaller platforms with limited features may cost around $30,000 to $50,000 and full scale service with advanced features could go beyond $75,000. Ongoing costs for updates, customer support and cloud storage will add up to the cost.
Yes, you can fully customize your platform’s UI with colors, logos, fonts and unique branding elements like watermarks through top providers like VPlayed. In fact a customized UI will strengthen your brand identity and user satisfaction to a much greater extent.
