Streaming services have fundamentally changed entertainment forever. Now most customers want instant access to all content across all their devices. Services like Netflix raised the bar for their competitors with seamless UI/UX and design for content discovery and accessibility, and for the quality of the streaming experience.
Logistically, businesses that want to launch their own Netflix-like streaming platform need more than just a video library. These businesses need to consider how to improve the overall viewing experience by creating features for seamless digital content delivery and content protection. They need to create a foundation for different ways to monetize content.
Knowing the baseline features can help startups create a scalable service that provides the experiences audiences want and grows their service for years to come.
1. User Registration and Easy Profile Management
While creating a platform, businesses need to account for how easy it is for users to create accounts and for families to customize their viewing experiences.
Here are a few features that can help:
- Quick email or social media account registration
- Manageable multiple user accounts
- Profiles that users can modify
- Viewing preferences
- History of viewed content
- Parental control settings
- Preferred viewing language
2. Personalized Content Recommendations
Content personalization provides users with relevant content suggestions rather than having them browse a long list of available content. A recommendation system adapts to each customer based on how they engage with the system. Key recommendation features include:
- Content recommendations made by artificial intelligence
- Personalized content displayed on homepages
- Recently viewed content
- Popular content
- Similar content
- Content recommendations for a particular genre
3. Advanced Search and Content Discovery
With an increasing number of available movies and shows, more effective search functionality will allow users to easily filter search results by various criteria and discover relevant content. Main features of a search system may include:
- Keyword search
- Genre and category search
- Actor and director search
- Advanced search
- Search by speech input
- Search suggestions
- Hot search and trending search
4. Quality HD Video Streaming
The highest quality streaming leads to the best user experience. A high-quality video streaming service automatically adjusts to the quality of the user’s internet connection. High-quality video streaming services provide:
- HD video streaming
- Full HD video streaming
- 4K video streaming
- Multiple video resolutions
- Adaptive bitrate streaming
- Optimized buffers
- Fast loading videos
- Various video formats and codecs
- Reliable content delivery
5. Cross-Platform Streaming
For a platform to be successful, it has to be accessible on a wide variety of devices. A streaming service may offer:
- iOS
- Android
- Web browsers
- Desktops
- Smart TVs
- Android TV
- Streaming Devices
6. Watchlist and Continue Watching
Watching movies and starting shows is often interrupted by breaks in the day or the start of other engagements. Adding Watchlists and Continue Watching features supports uninterrupted engagement with content. Main features include:
- Watch later
- Continue watching
- Resume watching
- Recently viewed
- Liked and disliked lists
- Activity history
7. Multiple Monetization Models
In order to develop a sustainable business model, a streaming platform must offer various monetization models. Selecting a model is made easier through the audience and content strategy. Some popular streaming monetization models are:
- Subscription Video on Demand (SVOD)
- Advertising Video on Demand (AVOD)
- Transactional Video on Demand (TVOD)
- Pay-Per-View
- Freemium subscriptions
- Hybrid monetization models
8. Secure Payments and Subscription Management
Paid content or subscription-based platforms must offer customers secure payment methods with flexible subscription management. Critical subscription management functions include the following:
- Multiple payment processors
- Payment cycles
- Subscription upgrades or downgrades
- Free trials
- Discount and promotional codes
- Manage subscription history
- Subscription cancellation
- Payment reminders
9. Powerful Content Management System
Video content management systems offer administrators the ability to manage a large number of videos centrally to publish, update, or remove the content with ease. Content management systems must provide the following:
- Content publishing
- Version control
- Content updates
- Content removal
- Content scheduling
- Content organization
- Series and movie management
- Season and episode management
- Featured content management
10. Subtitles and Multiple Audio Tracks
Different regions have different languages and different levels of accessibility. One of the features of a streaming platform should be localization combined with multiple audio tracks and subtitles. Some language and accessibility features include:
- Multiple subtitle languages
- Closed captions
- Multiple audio tracks
- Audio descriptions
- Audio language customization
- Regional support for other languages
11. Parental Controls
As streaming services provide content for multiple age groups, parents appreciate the ability to implement parental controls across multiple accounts. Parental control features include:
- Restricted-access profiles
- Content restrictions based on age
- Pin-protected profiles
- Content ratings
- Restricted-access content
- Dedicated Kids Entertainment Content
12. Offline Video Downloads
This feature allows users to download content to be watched at a later time when there is no Internet connection. This is convenient for users who travel or have limited Internet access. Key features include:
- episode and movie downloads
- ability to select download quality
- download list management
- the ability to watch a downloaded video
- expiration date for a downloaded video
- management of the storage used by the downloaded video
13. Social and Engagement Features
Features that keep users engaged with content and enable users to post and share will improve the relationship users have with the content and the streaming service as a whole. Key features include:
- content ratings and reviews
- favorite and liked content
- social media content sharing
- recommending content to friends
- watch parties
- service-related user feedback
- user-specific service alerts
14. Personalized Notifications
Notifications provide users with new content, remind users to manage their service subscriptions, and welcome users back to the streaming service. Notifications may include any or all of the following:
- new content releases
- upcoming content releases
- personalized content recommendations
- subscription reminders
- marketing-related notifications
- notifications for content that has been downloaded
15. Video Security and Digital Rights Management
When it comes to premium video content, we need to make sure it is protected from people who should not be watching it. This is where Digital Rights Management and other security technologies come in. They help keep original content safe for streaming businesses. Some important security features for video content are:
- Digital Rights Management
- Secure video delivery
- User authentication
- Access controls
- Token-based content protection
- Video watermarking
- Anti-piracy measures
16. Analytics and Reporting for Streaming
Analytics help us understand how people are using our streaming platform and what they are watching. This information can help us make decisions about our content, marketing and subscriptions. Some important analytics for streaming include:
- Total video views
- Watch time
- content
- User engagement
- Subscriber growth
- Customer retention
- Churn rate
- Playback performance
- Subscription activity
- Revenue performance
17. Scalable Streaming Infrastructure is Important
A good streaming platform needs to be able to handle a lot of users and traffic without slowing down. This is especially important when a lot of people want to watch the thing at the same time. To make this work, we can use:
- Cloud-based infrastructure
- Content Delivery Networks
- Load balancing
- Auto-scaling
- Database optimization
- availability
- Backup and recovery
- Performance monitoring
18. Comprehensive Admin Dashboard for Streaming
The admin dashboard is where platform owners can control everything. It should be easy to use and help them manage their growing streaming service. Some core admin functions are:
- User management
- Profile management
- Video management
- Category and genre management
- Subscription management
- Payment management
- Promotion management
- Analytics and reporting
- Notification management
- Platform configuration
Final Thoughts
Making a streaming platform like Netflix is not about playing videos and having a library. We need to think about features like recommendations, search and security. Video Security and Digital Rights Management, analytics and scalable infrastructure all contribute to a streaming experience.
Businesses that want to build their streaming platform should choose features that fit their audience, content and revenue model. A well-designed platform can give viewers a good experience and help businesses manage their content and earn money.
