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In real estate, they say, three things matter: location, location, and location. Working with the world’s leading companies to grow their over-the-top video offerings, we’re finding that same mantra applies to the OTT market as well. It’s all about being local, local, local.

Vindicia’s broad customer base is really exciting. We work hard to ensure each client benefits from the knowledge and experience we’ve accumulated as we’ve worked to get other clients to market. Indeed, our deployment process is specifically architected to ensure that clients take advantage of the fullness of our platform. Much of the technical plumbing of an implementation is similar from client to client, but the really fun part is where we get to help them customize their offering to meet the challenges posed by the local market conditions. It’s these nuances that keep the job fresh. I recently returned from a visit with some clients in Asia Pacific, and I was reminded of just how much of this kind of work we do. Some examples from our merchants:

• We recently helped The BBC Worldwide launch their BBC Store offering, where UK residents can buy individual episodes and whole seasons of their favorite shows. Their business model was influenced by the fact that they’re a government-owned entity, which created certain restrictions on how they could price and charge for their content. In this market, it’s important to handle the transaction spikes that inevitable arise at the top of the hour. Purchases cluster heavily around the top of the hour, once people have decided that broadcast TV isn’t offering something they want. For the BBC, we ran a number of load tests to ensure their infrastructure could scale the way they needed.
• On the other side of the globe, we work with Telstra, where we support their BigPond Movies offering as well as the TV/movie service known as Presto. Australia is a unique market because broadband usage is typically a metered service. Part of Telstra’s pricing strategy is to explicitly exclude data consumed for BigPond streaming from the user’s Telstra broadband bill. It is a great way to ensure that BigPond adoption isn’t gated as consumers watch the “data consumed” meter climb. Take it off the table completely. This has also given Telstra a big advantage as they build a loyal user base before Netflix arrives in that market.
• Here in the US, we’ve worked with clients like DIRECTV as they’ve leveraged content rights they have secured for their satellite business. DIRECTV famously has the Sunday Ticket, which gives viewers access to NFL football games from across the league.  If you can’t install a satellite dish, though, you can stream the same content to your internet-connected device as a subscriber of their NFL Streaming. It’s worth noting that if you live someplace where you can get a dish, though, they won’t sell you the service. That makes sense – the Sunday ticket is a big draw for satellite subscribers, so don’t cannibalize the existing line of business.
• A long-time Vindicia client, the NBA, has launched a new offering this year. In addition to different subscription offerings (LeaguePass Broadband) that allow you to follow one or more teams for the entire season, the NBA has added in the ability to purchase individual games. Similar to what we’ve seen in other verticals, it appears to be additive to their subscription business. Subscription sign-ups and renewals remain strong, in addition to good demand for individual games. Give your customers more ways to consume, and revenue tends to increase.
• Over in Malaysia, we’re working with Media Prima to support a variety of existing products like TonTon, MagStreet, and BH Plus, as well as some exciting upcoming launches. Media Prima has multiple media properties, including music, print, television, and online premium news content. We are working together to make all of that content available across multiple devices as individual purchases and as cross-bundled subscription offerings. Using CashBox, they support purchases of bulk credits that a customer can spend to watch on-demand TV content streamed online. A customer can purchase these by paying cash at a local convenience store, using local bank accounts, or just as easily using a credit or debit card with internationally known brands. These different payment methods are critical to Media Prima’s ability to sell into a population where credit cards aren’t the only way consumers spend online.

All of these clients leverage our core Vindicia® CashBox® product to support their OTT business. Support for things like local language in e-mail, local currency, taxation, and subscription payment methods are all just table stakes to them. They’ve chosen to work with Vindicia because of our ability to support their more interesting local business requirements — and that’s the part that makes the implementations unique and interesting for us. To our clients, I say cheers, g’day, and terima kasih. We’re excited to be working with each and every one of you.