How white-label OTT works
The vendor provides the website, apps, content management, video delivery and billing as a finished product. You supply the brand, the content and the pricing. The apps are published under your own name in the app stores and the website runs on your domain.
What you control and what the vendor runs
- You: brand and design, catalog, plans and prices, marketing and the relationship with viewers
- Vendor: hosting, encoding, delivery, security, app updates and platform maintenance
- Shared: launch, migration and store submission, depending on the vendor
White-label vs custom-built
Building a streaming service from scratch takes an engineering team many months and continues to cost money after launch, since every device platform changes each year. A white-label platform spreads that work across all its customers, so you launch in weeks at a monthly price.
The trade-off is flexibility. You work within the features and layouts the platform offers. If your product depends on something no platform provides, a custom build or a licensed codebase may suit better.
What to check before choosing
- Whether apps are published under your developer accounts and name
- Pricing at scale: per-subscriber fees and cuts of sales
- Which devices are covered and what each app costs
- Whether you can export your subscribers and content if you leave
- What is included in launch: migration, submission and training
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