Launching a TV channel used to be a complex, costly and long-winded process. It required significant investment in specialist hardware, a dedicated facility to house it all, and specialist broadcast engineers to operate and maintain it. This priced many smaller media companies, content creators and owners, and other would-be small-scale broadcasters out of the market.
However, the advent of cloud-based broadcast solutions such as cloud playout, have completely changed the rules of the game. Now, anyone with enough content and a decent internet connection can launch a TV channel. With a cloud-based playout platform like Veset Nimbus, the entire process of channel creation and management can be done from any location with just a laptop.
Yet while cloud playout has made it easier to create and launch new channels because it has removed the need for costly hardware equipment and dedicated broadcast facilities, there’s still a demand for even faster speed to market. Content owners and creators, media companies and start-ups want the ability to sign up and start using cloud playout solutions immediately, without a long PoC cycle, drawn out sales contract process, or lengthy onboarding. This is where self-serve cloud playout comes in.
While cloud-based playout solutions meet the need for flexible, scalable, and efficient channel creation and management, content owners also want a faster and simplified buying and onboarding journey. They want to be able to access the solutions that meet their needs easily and start using them straight away. This way, they can quickly respond to their audience’s changing needs and preferences. Viewers today are a fickle bunch, and interests come and go in the blink of an eye, so content owners need to be able to capitalise on a particular trend or interest quickly before it passes.
Self-serve playout solutions make this possible. Content owners can go online to quickly and easily sign up, then start creating their new channels immediately. Time to market is significantly reduced because channel owners can sign up online for instant access, all without a prior demonstration, PoC, or sales contract needing to be agreed.
This type of self-serve solution is made possible using cloud technology that enables users to provision and manage cloud resources directly, without any external intervention or IT configuration. Containerisation, microservices-based architecture and advanced automation work together to turn what otherwise would be a rigid, engineer-driven, broadcast infrastructure, into a flexible and scalable cloud workflow that is largely automated. Put simply, cloud tools do the heavy behind the scenes lifting making it easier for content owners to create and manage their channels.
Self-serve playout is further democratising TV broadcasting. No longer confined to major broadcast organisations, now anyone can create and launch a TV channel. It brings an agility that traditional broadcast models could never offer, and even goes one step further than regular cloud playout models. While cloud playout allows established broadcasters to experiment by spinning up new or temporary channels to try out new program formats or new markets, and enables smaller players to enter the market with professional-grade operations from day one, self-serve playout goes even further by enabling super-fast time to market and frictionless onboarding. Broadcasting is becoming more fluid, aligning better with digital-era models where content moves along pipelines quickly and efficiently. Self-serve playout is part of this evolution.
The impact is just as significant from a creative perspective because by removing access barriers, the door is opened to more diverse content becoming available to appeal to every taste. Content owners and media companies can take direct control of their content and how it reaches audiences. It encourages a more dynamic, responsive kind of broadcasting, where innovation can happen in real time. Media companies and creators can come up with a great idea, then spin up a new channel, all in the space of a few hours.
Veset has recently launched a new self-service subscription portal enabling broadcasters, content owners and service providers immediate access to cloud playout platform, Veset Nimbus. With this new self-service web facility, content owners can quickly and easily sign up online to its cloud playout service, Veset Nimbus. With Veset Nimbus, broadcasters, content owners and services providers can create and manage high-quality channels entirely in the cloud, for delivery to any distribution platform, from traditional terrestrial digital, satellite, cable, to FAST/OTT.
This new subscription offering makes it easier and quicker to create and launch new channels. You can now go on the Veset website, choose a playout package, subscribe, pay by card, then start using the service straight away. The service is also offered by way of a free, 7-day trial.
To find out more about Veset Nimbus and to start using it today with a 7-day free trial, visit here.
