Broadband technology gives content producers an easy and potentially universal way to reach a large audience. Compared to television, broadband video distribution is cheap, standardized, and does not require a lot of equipment, infrastructure, or expertise. With that said, many who have developed or operated a broadband network will share that getting a broadband network up is the easy part; developing a profitable business with an established vision and path for exponential growth tends to be rather challenging.

This holds true even for the largest entertainment brands. A look at the financials of these companies will show you that although broadband video is starting to become profitable, the yearly revenues are still extremely small compared to the revenues from traditional television businesses.

Television created business models that will be hard to replicate on newer platforms. Large content brands are moving towards offering multi-platform content across every device and to every region of the world. Content owners will centralize operations, localize product development, and offer customized content-viewing experiences on several devices, all using the same underlying platforms.

Existing content brands, new streaming businesses, and older content owners who want significant incremental revenue can benefit from the lessons learned over the past few years in the broadband space. There are some guiding principles that can help prepare for potential growth and scaling of a network. Three words to keep in mind are metadata, platform, and franchise. Keep these in mind when starting and you should be able to build a successful platform to grow your business. These three keywords pop up in all aspects of your business, especially when you talk about growth and future vision.

This is an outline and description of the steps necessary to build a successful global streaming business in today’s marketplace. These steps are very general and should be customized based on content, market, and users.

Step1: Determine the Need

In the first step of building a streaming business, figure out what you want to build and how you want to sell it. Start by discovering your overall strategic needs. Is your demographic shrinking? Is your audience running out of time to watch TV? Are they spending more time with your competition on other platforms? Once you have determined your business needs and have defined the problem you need to solve, determine if broadband and streaming technologies provide you with a viable solution.

You will also need to determine if this is a long-term strategic play or a short-term project to keep your competition at bay. Figure this out early so you know how much ongoing investment and commitment you will need from your management team.As part of the discovery phase, provide a few business models you can choose from and project the financial opportunity of each in your given market. Play around with hybrid business models and non-traditional models as well.
 

An understanding of the opportunities in your marketplace as well as the current market dynamics can give you a strong strategic advantage. One example is the success of the content programmers during the cable-satellite wars of 25 years ago. A current dynamic that could be advantageous to your business is the fragmentation of content platforms. One way to analyze the market is to look at where your competition and partners are investing money. Can you help your partners grow their new business ventures using your product