The new streaming technology and new ways of accessing large movie files via the internet has brought exciting changes to industries and end consumers. But what are the obstacles a small business can face when planning to expand into digital distribution via streaming technology? What can be done to make this new technology more affordable to smaller entities? This article will help you to get an insight into important aspects of how to save costs when setting up a streaming web site.

Setting up a Video On Demand website requires a technical understanding of the streaming technology involved and having dealt with the old school ways of doing distribution, rest assured that a natural resistance towards technology will arise. Aspects such as streaming technology, content delivery network, media file encoding, encryption, digital rights management, payment solution, online royalty reporting, streaming costs (welcome to the world of megabytes and megabits) and different technical parts of the website - all this seems to turn your project into rocket science. Many have given up half way through. As a result, most companies entrusts specialist providers to lead the sophisticated task of providing streaming technology to their services. In this article, we list some important aspects of what to do in order cut costs.

1. Finding the right Streaming Provider

In order to run a highly sophisticated streaming website with full business integrity you will have to team up with a specialist streaming provider who operates a Content Delivery Network. This is, in short terms, server rack space combined with Windows Media Streaming software ensuring that your content is being delivered to the end consumer as well as hosting your content. If you do your research properly, you will realise a huge pricing difference in streaming and hosting costs offered by various providers. In addition, a lot of companies do charge set-up costs as well as insisting that you also use their media file encoding service which can come as a very high cost. Avoid this. In addition, the development and programming of the website and the connectors can turn into a very costly affair when leaving this to a streaming specialist provider. Parts of it are unavoidable; a lot can be done for much less costs if you are willing to source this in-house.

2. Media File Encoding

Speaking from experience in dealing with clients, the encoding of a media file seems to cause a great deal of confusion. If you are, for example, a medium sized film production/film distribution company eyeing the prospect of setting up a Video On Demand site, take control of the file conversation in-house. It is anything but rocket science. Depending on the volume of titles you wish to offer, all it needs is a few PCs, enough DVD drives and affordable software which enables you to convert your movies into any file you want at any bit rate you want plus the possibility to set scene selections plus much more. Supply your streaming provider with all files in the format requested and you can safe a lot of money.

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