Cloud Vs On-premises: Choosing the Best IPTV Hosting Model in 2022

The quality of your IPTV services hinges on the efficiency of your hosting model

The quality of your IPTV services hinges on the efficiency of your hosting model

It’s no secret that IPTV (or Internet Protocol Television) is currently at the height of its popularity, and the competition among operators grows fiercer by the minute. To get ahead of the competition, it’s imperative to model exceptional IPTV solutions and offerings. And that can only be achieved with a solid hosting platform in place. Find out how the various platform-concepts work.

Cloud-based IPTV solution: Right option for you?

With the cloud-based model, IPTV services are hosted centrally in a service provider’s cloud network and made accessible to any number of operators. In essence, the cloud platform serves the various operators through a multi-tenant approach – in an efficient “white label” fashion.

One advantage of this model is that the operator accrues minimal costs at the beginning. This is because there’s no major spending on hardware, licenses or implementation. In addition, the pay-as-you-grow (or OPEX loaded) pricing feature of the cloud means operators can avoid high fixed service costs. Also, they can easily scale up as their customer base grows.

It’s for these reasons that smaller operators usually prefer this model. However, it’s worth noting that as customer base size increases, so does cost. Thus, the price degression here is low.

On-premises IPTV solution

With the on-premises IPTV model, the operator uses their own (or a rented) physical data center to host and manage IPTV services. Thus, IPTV digital assets are held in the operator’s network.

Moreover, network infrastructure is installed and operated in-house – through a Capex loaded model and with moderate ongoing cost for operation and maintenance.

As such, all IPTV signals are distributed directly into the operator’s network – allowing for very efficient streaming.

Again, system updates, new feature additions, and other tweaks are done independently. Hence, the operator has total control of their system.

Overall, the on-premises IPTV model favors larger network operators as they have the infrastructure and scale. However, high hardware and software-related costs could still be a nuisance. More so, if customer numbers aren’t high enough.

Hybrid model: Best of both worlds

The hybrid solution is a next-generation IPTV concept that is fast gaining traction. As the name suggests, this model merges cloud and on-premises parts into one comprehensive package. A few service providers are already offering this service as a dynamic, turnkey solution.

The hybrid model is inspired by the understanding that some parts of the IPTV service are best hosted on the cloud and others in a data center. To go into further detail, IPTV functions that are not data-intensive or time-critical are best run on the cloud.

On the other hand, streaming or on-demand content delivery are best managed on-premises.

Choosing this model means an operator can optimize hardware costs and at the same time get supporting services managed centrally. This allows for scaling up easily and serving millions of customers concurrently.

Choosing the right model

Gone are the days when operators were forced to face the dilemma of choosing between a “black or white” (cloud or on-premises) model. Now – as mentioned earlier – the hybrid model presents an intelligent way to harness the potential of the two traditional IPTV hosting platforms, simultaneously.

Operators who fancy delivering a modern, flexible, scalable, and advanced IPTV solution should carefully consider all options.

Finally

IPTV is evolving in response to the shifting tastes of consumers. It used to be just Live TV. But now, there’s a rapid adaption of on-demand functions (including Replay TV, Restart TV, and Pause-again functions), especially in countries where there’s a very liberal rights situation for the use of content. In line with this, more and more service providers are offering a customized, all-inclusive IPTV package comprising everything from Live TV, non-linear TV, on-demand content and other streaming services under one umbrella. The future is bright for internet television.

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