Content, Connected: The Power Of Branded Apps

For content owners, distribution has always been fundamental to growth. The more platforms, territories and services content can reach, the greater the opportunity to find new audiences and maximise the value of a catalogue.

But as distribution footprints expand, another question becomes increasingly important: where does the relationship with the audience live?

 
Our latest Industry Insights research found that 74% of content owners surveyed distribute beyond
Europe. 

At the same time, 48% say a branded streaming app is important, critical, or something they are already pursuing or evaluating.

These aren’t necessarily competing strategies. They reflect two different objectives: extending the reach of content and creating an environment where content owners have greater control over how audiences experience it.

For many content owners, however, the ambition to create that owned experience comes with
practical barriers. They may have a strong catalogue but no dedicated in-house video team, an existing app that is difficult or resource-intensive to evolve, or gaps in their ability to deliver a consistent experience across mobile, web and connected TV.

Distribution builds reach. An owned experience builds connection.

Third-party platforms remain an important route to audiences. But within those
environments, content owners naturally have less control over the experience surrounding
their content.

A branded streaming app creates a direct destination for a catalogue. Content owners can determine how their brand is represented, how content is organised and discovered, and how audiences navigate and engage with the service.

It also creates greater visibility into how audiences interact with that experience. Understanding what viewers watch and how they engage can help inform decisions around content, discovery and the wider service, creating a feedback loop between audience behaviour and the experience being delivered.

There is greater commercial flexibility too. An owned environment can support different combinations of AVOD, FAST, TVOD and SVOD depending on the content, audience and business strategy.

The result is not simply another distribution endpoint. It is an environment where the content owner can shape, understand and develop the relationship between its brand, content and audience.

Owned and distributed can work together

Operating Rakuten TV has given us experience of both sides of this relationship. Reaching audiences through broad distribution and creating an owned destination serve different purposes, and one does not need to come at the expense of the other.

A content owner might use FAST and third-party platforms to extend the reach of its catalogue while using a branded app to create a more direct destination for audiences, without needing to build the video technology or multi-device capability entirely in-house.

That distinction matters as content businesses expand across more platforms and territories. Our research suggests content owners are already considering both sides of the equation: how to maximise distribution while creating greater control over the audience experience.

The question is therefore becoming less about choosing between reach or ownership, and more about finding the right role for both.