What Are the Benefits of a Pay-Per-View Live Stream?

A pay-per-view live stream is a video hosting service that allows anyone broadcasting an event to offer it to viewers for a fee. The pay-per-view live stream market is valued at close to 750 million this year and it’s predicted to increase by 15% each year until 2027. Companies are reaping the benefits of pay-per-view streaming services, whether using them for live educational workshops or product launches. The market for PPV live streaming is gaining a lot of traction, but it’s not merely a revenue generator. The benefits of a pay-per-view live stream are more varied than you might realize. Here’s what you need to know.

Understanding PPV Live Streaming

Pay-per-view live streaming has been around for decades. You’re probably most familiar with it from the world of sports, where broadcasters offer live events that you can buy into and watch. Broadcasts occur over the internet, and viewers pay a one-time fee to watch. Usually, the video is also on demand after the live event has occurred.

Two decades ago, PPV streaming services were only available on television. Today, these tools are available to any company online with third party vendors like Onstream Media offering the technology to make these events happen. The technology has evolved today so that live video tools integrate with data visualization so that companies can incorporate diagrams and graphs as part of their presentation. New learning management systems allow companies to integrate a virtual whiteboard, screen share, live chat, and more, to make the event even more interactive and fun.

Today, everyone seems to be taking advantage of PPV live streams, not just sports broadcasters. From e-commerce live streams to sell more products to music concerts, educational sessions, and even virtual conferences, live streams are all the rage. COVID may have played a big role in the upswing of pay-per-view streaming services, and there are no indicators that these events are slowing down.

If you’re considering a pay-per-view live stream event, what are the kinds of benefits beyond the revenue that you’ll receive?

Benefits of PPV Streaming Services

Revenue Generation

Pay-per-view live streaming generates revenue, which is of course the first ROI from these events. When you make the live event on demand afterwards, that bottom line cash continues to generate. So, the financial ROI is probably the first and most important benefit of PPV streaming services. That revenue is heightened when you use a vendor like Onstream Media; there is no need to buy your own equipment to pull these types of events off, either.

There are three primary ways to monetize your PPV streaming event:

• Advertising from third-party vendors or business partners.
• As part of a subscription service for your viewer base (think Netflix or Hulu).
• As a solo PPV event and one-time strategy.

Each of these revenue streams has pros and cons and how you maximize your revenue from a PPV service line is up to you.

But this is just the first and most obvious benefit of PPV live streams.

Engages Your Customer

A pay-per-view event also gives your customers exactly what they want. These are exclusive events that offer immediate gratification simply by the fact that they are in real-time. This allows for the spontaneity of an in-person event without the hassle of traveling. Today’s integrated PPV live stream tools can also help connect your viewers in a way that engages them with your brand and with other like-minded individuals. If you organize your event properly, it will be less of merely a one-sized marketing effort and more of a real-time dialogue with your grand.

Most marketing teams know that engaging customers today is hard. There’s a lot of competing material on the internet these days. Pay-per-view streaming services offer something different to your target audience that will cut through all the digital clutter that’s out there. That makes it a very powerful way to engage your customers.

Builds Your Brand

These events also offer valuable content that your audience can’t get anywhere else. This can set you up as a subject matter expert in your chosen field. You could do this by offering your expertise in a PPV event, which is the obvious choice. But you could also build your brand’s credibility by partnering with another company in a co-marketed event. For example, a video production company could strike a collaboration with a video influencer to teach audiences how to use this venue to drive sales. A sporting goods company could invite a local sports hero to talk about safety on the field of play for high school athletes.

The idea here is that you can use the pay-per-view live stream model to form new partnerships to reach a wider audience and build your street credibility. These are all benefits beyond revenue generation that you may realize with a pay-per-view event or service line.

Learn More About Customers

Many video providers, like Onstream Media, also offer powerful analytics and engaging event tools to help you figure out your audience. For example, you can run reporting to find out which marketing channels lead to new viewers signing up. How about running analytics to see if the attendee is using their smartphone or other device to watch the show? That information could change how you format and advertise the event later on. Or, you could determine how much of an audience segment came from a specific geographic area. But that’s not all.

During the pay-per-view event, you could engage with your viewers with polling or breakout sessions or a Q&A where your audience could get even more involved. You could poll attendees at the start and at the end of the event to see if their opinions changed.

While these are just a few of the benefits and ways for you to make your next pay-per-view live stream a success, it’s likely that you’ll think of others.

If you’d like to find out more about how pay-per-view streaming could pay off for your business, contact us.