How to Invest in TV and Streaming Services?
Nowadays, TV and streaming services are gaining their foothold in the media and entertainment industry — especially during this pandemic when people are forced to stay at home. Finding entertainment within the four corners of their homes got limited. One of the options they have is TV and Streaming Services. The likes of Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, HBO, and Disney+ are some of the big names in the industry.
As a small player who wants to offer TV and streaming services, you must offer a Unique Selling Proposition (USP) to your audience and not just copy what’s already in the market. Find your niche and address the needs of your target audience. Besides movies and series, other options you can provide are educational streaming, sports events streaming, video game streaming services, and others. Identify the needs of your target audience and focus on addressing that need.
Starting a TV and Streaming Service requires an in-depth assessment of the industry you will enter into and financial planning. Do your research and after you gain enough information, create a financial plan for TV and streaming businesses to assess the viability of your prospect venture.
Fundraising or Bootstrapping
Banks do not generally finance businesses related to website or mobile app development because of its risky nature. Another option you have is crowdfunding, through which investors invest in convertible loans. Convertible loans are converted into equity after an agreed time. If other funding sources are not available, then your option is to do bootstrapping. Given the nature of website or app development, it can take months, if not years. Prepare yourself with the needed funds during the development stage.
Costs you Need to Consider
To sustain during your business’s development and early stage, you have to compute the estimated costs needed for the operation.
● Development Costs
Development costs include the salaries and wages for developers and designers or hiring a software development company. You have to invest in fast internet connection, hardware, software, and office rent if you do in-house development. On the other hand, if you hire a software development company, they will do all the development tasks for you on an agreed service fee.
The duration of the development will depend on the features you want to include in your app or website — the more complex it is, the longer it takes.
● Marketing Expenses
Before you launch your TV and streaming services, you have to do an all-out marketing campaign to reach out to your target customers and introduce your services to them. You can advertise through social media, internet advertisements, email marketing, and even reach out to social media influencers in your related industry.
Marketing expenses are the basis for your Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC). CAC is the amount you spend for marketing expenses divided by the number of acquired customers. The most significant spending for marketing expenses is during the launch of your service. After you establish your name in the industry, your marketing expenses will start to normalize.
● Operating Expenses
Your website and app will need continuous development and maintenance to meet your audience’s needs. Salaries & wages and employees’ benefits are a significant part of your operating expenses. Other expenses include hosting, account management, R&D, and other administrative-related expenses.
Stated above are the funds and expenses considerations when starting a TV and Streaming service. To have an in-depth evaluation of your prospect venture, you can utilize a financial model template that includes all the key metrics when assessing TV and Streaming services.
eFinancialModels is the leading internet website to get sophisticated financial plan templates such as financial model templates for TV and Streaming businesses.
