Media subscription
StreamLayer OTT Product
Multi-profile viewing, subscription entitlement, content metadata, watch history, editorial rails, analytics, and regional controls for an OTT product.
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Measured result
5-region launch architecture
Next.js
Node.js
Video CDN
Analytics
Stripe
Delivery Read
An OTT product needs subscription logic and content operations together.
The architecture connected subscriber plans, profiles, content metadata, editorial rails, playback history, regional controls, and analytics so the team could operate a multi-region media product.
Profile and subscription entitlement design
Content catalog and editorial rails
Playback state, watch history, and analytics
Admin controls for content and regions
The Challenge
StreamLayer is a media company launching a niche OTT streaming service for documentary and educational content. Unlike mainstream platforms that optimize for broad catalogs, StreamLayer needed a viewing experience that emphasized content depth — detailed metadata, curated editorial collections, and a recommendation system tuned for long-form educational content rather than entertainment binges.
The platform needed to support subscription billing across 5 regions with different pricing tiers, handle DRM-protected video delivery at scale, and provide content editors with tools to curate collections and write editorial context around each title.
What We Built
We built a multi-profile streaming platform with adaptive bitrate playback, subscription entitlement management, and a content management system designed for editorial teams. The viewer experience includes personalized profiles, watch history, continue watching, bookmarked moments, and curated editorial rails that surface contextual collections.
Key platform capabilities include:
Multi-profile management with per-profile watch history, age ratings, and content preferences
Subscription entitlement engine handling tier-based access (Basic, Standard, Premium), regional pricing, and promotional trials
Editorial CMS where content teams can build curated collections, write contextual essays, and schedule featured content rotations
Adaptive bitrate streaming with multi-resolution playback (480p through 4K HDR) and offline download for mobile
Content metadata system supporting multi-language descriptions, cast/crew credits, related titles, and citation links for educational content
Architecture and Tech Stack
The frontend is built in Next.js with server-side rendering for SEO-friendly content pages. Video delivery uses a multi-CDN strategy with AWS Elemental MediaConvert for transcoding and Apple FairPlay / Google Widevine for DRM protection. The recommendation engine is a lightweight collaborative filtering model served via a Python FastAPI microservice.
Subscription billing is handled through Stripe Billing with regional price tiers and automated tax compliance via Stripe Tax. Analytics events flow into a ClickHouse warehouse for content performance tracking and viewer retention analysis. Node.js powers the main API layer, with Redis for session management and content caching.
Results
The platform launched simultaneously across 5 regions with localized pricing and content catalogs. The 5-region launch architecture was designed for zero-downtime deployment, enabling the team to roll out new content drops without service interruption.
Within 4 months of launch, StreamLayer accumulated 8,200 paying subscribers, achieved a 78% monthly retention rate (above industry average for niche OTT), and their editorial collections drove 40% of total watch time — validating the thesis that curated discovery outperforms algorithmic feeds for educational content.