Content Management Basics

Learn the basics about organizing your content on Endavo and building your OTT Channel.

The Endavo platform is packed full tools to help you build, organize, package and publish your OTT Channel or build an OTT Platform. We like to call our platform a "Dream Toolbox" for creators looking to launch into the OTT universe and start monetizing content 🚀. But there's so much you can do in your account, you might not know quite where to start the first time you log in. So let's start here to help you get on the right track of uploading content and building your OTT Channel. You can access this entire Knowledge Base anytime to get help if you need it. You should be able to find answers for most topics related to building your OTT Channel on Endavo. But if you can't find answers here, you can always contact our Support Team by clicking the Support tab in your EMMS account or contact us directly from here. 

Endavo Introduction (The Basics)

Let's get you oriented when you first log into your Endavo account. Every time you log into your account, you will first land on the Media Items page in the Media section. This is where your entire video content library is listed, the heart and soul of your OTT Channel, of course (Content is King!). The main Media Items page includes all the video files uploaded into your account, Live Events, Virtual Live Events, Live Channels*, Virtual Live Channels*, Member uploads*, and Syndicated/Imported content* (*upgraded accounts). Every time you upload/activate a video file or create a live event, you can find it here, on the the Media Items page, to check status, edit information and do a lot more stuff to manage your content library.  

You can learn more about all the things you can do on the Media Items page here.

One of the first things you'll need to understand when using the Endavo platform is how we use certain terms you'll see in your account menu: 

1. OTT Channel Website (Web App) - When you sign up you'll immediately get an OTT Channel website with a name you choose. CLICK HERE to see our demo site we set up for you to preview what your OTT Channel website can look as you publish content and set up your OTT services - LEARN MORE. 
2. Media is your video content library, as explained above. The Media section contains all the tabs for managing your content, channels, categories, playlists and more. It may be helpful to read our Content Organization Overview to generally understand how video content is structured and organized on the Endavo platform. 
   
   **New OTT Channel accounts contain a single video uploaded and activated, called "Example Media" for example purposes. Once you begin activating your own content, you can remove the example video from the playlist, deactivate the video in your account (Edit > uncheck Active > Done/Save), or delete it (Media Item > More Actions (...) >Move to Recycle Bin)
3. Channels are the foundation of how content is organized on the Endavo platform. You will find the Channels tab under Media section. All your content will go into Channels that you create in your account. At activation, all your content must be added to at least one channel (can be added to multiple). A helpful hint is to create your channel in EMMS before activating content that you'll want to add to that channel. You can simply think of a "channel" as a grouping or packaging of specific content, including on-demand or live content, that is grouped together on your apps to drive user experience and discovery. You can be as creative as you want in terms of what your channels look like and contain (One way to think about "channels" is like broadcast TV. A TV service has a list of channels that contain each channel's programming). You can learn more about creating and managing Channels here.
   
   **New OTT Channel accounts contain a preset channel called My OTT Channel for example purposes. You can edit the name of that preset channel and/or create other channels in your account to start building your playlist(s), which is explained next.
4. Playlists dictate the channels (and content) that are published to your OTT apps. A playlist can include some or all of your channels in your account. Even content within channels can be curated specifically for individual playlists. You can have a single playlist for all of your OTT apps (i.e., if you have multiple OTT apps on Endavo*) or you can create individual playlists for any or all of your OTT apps. You can learn more about managing Playlists here. 
   
   **New OTT Channel accounts contain a preset playlist called Default Playlist which is assigned to your ottchannel.com website (your first OTT app). You can edit the name of that channel and/or create other channels in your account to start building your OTT Channel playlist.
5. Categories are used to establish some predefined filters across all your channels to help drive viewer content discovery on your OTT apps. Categories are optional but are a great tool for filtering content by genre, subject matter or even format (e.g., live events). You can easily add a Categories page on your OTT apps menu that will group content based across channels on your category filters to improve content discovery. This is especially useful if you have a large content library published. So it's often best to start building/adding categories from the start. Learn more about using Categories here. 

In summary, let's review:

• Channels contain Media Items (video content)
• Playlists contain Channels (and content within added channels, can be curated)
• Categories are genre or subject filters across all your channels

🚀🚀 Here are some other helpful hints to get your OTT Channel started: 

• Add your logo to your site. CLICK HERE to learn how.
• Start a subscription service (like Netflix). CLICK HERE to learn how.  
• Create a live event and sell pay-per-view tickets. CLICK HERE to learn how. 
• Accept donations on your Web App (website), on a Channel or on a Live Event. CLICK HERE to learn how.
• Add some home page banners to your Web App (website). CLICK HERE to learn how.