Why a Cloud-based CMS Is Critical for Modern OTT Platforms

In the ever competitive OTT world, every minute , every second counts. Speed and experience is what customers look for.

Many platforms find themselves on the back foot because they are still not using cloud-based CMS and relying on older systems that no longer cater to the requirements of modern times. 

The shift from older to modern takes sufficient time and planning, so that’s a different story. And of course, there are multiple stakeholders involved, including a reliable vendor who can get the work done beautifully.

We are talking about one of the well-known OTT platforms found it challenging ti handle customer load with every day. Manual scheduling costs, increasing operational costs were some of the core reasons which didn’t let it grow. It wasn’t just about inefficiencies but was about missed moments and losing audience attention which no platform would like to have.

Why legacy CMS systems no longer cut it without a cloud-based CMS

Legacy systems were once quite reliable, and many. Why? Because some years back, compatibility was not an issue. But in today’s OTT world, success is defined by personalization therefore, monolithic systems are a sort of roadblock in achieving the desired success. A cloud-based CMS is now critical for modern OTT platforms to deliver timely, personalized, and scalable experiences. Let’s have a look at certain restrictions that our client faced and also faced by various legacy OTT systems.

• Flexibility: There is a lack of flexibility in many aspects. If you want to schedule a show at 6 pm in Toronto, Delhi, and London, that becomes a task for the OTT platform. Legacy platforms simply weren’t built to handle timezone-based or region-specific content workflows.
• Cost: Annual licensing fees and along with that, vendor dependency can increase the cost of most OTT players. There can be occasions where delay in pusing content at the right time can have repercussions and can hit the cost factor. This also affects the customer experience.
• Customization: Whether it is the case of modifying metadata or launching a new content format, legacy OTT systems are dependent on external teams even for basic updates.

This directly or indirectly affects the turnaround time to get a task done.

What do OTT players need to do today?

As the OTT technology landscape is changing within a short span of time, modern OTT platforms need to be adapting according to the customer demands.

We will discuss some of the ways in which OTT platforms can overcome the challenges.

• Real-time content updates and publishing - If it's a new trailer or subtitle change or anything else, this can be executed within minutes rather than hours. This ensures they can respond to user feedback and last-minute changes at a fast pace.
• Automated, geography-specific scheduling - The ability to schedule content launches based on users’ location, time zone, or cultural preferences is the need of the hour. A release at 7 p.m. in New York shouldn’t be confused with Tokyo. There should be a feeling that the content is local, even global.
• Empowerment of internal teams - It is the permission to do editorial and marketing teams complete control over content without depending on developers.If they wait for teams to change a banner or update metadata, it often leads to delays and missed opportunities.
• Cross-platform consistency - Seamless delivery across web, mobile, and smart TVs should be the norm and that too without duplicating work. This is because audience often expects similar experience if they switch channels. Kellton made use of a modern cloud-native CMS so that content automatically adjusts to fit each screen and resolution, thereby ensuring consistency.
• Cloud-native infrastructure - A modern cloud-based CMS, built on cloud-native infrastructure, allows OTT platforms to scale. Unlike legacy systems, cloud streaming infrastructure setups allow OTT platforms to scale as per demand, such as a blockbuster release or a popular match, and test new features every now and then without shaking up the physical infrastructure. Cloud-native can easily be used for cost-effective, rapid development.

This is where forward-thinking OTT platforms are shifting—toward tailor-made, agile, and scalable cloud-native CMS and delivery ecosystems.  

Empowering OTT with custom CMS solutions

When a leading OTT platform approached us, the challenges were similar: slow publishing pipelines, stringent CMS rules, lack of internal team control, and rising costs. They needed a big transformation but didn’t know where to start. 

Kellton partnered with them to build two tailor-made solutions for their video streaming CMS.

A powerful content management system that offers modular workflows, metadata versioning, and quick launch capabilities for new content types.”

A no-code tool for front-end systems empowering business teams to design landing pages, promos, and banners through a drag-and-drop interface—without any developer involvement

These systems were efficient in streamlining content operations and bringing flexibility to a multi-region content system.

The content management system:

 The content management system that was developed has the following features:

• Smart Ingestion & Classification: Automated pipelines for tagging large volumes of content across languages and formats. This ensures content is always searchable and discoverable. This reduces manual work significantly. 
• Metadata Versioning: It was responsible for tracking every change to titles or descriptions and was reversible. This means giving teams full control over content history. This also enables quick rollbacks to previous versions, which was not possible earlier. 
• Cloud-Native Scalability: Built on AWS using S3 and Lambda, it focuses on performance and cost efficiency. This helps automatically scale to handle traffic spikes. This helps in minimizing infrastructure overhead. 

Front-End configuration made easy: 

The front-end feature developed has the following features:

• Real-Time Layout & UI Updates: It helped the marketing team to personalize the user interface by region and device, and everything in real time. This dynamic capability allowed for A/B testing and rapid content promotion based on live audience data. 
• Drag-and-Drop Scheduling: It was instrumental in enabling teams to schedule content without developers’ assistance. This intuitive interface cut down on operational bottlenecks and gave editorial teams full control over their publishing calendar. 
• UI Customization: Use of custom UI layouts helped deploy metadata by region, language, and device. This feature was crucial for creating a localized feel for a global audience, ensuring content was relevant and culturally appropriate. 
• Seamless Platform Sync: Solution developed by Kellton ensured instant implementation and spreading of updates across mobile, web, and other platforms. This eliminated the need for manual, platform-specific updates and ensured a consistent user experience everywhere.

The impact: Speed, scale, and savings 

The results were transformational because of Kellton's partnership with the client, such as:

• Faster Publishing - Publishing time was slashed from an average of 20 minutes to just 2 minutes. Whether uploading a trailer or tweaking subtitles, content teams could now act instantly without waiting for tech.
• Cost Optimization - The client cut down significant annual costs by replacing legacy licensing models with cloud-native infrastructure. The need for dedicated developer involvement dropped by 80%, freeing up resources for innovation.
• Scalability - Thanks to the powerful cloud streaming service, the system now handles thousands of assets across various countries without any difficulty. This cloud-based streaming setup scales automatically during high-traffic events. Solutions developed by Kellton help scale automatically during high-traffic events and also support dynamic UI changes without performing dips. 

Industry insight: What this means for OTT in 2025 

As India surpasses 547 million OTT users (2024), the platforms that win will be those that localize quickly, publish quickly, and show adaptability.

It shows that the trend is gearing towards custom, cloud-native, low-code video streaming CMS solutions, which are no longer a preference but mission-critical. They enable OTTs to stay in active mode through cloud streaming workflows and integrated cloud streaming services. It tests content strategies on the fly and scales quickly.

The rise of AI and machine learning is also a major driver, automating tasks like metadata tagging and content recommendations, further enhancing the power and efficiency of a modern cloud-native CMS. The ability to leverage these technologies is what will differentiate leaders in the market. This is the new standard for the industry.

Conclusion: The future is audience-first, tech-backed

The OTT battlefield is no longer just about having the most compelling content—it’s about how swiftly and smartly you deliver it.
 
At Kellton, we believe platforms thrive when content teams lead the way, backed by tech that doesn't get in their way. Solutions developed by Kellton represent this shift, where agility, control, and scalability come together to help OTT players serve global audiences with local precision.

Because with a scalable, cloud-based CMS that grows with you, you don’t just keep up with the market—you lead it. Because when your CMS grows with you, you don’t just keep up with the market—you lead it.