Over-The-Top Media Services

Quality Thread #163

Figured, I could make a easy guide for everyone to follow just in time for football season.

Over the top (OTT) is a term used to refer to content providers that distribute streaming media as a standalone product directly to consumers over the Internet, bypassing telecommunications, multichannel television, and broadcast television platforms that traditionally act as a controller or distributor of such content.

The term is most synonymous with subscription-based video on demand services that offer access to film and television content (including existing series acquired from other producers, as well as original content produced specifically for the service), including but not limited to Amazon Video, Hulu, and Netflix, as well as a wave of "skinny" television services that offer access to live streams of linear specialty channels similar to a traditional satellite or wireline television provider, but streamed over the public Internet, rather than a closed, private network with proprietary equipment such as set-top boxes.