How To Scrape OTT Platforms For Competitive Intelligence?

"Over-the-top" (OTT) is a modern method of digital media distribution through various devices and platforms. OTT platforms are a source of entertainment for viewers and an opportunity for business owners. This is why the OTT Video market will have around 3.7 billion users by 2027.

What does this fact indicate? It's a clear sign of the vast potential of the data generated on these platforms. Everything, from movie titles, ratings, and release dates to cast details, is ripe for analysis and optimization. With such a wealth of online information, the prospect of scraping OTT data is not just a task but an exciting opportunity to delve into new industry dynamics.

In this content piece, we will share insights about OTT data scraping, its importance, benefits, challenges, and the process of gathering data ethically. Our aim is to empower you with an understanding of how data can be a powerful tool to optimize your services and generate better returns with effective strategies.

What Is OTT Data Scraping?

Scraping OTT data will help you gather valuable information from various platforms to understand content popularity, user behavior, market trends, and other relevant information. Many versatile tools and resources help complete this process ethically and make the data set more accessible to analyze.

Here are the top OTT platforms that are rich with data:

Just look at the revenue generated through OTT platforms to figure out why it has so many opportunities:

This knowledge helps professionals to find the potential of streaming app data and make data-driven decisions in the entertainment world. They can focus on personalization, content optimization, and audience preferences.

Genre	Duration	Director	Producers
Synopsis	Ratings	Languages	Subtitle Languages
Country of Origin	Production Company	Streaming Platform	Episode Count
Awards	Age Rating	Content Availability	Resolution
Cast	Reviews	Platform	URL
Thumbnail/Image	Tags	Season and Episode Numbers	Content-Type
Photos	Years	Ratings IMDB	Storyline and Tagline
Cost	Release Date	Description	Box Office Collections

How To Scrape OTT Data Ethically?

This is not just a question of technique but a matter of responsibility and respect. We provide you with a detailed guide to scrape OTT data, ensuring a seamless data extraction process that respects each platform's ethical guidelines and terms of service.

Providing you with a detailed guide to scrape OTT data for a seamless data extraction process:

Pick Your Targets

Start by defining the OTT platforms where you want to gather data and provide relevant information to meet your requirements. Then, consider the data points that you need for analysis.

Identify Data Points

Pick the HTML elements that contain the data points you require. Then, the user interface of the target platform will be analyzed to understand if there are any limitations or restrictions.

Start Coding

Build scraping scripts that involve writing code to navigate, locate, and extract data in a structured format. Here is a sample code in Python to scrape OTT data for Netflix:

import requests
from bs4 import BeautifulSoup

l=list()
o={}
e={}
d={}
m={}
c={}

target_url="https://www.netflix.com/in/title/80057281"
resp = requests.get(target_url)

soup = BeautifulSoup(resp.text, 'html.parser')

o["name"]=soup.find("h1", {"class":"title-title"}).text

o["seasons"] = soup.find("span", {"class":"duration"}).text

o["about"] = soup.find("div", {"class":"hook-text"}).text

episodes = soup.find("ol",{"class":"episodes-container"}).find_all("li")

for i in range(0,len(episodes)):

e["episode-title"]=episodes[i].find("h3",{"class":"episode-title"}).text
e["episode-description"]=episodes[i].find("p",{"class":"epsiode-synopsis"}).text
  l.append(e)
  e={}

genres = soup.find_all("span",{"class":"item-genres"})
for x in range(0,len(genres)):
  d["genre"]=genres[x].text.replace(",","")
  l.append(d)
  d={}

mood = soup.find_all("span",{"class":"item-mood-tag"})
for y in range(0,len(mood)):
  m["mood"]=mood[y].text.replace(",","")
  l.append(m)
  m={}

o["facebook"]=soup.find("a",{"data-uia":"social-link-facebook"}).get("href")
o["twitter"]=soup.find("a",{"data-uia":"social-link-twitter"}).get("href")
o["instagram"]=soup.find("a",{"data-uia":"social-link-instagram"}).get("href")

cast=soup.find_all("span",{"class":"item-cast"})
for t in range(0,len(cast)):
  c["cast"]=cast[t].text
  l.append(c)
  c={}
l.append(o)

print(l)
                        

Testing And Maintenance

Test the OTT app scraper on a small scale to ensure your requests are not overloading the target servers. Make changes if required and handle errors instantly.

Store Data and Analyze

Define the format in which you want to store the data while in a database, CSV, or JSON. Analyze the information to find trends, insights, popularity, and more.

What Are The Top OTT Platforms For Scraping Data?

Once you invest in scraping OTT data, it is vital to follow ethical guidelines and respect the terms of service for each platform. Here are some of the OTT platforms with the type of data that can be extracted legally:

Netflix

It is one of the most popular streaming services, offering many movies, series, TV shows, and more. You can figure out viewing trends, popularity, and user choices by scraping the below data:

Disney+

This leading OTT platform gives you access to Pixar, Star Wars, Pixar, Disney, and other exclusive content. Scraping this OTT platform will help you understand the franchise content. Here are some sections you might want to extract:

Amazon Prime Video

It has various movies, TV shows, and Amazon Originals. Some of the reasons to gather the data:

Hulu

The platform is top-rated in the United States and offers classic series, TV episodes, and other original content. A list of data of scrape:

HBO Max

It combines movies, shows, and original Studio Ghibli, Warner Bros., and DC content. Here are some of the publicly available data:

Depending on your requirements and targets, multiple other platforms have helpful information. Preparing a list of top platforms before investing in the OTT scraping procedure is essential.

What Are The Challenges Of Scraping OTT Data?

Many platforms have defined their limitations for scraping, and following the standards to avoid penalties is essential. Here are some of the common challenges you might face:

What Are The Benefits Of OTT Data Scraping?

Getting structured data when you scrape OTT helps to enhance your business operations using the advantages like:

Analyze The Content

Gather information about series and movies like titles, genre, reviews, content creation, and ratings. It will help you understand viewers' sentiments, trends, and preferences to work on content that is relevant to the viewers.

Competitive Intelligence

Scraping OTT Data from your rivals helps identify pricing, content, and advertisement strategies. Compare your performance metrics with them to determine the potential gaps in the business.

Personalization

Popular OTT platforms have a section that provides suggestions based on customers' preferences and viewing history. Extracting the data using an advanced OTT app scraper helps improve user experience and engagement.

Future Predictions

Explore the scraped information to understand the patterns and trends. This helps anticipate future demands and viewer expectations, enabling smart production decisions to benefit viewers.

Save Time And Efforts

When you use practical tools and resources, you will provide accurate and faster results than through manual processes. This helps you analyze the data and make data-driven decisions for better results.

Advertising

The data will help you find potential audiences interested in the content on a large scale. This will let businesses build strategies to maximize revenue by focusing on user engagement and entertainment.

Customize Subscriptions

Figure out the subscription plans of various OTT platforms to adjust your pricing models, plans, and promotions depending on the industry's demands.

How Can iWebScraping Help You?

In this content piece, we have shared valuable insights about scraping OTT platforms to help you beat your competitors smoothly. It will also help you handle limitations and challenges, enjoy the benefits of optimizing your platform for better user engagement, and embrace viewing trends like a pro.

However, with a wealth of data available in the market, it is also essential to define your limits to avoid getting banned or penalized due to unethical practices.

At iWebScraping, we have been helping many brands scale their opportunities through ethical data scraping methods and resources. Our professionals have a wide range of experience in scraping data and ensure respect for the privacy of target platforms throughout the process.