Migrating Your OTT Platform: A Checklist That Avoids Downtime
Migration fails on the boring parts
Moving video files is the easy step. What breaks a migration is subscriber billing continuity, expired deep links and app store review timing. Plan those first.
1. Inventory before you move anything
Export a full catalogue manifest: titles, IDs, slugs, mezzanine locations, subtitle and audio tracks, artwork, categories, availability windows and geo rules. Anything not in the manifest will be discovered as missing after cutover.
2. Transfer masters, not renditions
Re-encode from mezzanine files on the new platform rather than copying old renditions. You get a consistent ladder, modern codecs and correct DRM packaging. Run it as a background backfill while the old platform still serves traffic.
3. Protect subscriber and billing continuity
This is the highest-risk area.
- Migrate subscriptions with their existing renewal dates so nobody is double-charged.
- Where the payment processor stays the same, transfer the customer and subscription IDs rather than recreating them.
- Where it changes, run a tokenized card migration with the provider, and keep the old processor active until the last legacy renewal clears.
- Send a clear pre-migration email; unexpected charges cause more churn than the migration itself.
4. Preserve SEO and deep links
- Map every old URL to its new equivalent and issue 301 redirects.
- Keep the same slugs where possible.
- Regenerate the sitemap and resubmit it.
- Preserve structured data on title pages so rich results are not lost.
- Test universal links and app deep links; broken ones send loyal users to an error page.
5. Sequence the app store submissions
New mobile and TV app builds need review time, and older app versions must keep working during rollout. Ship a build that points to the new backend a week before cutover behind a feature flag, then flip the flag server-side.
6. Run in parallel, then cut over
Serve both platforms simultaneously for at least one billing cycle. Compare playback success rate, start time, rebuffer ratio and revenue side by side. Cut DNS only when the new numbers match or beat the old ones.
7. Post-cutover checks in the first 48 hours
- Playback success rate by device family.
- Failed payments and involuntary churn.
- 404s in server logs from missed redirects.
- Search Console crawl errors.
- Support ticket categories, hour by hour.
Realistic timeline
A catalogue under 5,000 titles with a single payment processor typically takes four to six weeks end to end, most of it spent on billing and app releases rather than video.