Custom software for media companies, streaming platforms, content creators, and production companies that need platforms built for media, not generic cloud infrastructure with a media skin on top.
Video streaming platforms with media-specific delivery, player, subscription management, and monetisation built in
Media CMS with rights management, metadata, and multi-channel publishing to web, mobile, and connected TV
Audience engagement platforms, comments, polls, live interaction, and loyalty mechanics
AI features: content recommendation, automated subtitling and transcription, and content moderation at scale
The problem
Streaming infrastructure built on generic cloud without optimisation for media-specific delivery and latency requirements?
Rights and licensing data tracked in spreadsheets, with no single source of truth for what content can be shown where?
Content published manually to multiple channels one by one, taking hours per release?
Short answer
RaftLabs builds media and entertainment software: OTT and video streaming platforms, media CMS with rights management, audience engagement tools, production workflow systems, and content monetisation across subscription, ad-supported, and pay-per-view models. We add AI features like content recommendation, automated subtitling, and moderation. A focused v1 launches in 10 to 16 weeks at a fixed cost, then grows in phases.
01 Diagnosis
Content rights and licensing terms tracked in spreadsheets with no automated expiry alerts
Rights agreements for a content library of any scale become unmanageable in spreadsheets. Window expiry dates pass unnoticed. Territorial restrictions get applied inconsistently. The rights team finds out a licence has lapsed when a distributor flags a breach. We build rights data models where every piece of content carries its territorial, platform, and window terms, and where expiry triggers automated alerts before the window closes.
Streaming platform built on general media infrastructure that can't enforce territory-specific rights
General media streaming infrastructure doesn't implement per-territory rights enforcement at the stream level. For a track licensed in the US but not in Germany, the check must happen at playback time, every time. Retrofitting licensing logic onto a platform not designed for it creates gaps. According to Parks Associates research reported in Variety (2023), the U.S. content industry loses between $29.2 billion and $71 billion annually to digital video piracy, a gap that unsecured or fragmented distribution systems directly expose. Those gaps result in licensing violations with real financial exposure.
Production workflow managed across disconnected tools with no single view of where anything stands
Commissioning decisions live in email. Production status lives in a shared spreadsheet. Post-production jobs sit in a project management tool the finance team can't see. No one has a single view of where a production is in its lifecycle. We build production workflow platforms that track a project from commission through delivery, with status, budget, and sign-off history in one place.
Subscription and membership management not connected to the content platform
Subscription billing runs in one system, content access rules sit in the streaming platform, and churn analysis requires exporting data from both into a spreadsheet. A subscriber who cancels doesn't lose access until someone manually updates the access control list. We build subscription management systems where billing, access rules, and content entitlements are connected, so access changes automatically when subscription status changes.
02 What we ship
Streaming platforms built for media delivery: adaptive bitrate video, HLS and DASH protocols, transcoding pipelines, and CDN configuration tuned for media content. Multi-DRM protection (Widevine, PlayReady, FairPlay) so licensed content cannot be ripped from the stream. Player development for web, iOS, Android, and connected TV. Subscription billing with trial periods, plan tiers, and payment processing. Access rules that enforce rights, geo-blocking, windowing, and platform availability. Analytics that show viewership, completion rates, and drop-off by title and device.
CMS built for media: structured metadata, content tagging, rights and licensing fields, and asset management for video, audio, and image files. Multi-channel publishing that pushes content updates to web, mobile apps, connected TV, and partner platforms from one interface. Workflow stages for editorial review, rights clearance, and scheduling. Search and discovery tools that surface content to editorial teams without manual browsing through large content libraries.
Tools that give audiences a reason to stay on your platform rather than elsewhere: comments and discussion systems, polls and interactive moments during live events, live chat with moderation controls, reaction mechanics, and fan community features. Loyalty programmes that reward consistent viewing behaviour with recognition, early access, and exclusive content. Engagement data piped into your analytics so you can see which content drives the deepest interaction, not just the most views.
Talent databases with searchable profiles, media reels, and availability calendars. Casting workflow tools that manage open calls, submission review, shortlisting, and offer management. Contract and clearance tracking tied to each production and talent record. Integration with scheduling and production management so confirmed casting feeds directly into call sheets and crew communication. Built for production companies that manage dozens of productions simultaneously.
Production management platforms that track pre-production, production, and post-production across multiple projects. Script breakdown and scheduling tools. Budget tracking against actuals by department and production. Call sheet generation and crew communication. Asset and footage management connecting on-set capture to post-production workflows. Approval workflows for script changes, budget increases, and delivery sign-offs.
Monetisation infrastructure for media: subscription billing with dunning management, pay-per-view and rental purchase flows, ad-supported tiers with ad server integration, and bundle upgrade logic. Revenue reporting by content, territory, and monetisation model. Affiliate and referral tracking for distribution partnerships. For media companies with multiple revenue streams, a single monetisation platform that connects subscription, transactional, and advertising data in one reporting view.
The media software question is really about whether your platform is built for media or wears a media skin.
Buy or rent
Generic cloud and CMS tools, for early-stage content tests
Fine for validating an audience before committing to a dedicated platform.
Wait, while one revenue model carries you
Stay lean while subscription-only works; build when you need monetisation the platform cannot carry.
Build custom
When rights must be enforced at playback, not documented elsewhere
Territorial, window, and platform terms need the right access decision every time.
When multi-channel publishing runs on manual steps
Publishing to web, mobile, and connected TV one channel at a time burns hours per release.
When per-viewer or bandwidth pricing outruns an owned system
The platform bills you for every viewer; an owned system bills you for infrastructure you control.
Bottom line
Stay on generic infrastructure while your catalogue is small and one revenue model pays the bills. Build when rights enforcement, multi-channel publishing, or platform pricing become the constraint.
04 How we work
The global video streaming market is projected to reach $416.8 billion by 2030, growing at a 21.5% compound annual rate from 2025 (Grand View Research, 2025). The revenue mix is shifting toward advertising: global FAST channel revenue is set to triple to $12 billion by 2027, with the US market alone passing $10 billion and the UK crossing $500 million (Omdia, 2023). A platform wired for one subscription model today needs headroom for AVOD, FAST, and hybrid monetisation tomorrow, so we design billing and entitlements to carry more than one revenue model from the start.
AI is reshaping content operations, not just the recommendation rail. We build automated subtitling and transcription that cut the manual captioning bill, moderation models that flag user-generated content before a person watches it, and metadata enrichment that tags a back catalogue in hours rather than weeks. Personalisation moves from recency-ordered rows to behaviour-based ranking that lifts session length and subscription retention. Every AI feature is scoped around the specific manual task it replaces, so the return is clear before development starts.
Trusted by
05 Track record
06 Case studies
07 Client voices
Three-year average engagement. Founders and operators describing the work in their own words. No marketing varnish.
08 Why us
09 Questions
Media software has three requirements that standard application development doesn't. First, video delivery at scale requires specific infrastructure: adaptive bitrate streaming, CDN configuration, buffer and latency management, and device-specific player behaviour. Second, content rights must be enforced in the software, not just documented elsewhere. Territorial restrictions, windowing rules, platform exclusivity, and licensing expiry all have to produce the right access decision at the point of playback. Third, media metadata is complex and high-volume. A library of 10,000 titles with multiple formats, languages, and rights configurations needs a CMS designed for that structure, not a blog CMS with extra fields.
Yes. We build platforms that handle both. Live streaming uses a different delivery path than on-demand: RTMP ingest from broadcasting equipment, real-time transcoding, and low-latency delivery to viewers. On-demand uses pre-transcoded content stored in cloud storage and delivered through a CDN. We build platforms where both live and on-demand content are managed from the same CMS and played back through the same player, with different delivery paths handled in the infrastructure layer.
Rights management in media software means encoding the commercial terms of a rights agreement into rules the platform enforces at the point of content access. We build rights data models that capture the territory, platform, window, and exclusivity parameters for each piece of content. The playback system checks the user's location, device, subscription tier, and the content's rights record before authorising play. When a rights window expires, access is removed automatically. Rights data is maintained in the CMS so your rights team can update terms without a code deployment.
The most useful AI features in media are content recommendation, automated subtitling and transcription, and content moderation. Content recommendation uses viewing behaviour: what users watch, how long, what they watch next. It surfaces relevant content rather than relying on recency or editorial curation alone. Automated subtitling and transcription uses speech recognition models to produce subtitle files and transcripts at a fraction of the manual cost, with a review step for accuracy. Content moderation uses classification models to flag user-generated content for human review rather than requiring a moderator to watch everything. We scope AI features around the specific manual task they replace, so the ROI case is clear before development starts.
Yes. We build multi-channel publishing workflows where publishing once in the CMS pushes content to web, iOS, Android, and connected TV apps at the same time, with channel-specific formatting and metadata. Manual channel-by-channel publishing is the operational inefficiency it replaces.
We launch a validated v1 in 10 to 16 weeks, then grow it in phases. Rights management, DRM, multi-channel publishing, and AI features are added as later phases as the platform grows. We scope every project before pricing. Fixed cost, agreed before work starts.
Media content management system
Metadata, publishing workflows, rights tracking, multi-channel distribution
Business Process Automation
Automate content ingestion, metadata tagging, rights clearance workflows, and distribution scheduling.
AI Document Intelligence
Extract structured data from contracts, licensing agreements, press releases, and production documents.
AI Agent Development
Autonomous agents for content recommendation, audience segmentation, and ad placement optimisation.
Custom Software Development
Custom OTT platforms, content management systems, and creator monetisation tools built for your content type and audience.
Tell us what content you deliver, how you monetise it, and where the manual work is. We'll tell you what we'd build.
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Proof
Eris Lifesciences gets 3,500 field employees logging 30 minutes daily on a training platform they actually use
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