Media and entertainment software development

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

Recognition

Sound familiar?

  • 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?

The short answer

RaftLabs builds custom software for media companies, streaming platforms, content creators, production companies, and entertainment businesses. We build video streaming platforms, media CMS with rights management, audience engagement tools, talent and casting management systems, production workflow software, content monetisation platforms, and AI media features including content recommendation, automated subtitling, and content moderation. Most projects deliver in 10 to 16 weeks at a fixed cost.

01 Diagnosis

Problems we solve in media and entertainment

  1. 01
    Problem

    Content rights and licensing terms tracked in spreadsheets with no automated expiry alerts

    Solution

    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.

  2. 02
    Problem

    Streaming platform built on general media infrastructure that can't enforce territory-specific rights

    Solution

    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.

  3. 03
    Problem

    Production workflow managed across disconnected tools with no single view of where anything stands

    Solution

    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.

  4. 04
    Problem

    Subscription and membership management not connected to the content platform

    Solution

    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

Media software we ship

  1. Video streaming platforms

    Streaming platforms built for media delivery: adaptive bitrate video, HLS and DASH streaming protocols, and CDN configuration tuned for media content. Player development for web, iOS, Android, and connected TV. Subscription management with trial periods, plan tiers, and payment processing. Content access rules that enforce rights and licensing, geo-blocking, windowing, and platform-specific availability. Analytics that show viewership, completion rates, and drop-off points by content and device.

  2. Media content management systems

    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.

  3. Audience engagement platforms

    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.

  4. Talent and casting management

    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.

  5. Production workflow management

    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.

  6. Content monetisation platforms

    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.

03 How we work

How we build media software

  1. 01

    Discovery

    We map your content types, rights structure, monetisation model, and distribution channels. For streaming platforms, we document delivery requirements, live versus on-demand, device targets, and CDN configuration. For production companies, we map the workflow from commission through post-production delivery. Discovery output is a documented scope, not a sales deck.
  2. 02

    Architecture

    We design the data model around your rights structure and content taxonomy before writing code. Rights data models and content metadata schemas are harder to change after the platform is live than before it's built. We walk you through the architecture so your team understands the decisions before development starts.
  3. 03

    Build

    Development runs in two-week sprints. Media software has specific technical requirements: adaptive bitrate streaming, CDN integration, DRM. We build and test each incrementally rather than assembling at the end. Working software is available in a staging environment from week four.
  4. 04

    Launch and support

    We go live with your technical team trained on the platform. A 90-day support arrangement covers issues that emerge from real traffic. After that period, you can maintain the platform in-house, retain us for ongoing development, or both.

Companies we've built for

Vodafone
Nike
Microsoft
Cisco
T-Mobile
Aldi
Heineken
GE

04 Track record

What we've shipped in media and entertainment

Media and entertainment businesses in markets served
4+
Content management and rights management expertise
Streaming
Software products shipped
100+
Cost delivery
Fixed

05 Case studies

Case studies

06 Client voices

What our media clients say

Three-year average engagement. Founders and operators describing the work in their own words. No marketing varnish.

Amer Abu Khajil
Amer Abu Khajil
Canada flagCanada
Founder, Peak Studios and Perceptional

I found RaftLabs to be the perfect partner for Perceptional, with their expertise in helping startup founders build MVPs, a free consultation, a prototype that matched my vision, and their unwavering support.

01 / 02

07 Why us

Why choose us?

  1. 01

    We've seen your problem before

    The industry changes. The broken process usually looks the same. Across 14+ industries and 100+ products, we recognise your problem fast, and we frame the fix around your margin and your operations.

  2. 02

    We own the number, not the ticket

    We measure success the way you do: hours saved, revenue earned, margin recovered. We stay through launch and growth, so the result is ours to own.

  3. 03

    Serious businesses trust us

    Vodafone, T-Mobile, Cisco, Energia, Aldi, Nike. Six years, 100+ products in production, 4.9 on Clutch. Serious businesses keep coming back because we stay accountable long after launch.

08 Questions

Frequently asked 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 a single CMS action distributes content to web, iOS, Android, and connected TV apps simultaneously, with channel-specific formatting and metadata. Manual channel-by-channel publishing is the operational inefficiency it replaces.

Media and entertainment software by product

Related services

  • 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

Talk to us about your media software project.

Tell us what content you deliver, how you monetise it, and where the manual work is. We'll tell you what we'd build.

  • Scope and cost agreed before work starts. No surprises. No obligation.
  • Working prototype within 3 weeks of kickoff.
  • Pay by milestone. You see progress before each invoice.
  • 60-day post-launch warranty. Bug fixes, UI tweaks, and deployment support. No retainer.
  • All conversations are NDA-protected.