Pick the business model before the architecture
Subscription, ad-supported, transactional and hybrid models pull the architecture in different directions. SVOD needs entitlement rules, trials, coupons and churn recovery. AVOD needs server-side ad insertion, ad pod logic and reporting that advertisers will accept. TVOD needs rental windows and per-title pricing. Getting this wrong is expensive, because pricing pages, billing tables and app store rules all grow around the first model you pick. We run a short workshop with commercial and product leads to rank the models against your content rights and target audience.
Many teams start with one model and add another later, so we design the entitlement service as its own component. Adding a free tier with ads, or a pay-per-view event, then becomes a configuration change rather than a rewrite of playback and billing. We also list the events the entitlement service must emit, such as trial started or payment failed, for shared reporting.
