Creating and editing a subscription product on ZenVideo OTT

In this article:

• What are subscriptions?
• How do I set up a subscription product?
• When do subscriptions get charged each month?
• How does a subscriber cancel their subscription?

What are Subscriptions?

Subscriptions on ZenVideo OTT let you charge your customers on a recurring monthly and/or yearly basis for streaming-only access to your content. You can add new work as often as you want. You control the branding, packaging, and pricing. 

ZenVideo OTT's subscription fees are straightforward: $1 per subscriber per month, plus merchant fees. More on pricing.

How do I set up a subscription product on ZenVideo OTT?

Once your videos are uploaded and you have Collections created, you can create a Subscription product. Note that you can only create one subscription product per site.

1. Head to the Products page of the ZenVideo OTT Admin. 
2. Click the Create Product button and select Subscription from the dropdown
3. You will then be taken through the process of creating a subscription, first landing on the Settings tab where you can set:
   • Title - Set a name for the Subscription.
   • Description - Describe what your subscription is. This will be shown on the checkout form.
     • If you have a translated version of your product title and description, click Add translations, select the language(s), and type in the translation. These translations will appear for users who select the corresponding language anywhere on your site, including the checkout page.
     • Make sure you’ve enabled translations in your site settings in order for this to work.
   • Thumbnail - Provide a 16:9 ratio image (3840 x 2160 pixels works best) to represent your Subscription. This is the image that will appear in customer emails, trailers, Facebook, Twitter, when you share your website, and on your website.

Next is the Content tab. Here you will set the following: 

• Trailer - this is a video that represents your Subscription. You may upload a new video here or choose a previously uploaded video.
  • Click Choose Trailer to see a list of your uploaded videos that you may select to use as your Subscription trailer.
• Collections - from this tab you can quickly add or remove which Collections you have made available to your Subscribers. 
  • Click + Add collections and select the checkbox for each one you'd like to add.

Next is the Pricing tab. Here you set the following:

• Monthly Recurring Price - If you set this price, people get charged monthly. ($1.99 minimum)
• Yearly Recurring Price - If you set this price, people get charged yearly. ($12.00 minimum)
• Free-trials - If you want to give subscribers a free trial to watch your content before they are charged, you can set that here for 3, 7, 14, or 30 days.
• International pricing - Pricing in the various currencies we offer natively to your viewers. Read more about international pricing in this article. 

⚠️Note: You will not be charged the $1 price for a subscriber in a free trial. You will be charged once the customer has transitioned from the trial to a paid plan.

⚠️Important: A $1 holding charge will be processed on the customer's card.  These transactions will be reversed immediately and should disappear from accounts within 24 hours. The reason for this charge is to help prevent fraud. This hold will always be in USD, regardless if multi-currency is enabled.

In the Distribution section, you can choose whether your videos are available worldwide, only in certain countries, or block specific countries.

In the Advanced menu, you can customize the messaging we send when a customer makes a purchase. This is optional.

If you have translated versions of your message, click Add translations, choose your language, and enter the translated version of your message. Customers who have translated your site into the corresponding language will see this version instead of the default English message. Make sure you’ve enabled translations in your site settings in order for this to work.

Below these settings are options to update the availability of your subscription product.

• Pause subscription will make it so that new users cannot subscribe. Any existing subscribers will continue to renew as normal and will continue to have access to your product.
• Cancel all subscriptions will revoke all current subscribers' access to your product. They will no longer be charged for the subscription.

⚠️Note: At least one product (subscription, purchase, or rental) must remain published for your site to stay online. If no products are available, your site will automatically be taken offline.

Make sure you click Save when you're done.

When do subscriptions get charged each month?

Subscriptions get charged on the same day each month/year that the user has subscribed. So, if they first subscribed on March 15th, they would next be charged on April 15th. 

How does a subscriber cancel their subscription?

They can cancel at any time on their purchases settings page. When they cancel, they will have access to the content until their next billing cycle day.