Your Best Content is Probably Collecting Dust - and it Shouldn’t Be!
We live in a time of content - every operator, every platform, every app is flooded with shows, sports, and shiny thumbnails.
And yet, the average user still scrolls for 8 minutes and says: “There’s nothing to watch.” They’re craving intuitive OTT content discovery rather than a stale grid.
The irony?
You’ve got hundreds of hours of quality content sitting in your system. Not pirated. Not hypothetical. Legally yours. Already aired. Already paid for.
Live TV hit events broadcast in prime time, some exclusive catch-up content, some fantastic sport games or analysis that had a moment… And, just a few hours later - this content simply vanished.
Operators today act like some event planners that will organize an amazing party and then throw away all the decorations, food, and playlists the moment the last guest leaves.
And when next week’s guests show up? It’s a blank room again; everything needs to be planned from the scratch… Again.
Meanwhile, average users are already affected by Netflix, TikTok, and YouTube user experience, and they expect relevance and opportunity for rediscovery.
Users want platforms that remember what was good - even when they, “officially”, don’t.
This is not a tech problem.
It’s a mindset problem.
And the solution isn’t more content - it’s smarter use of the content you already have.
Scene 1: The forgotten show
Let’s start with a familiar story.
It’s Tuesday night. A regional drama premieres on your Live TV channel. Nothing huge, no Hollywood names. But you see the numbers, you understand that this content is triggering viewers, something “clicks” - people stay “glued”. Engagement spikes. Social buzz gently creates conversational weaves. For that 45-minute window, you have a hit.
Fast-forward 48 hours.
Where is that show now?
Buried in the EPG.
Somewhere under the label “Catch-Up TV” (if you are lucky), timestamped and… irrelevant. hat’s a classic example of missed catch-up TV optimization.
Your user is scrolling through EPG (or VOD) like a tourist looking for something familiar. With a dynamic catalog, that hit series could live under ‘Recently Trending.
But that show? Hidden. Gone. Like it never existed.
The content that resonated, connected, created emotion... It is now just statistical data in your backend.
What a waste.
Scene 2: The user’s mindset (a.k.a. The "What was that show called?" syndrome)
Let’s talk about your users.
They’re not researchers. They’re not content archaeologists.
They’re lazy (and we love them for it). They just want to be entertained.
If the content is not a few clicks (or taps) away, it doesn’t exist. Effective content repurposing would surface it instantly.
So when they remember a great scene from “that show with the teacher and the girls surfing on the beach” - stop lying to yourself - they’re not navigating through Catch-Up EPG matrices and tables, scrolling through dates and times, digging in some Past 7 Days graveyard.
They want it served to them.
Framed. Clickable. Bingeable.
And if it isn’t?
They’ll swipe to YouTube or TikTok, where rediscovery is instant and content doesn’t expire.
Scene 3: The operator’s blind spot
Now let’s flip the perspective from users to the operators!
Content isn’t cheap, you know that.
You also know that you and other operators invest millions in licensing content, running channels, encoding, distributing, tracking rights… and then leave content to expire within 72 hours (or 168 hours if they are generous) because, well, that’s just how catch-up works.
And your numbers probably show that only 12% of catch-up content gets any meaningful traction after the initial 24h airing. Even worse, you see that top-performing titles never get reintroduced to the user. They're dead weight after expiry.
Are they really?
Just to remind you - you already:
- Paid for the content
- Organised metadata around it
- Captured the viewership of that content within your service
- Know what works (because you have the data)
Why not squeeze more life out of it and use a content repurposing engine to resurrect top titles?
Is the value of that show defined only by the linear channel it is aired on? Does every piece of content need to be boxed into Live, catch-up, or VOD? Or is there something more?
Ask yourself, is the purpose of your platform just to be a distributor of channels, or could it become a creator of better experiences?
You already own the content - but have you done everything you can to present it better, or are you just fine letting it pass?
And is format really what matters - or is it the story, the moment, the experience?
Because here’s the truth: users don’t think in formats. They don’t wake up saying, “I’d love to go to EPG and find a catch-up episode today.”
They think in moods, moments, and memories. In characters they miss. In laughs they want again. In emotions they want to relive.
Linear has its place, but maybe it's time to stop asking “what’s on?” and start asking “what still matters?”
It’s time the catalog reflected that.
It’s time you repurpose content into evergreen (or semi-evergreen) items and present them naturally, intuitively - where your users actually look.
Scene 4: Enter dynamic catalogs for OTT and IPTV: the smartest shelf in the room
This isn’t science fiction. You already have the tools.
Dynamic catalogs aren’t new tech. But using them strategically? That’s where the game changes.
With dynamic catalogs, you can automatically
- Promote last week’s most-watched catch-up shows
- Build themes like “Crime Fridays,” “World Cup Matches,” or “User favorites last 7 days.”
- Create catalogs that are triggered by rules such as “present content that has been watched by the highest number of unique users within the past 48 hours and is set to expire within the next 7 days.”
- Present EPG events similar as on demand assets, side by side, and preserve the content of the most value, even if it’s just for a limited time
No expensive and time-consuming manual actions. Just smart data, working for you - you’re letting your data tell you what’s worth watching again.
So you will extend shelf life, and you will create a dynamic content loop that feeds itself.
Instead of “7 Days Catch-Up,” the user sees
- “Missed It? Watch this week’s top picks.”
- “People in your city watched this yesterday.”
- “Staff Picks: rewatch-worthy moments”
- “Bingeworthy from our regional lineup”
Suddenly, the same old content feels… dynamic. Personalized. Alive.
And your users are not scrolling. They’re now choosing.
Scene 5: The hidden ROI
Let’s talk numbers - because operators love ROI.
What’s the cost of repurposing?
- Zero licensing fees
- Zero additional ingest
- Minimal backend logic (you already have the necessary APIs. All you need is smart content repurposing algorithms.)
- Frontend tweaks? Yes. Just a few configurations on a proper OTT platform. But worth it.
What’s the upside?
- Better content discovery
- Higher perceived content volume
- More reasons for your users stay on your platform - more engagement
- Additional opportunity for a regional and niche programming
- New monetization windows (catchup upsells, advertisements, promos, etc.)
All done without creating new content - just a simple engineering of the content value.
Final scene: A wake-up call
You don’t need to add more content. You need to present existing content better.
Dynamic catalogs with smart repurposing are the lowest-hanging fruit most operators ignore.
If your CUTV content has views, hearts, and relevance, don’t let it fade in 7 days. Give your audience seamless OTT content discovery or watch them churn.
Reuse it. Remix it. Rediscover it.
Your users want it. Your business needs it. Your system should support it.
Let’s stop letting good content die young.
Need help making this happen?
If you're wondering how to implement dynamic catalogs, identify reusable content, or improve your service experience, contact us at sales@uniqcast.com Feel free to reach out for insights, strategy, or hands-on support. Let’s bring your content presentation to the next level!
