OTT platform features · Video paywall

Video paywall: subscriptions, rentals and pay-per-view in one admin

Video paywall on Flicknexs: subscription plans, pay-per-view with per-quality prices, rental windows, free-preview minutes and live-event tickets.

Flicknexs enforces the video paywall at playback by checking each viewer's plan, purchases and rental windows against the access rule set on the title.

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Architecture Specification

A video paywall is the set of rules that decides which viewers may play which titles and what they pay for the privilege. Flicknexs sets that rule per title: subscription plans, pay-per-view with a price per quality level, rental windows, free-preview minutes, tickets on live events and ad-supported free titles, enforced at playback on every app.

Flicknexs provides video paywall as part of its white-label OTT platform. Flicknexs enforces the video paywall at playback by checking each viewer's plan, purchases and rental windows against the access rule set on the title.

Strategic Value

Why the paywall has to be a per-title rule

01

A paywall decides who can press play. On a streaming service that decision has to be made for every title, every plan and every device, and it has to be made in a fraction of a second at playback time. Operators who bolt a paywall on late usually end up with one rule for the whole catalog, which means a documentary that should be a one-off rental sits behind the same monthly subscription as everything else. Flicknexs treats access as a per-title property from day one, so a subscription, a rental, a pay-per-view ticket and a free preview can all coexist in one catalog.

02

The money side of the paywall is only half of it. The other half is enforcement: the player has to refuse a stream when the viewer has no entitlement, resume it when they do, and do the same thing on the web, in the mobile apps and on a television. Flicknexs checks the viewer's plan, purchases and rental windows against the title's access rule before it hands out the stream, and the same check runs no matter which app made the request. That is what lets a rental bought on the website play on Android TV an hour later without a second purchase.

03

Store-billed apps add a layer of policy on top. Apple's App Store Review Guidelines require that digital content sold inside an iOS app go through in-app purchase, and Google Play has an equivalent rule for Android, so the iOS and Android apps sell the same plans and per-title prices through the stores rather than through your web checkout. Flicknexs maps store product IDs to your plans and per-title prices in the admin so the paywall stays one set of rules with several billing routes behind it. This page covers each access rule, the plan that includes it and what the paywall does not do.

Industry standard reference: App Store Review Guidelines (audited and verified 2026-09-03).
Capabilities & Specifications

What the video paywall does, rule by rule

Every row below is in the Flicknexs platform code. Anything not listed is either covered in the limits section or not offered.

01

SVOD plans

Monthly or yearly subscription plans created in the admin, each granting access to subscription-tagged titles.

Recurring revenue from the whole catalog.
02

TVOD and pay-per-view

Per-title prices set separately for each quality level, charged once through the connected gateway.

Sell films and events one at a time.
03

Rental windows

Start date, expiry, unseen-expiry and a view count limit stored per rental.

Rentals expire the way distributors expect.
04

Free preview minutes

A preview length per title, episode or live stream, played before the paywall appears.

Viewers sample before they pay.
05

PPV on live events

A live stream can carry a pay-per-view price and free-preview minutes like any title.

Ticket a match, concert or conference.
06

AVOD

Ad tags on titles, with server-side ad insertion available for linear channels.

Monetize free tiers without a checkout.
07

Store billing mapping

Apple and Google product IDs mapped to plans and per-title prices in the admin.

One paywall, several billing routes.
08

Playback enforcement

The platform checks every stream request against plan, purchase and rental window before play.

The rule holds on every device.

Source: Flicknexs platform documentation and architecture specification, 2026-09-03.

How the video paywall works, rule by rule

The paywall is six mechanisms that share one enforcement point. Here is what the admin exposes for each and what the player does with it.

01

Subscription (SVOD) plans

You create plans in the admin with a name, price, billing interval and the currency the gateway will charge in. Titles tagged for subscribers become playable to anyone with an active plan. When a subscriber upgrades, the platform hands the change to the gateway as a scheduled plan change rather than a fresh signup, so the viewer is not charged twice for the overlap. The plan list is what the web checkout and the store product mapping both point at.

Included
02

Pay-per-view and rentals (TVOD)

A title can carry its own price instead of, or as well as, a subscription tag. You set prices per quality level, so a 720p rental and a 1080p rental can differ. A purchase records a rental window: a start, an expiry, an unseen-expiry that counts from purchase if the viewer never presses play, and an optional view count. When the window closes the title falls back behind the paywall for that viewer.

Included
03

Free preview minutes

Each title, episode or live stream can carry a preview length in minutes. The player starts the stream for an unentitled viewer, plays up to that mark, then stops and shows the plan or purchase prompt. Because the preview is a property of the title, a distributor can give a two-minute preview on a feature and none on a short film, without touching the plan or the price.

Included
04

Pay-per-view on live events

A live stream is a title like any other to the paywall. It can carry a ticket price, a preview length and a subscription tag at the same time, so subscribers watch as part of their plan while everyone else buys a ticket. The entitlement check runs when the viewer opens the stream, not when the event starts, so late buyers join without a manual refresh on your side.

Included
05

Ad-supported titles (AVOD)

Titles can be left free and monetized with ad tags instead. For on-demand titles the player calls the ad tag you configure; for linear channels the platform supports server-side ad insertion so the ads arrive inside the stream. A free tier does not need a checkout at all, which keeps signup friction low while you build an audience you can later move to a plan.

Included
06

Enforcement at playback

None of the rules above matter unless the stream is withheld. Before the player receives a manifest, the platform checks the viewer's active plan, purchases and open rental windows against the title's access rule, and against geo-fencing rules if you use them. A refused request gets a clear refusal, not a broken player. The same check answers the web, Android, iOS, Android TV and Fire TV apps.

Included

How to set up the video paywall in the Flicknexs admin

Five steps, in the order the admin expects them. Do them on a free account first so you can watch each rule take effect.

  1. 1

    Connect a payment gateway

    Open the payment settings and connect the gateway you will charge through. Stripe, Razorpay and PayPal are the ones most operators start with, and the payment service holds 96 integrations in total. The currency a subscription is charged in comes from the plan, so decide your billing currency before you create plans.

  2. 2

    Create subscription plans

    Add each plan with its name, price, interval and description. Keep the plan list short at launch; two or three tiers is enough for the checkout and for the store product mapping you will do later. If you plan to run a coupon, the per-plan coupon toggle lives on this screen too.

  3. 3

    Set per-title access

    On each title choose whether it is free, subscription, pay-per-view or a mix. For pay-per-view enter the price per quality level and the rental window: start, expiry, unseen-expiry and view count. For series you can set the rule per episode, which is how a free pilot and paid episodes coexist.

  4. 4

    Add previews and ad tags

    Enter the free-preview minutes on titles, episodes and live streams that should be sampleable. For titles you want free with ads, attach the ad tag; for linear channels enable server-side ad insertion in the channel settings. Then test one title in each mode from a logged-out browser.

  5. 5

    Map the store products

    If you ship the iOS or Android apps, create the matching products in App Store Connect and Google Play Console, then map each product ID to a plan or per-title price in the admin. Purchases made in the apps are recorded against the viewer account and grant the same access as a web purchase.

Limits and what the paywall does not do

These are the boundaries operators most often ask about. Each is stated as it stands in the platform code.

01

No free-trial days on plans

The admin does not offer a trial period on a subscription plan. A viewer either subscribes at the plan price or watches what is free. If you want a sampling mechanism, use free-preview minutes on titles or a free ad-supported tier; both exist in the platform code. Operator trials of Flicknexs itself are a separate matter and are covered on our pricing page.

Included
02

Coupons only on Stripe checkout

Discounts apply through Stripe promotion codes and the admin coupon settings, and only at the Stripe web checkout. A rental bought through Razorpay or PayPal, or a plan bought inside the iOS or Android app, is charged at the listed price. The coupons and discounts page covers this boundary in detail.

Included
03

Store purchases are recorded from the app

On iOS the app sells through StoreKit and the platform records the purchase and grants access. Server-side receipt validation and App Store Server Notifications are not implemented. On Android, Google Play real-time developer notifications are decoded server-side and purchase tokens are verified against Google, so renewals, cancellations and expiries update the account automatically.

Included
04

Roku billing is not built in

The Roku channel is built per customer as an add-on, and Roku Pay is scoped inside that build on request rather than shipped in the platform. Web and mobile subscribers can sign in on Roku with a code without paying again. The Roku Pay page explains the arrangement and what it costs.

Included
05

No DRM inside the platform code

The paywall controls who gets a stream; it does not encrypt the stream. What exists in code is a signed-URL flag with a TTL, geo-fencing and per-title access rules, plus a player logo overlay with position, opacity and link. DRM is arranged through the delivery layer on request as part of an enterprise plan.

Included

A worked example: a film distributor's catalog

01

Consider a regional film distributor with two hundred features, a handful of restored classics and a festival it streams live once a year. On Flicknexs it creates a single monthly plan that covers the back catalog. New releases are excluded from the plan for their first ninety days and sold as rentals instead, with a higher price on the 1080p rendition than on 720p. Each rental has a thirty-day expiry from purchase and a forty-eight-hour unseen-expiry once play starts, which matches the terms in its licensing contracts.

02

Every feature carries a two-minute free preview. Trailers are free with ad tags, so a visitor who arrives from a social post watches a trailer, sees an ad, samples two minutes of the film and then hits the rental prompt, all without creating an account first. The festival stream carries a ticket price and is also included in the plan, so subscribers watch it at no extra charge and one-off buyers pay for the ticket alone. The distributor mapped the plan and the ticket to App Store and Google Play products before launch.

03

After the festival the revenue report by month separates subscription income from pay-per-view income, so the distributor can see how many ticket buyers converted to the plan in the weeks that followed. The one thing it could not do inside the paywall was offer a free week on the plan; instead it ran a Stripe promotion code on the web checkout for the first month, and left the store prices unchanged because store billing does not accept the coupon.

Pre-launch checklist for the paywall

  • Confirm the billing currency on each plan matches the currency your gateway account settles in.
  • Open one subscription title, one rental and one free title from a logged-out browser and confirm each behaves as intended.
  • Buy a test rental, wait for the window to expire and confirm the title returns behind the paywall.
  • Check that free-preview minutes stop at the mark you set on a title, an episode and a live stream.
  • Verify a plan upgrade schedules the change at the gateway instead of creating a second subscription.
  • Map every App Store and Google Play product ID to a plan or title before submitting the apps.
  • Play a paid title on Android TV and Fire TV with a web-purchased account to confirm entitlement carries across.
  • Confirm the ad tag fires on free titles and that server-side insertion is enabled on linear channels that need it.
  • Read the revenue report by month after the first test purchases so you know what the real launch numbers will look like.

How the paywall works with the apps and the rest of monetization

01

The paywall is one set of rules with several billing routes behind it. On the website the route is the gateway you connected, and the payment gateways page lists what each of the main ones does for subscriptions and one-time charges. In the iOS and Android apps the route is the store, because the platform rules require it; the Apple in-app purchases and Google Play billing pages explain how product IDs map back to the same plans. On Android TV and Fire TV the viewer signs in and inherits whatever they already bought.

02

Discounts sit beside the paywall rather than inside it. The coupons and discounts page explains that promotion codes apply at the Stripe web checkout and nowhere else, which matters when you plan a launch offer that has to look the same in the app store. Analytics closes the loop: the revenue reports by month show subscription and pay-per-view income separately, so you can tell which access rule is earning and which one is only costing you delivery.

03

Where the paywall stops, the delivery controls begin. Signed URLs and geo-fencing decide whether a stream request is honored at all; the paywall decides whether the viewer has paid for it. Keeping the two apart is what lets you change a price without touching delivery, and change a territory without touching prices.

Plan Availability

Which plan includes the paywall

01

Standard layers

The paywall is part of every plan. SVOD plans, pay-per-view with per-quality prices, rental windows, free-preview minutes, live-event tickets and ad-supported titles are all in the platform code and are not gated by tier. What changes with the plan is which device apps you get to enforce it on. F1 Standard is the web-only plan, with 300 GB of storage and 20 TB of bandwidth yearly; see our pricing page for current plan and pricing details. F1 Standard includes 300 GB of storage and 20 TB of bandwidth yearly for website streaming; see our pricing page for current plan and pricing details.

02

Pricing & billing

F2 Super includes 300 GB of storage and 20 TB of bandwidth yearly, and adds native Android and iOS mobile apps; see our pricing page for current plan and pricing details. F3 Premium includes 1 TB of storage and 10 TB of bandwidth monthly, and adds Android TV and Fire TV apps; see our pricing page for current plan and pricing details. F4 Enterprise includes 2 TB of storage and 20 TB of bandwidth monthly and adds dedicated support to everything in F3; Samsung, LG, Roku and Apple TV apps are add-ons on any plan. See our pricing page for current plan and pricing details. TV apps are available as add-ons on any plan, allowing you to expand your reach to more devices; see our pricing page for current plan and pricing details.

03

Annual savings

Plans are flat fees and Flicknexs takes no commission on your revenue; payment-gateway fees are between you and your gateway. See our pricing page for current plan and pricing details. Yearly billing on F1 to F4 costs less per month than monthly billing; see our pricing page for current plan and pricing details. Store fees on purchases made inside the iOS and Android apps are the store's published fee, and the store deducts them before payout.

See every plan and add-on price All OTT platform featuresRead about Payment gateways for OTTRead about Coupons and discounts
Next Steps

What to do next

01

Already on Flicknexs

If you are already a Flicknexs customer, open the admin and audit one title in each mode: a subscription title, a rental with a window, a free-preview title and a free title with an ad tag. Then check that the store product mapping is complete before your next app release. Most support tickets about the paywall come down to a product ID that was never mapped to a plan.

02

Choosing a platform

If you are choosing a platform, test the paywall on a trial before you sign anything. Set a rental price per quality, buy it with a test card, watch it expire, and try the same title on a television app. A platform that cannot do all four on a trial account will not do them in production either. Ask specifically what happens on the store-billed apps.

03

Before a rights call

Read the companion pages next. The payment gateways page covers what each gateway does for subscriptions and one-time charges, the coupons and discounts page explains where promotion codes apply, and the Apple in-app purchases and Google Play billing pages show how store products map to your plans. Together they describe the whole billing surface of the platform.

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Pages that pair with the paywall

Payment gateways for OTT on FlicknexsCoupons and discounts on FlicknexsApple in-app purchases on FlicknexsGoogle Play billing on FlicknexsVideo analytics and reports on FlicknexsPlans and pricing on Flicknexs

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MD

Metehan D.

"I would like to thank Rajeev for his effort and collaboration from our initial meeting to the platform development stage. We were in search of a white label OTT platform for our brand, and Flicknexs provided us with everything we needed to know right from the beginning of the process. They mentioned that they are open to all kinds of customization and integration when we want to integrate different partners into the OTT Platform. Everything went smoothly for us in all stages. Their collaboration and platform methods are very consistent. What I like best about Flicknexs is that they provide very quick and accurate responses to every question. Their response times for taking action are very fast. They seek solutions to all kinds of real industry problems and provide our company’s needs to the platform in the most accurate way. The software interface is quite easy to use and multifunctional. So far, we haven’t encountered any drawbacks. Our platform was quickly soft-launched, and once we go live with the apps, our process will be complete. We wanted to transfer our bootcamp videos, which currently operate on a pay-per-view model on our existing website, to the OTT platform. This way, we aim to provide our customers with a better experience through multi-functional memberships and purchasing models than other platforms."

IS

Inna Segal T

"We've been working with FLICKNEXS, and I've got to say, they're really good. Their platform has heaps of features (150 or so, they reckon), and it's awesome for streaming – works a treat on any gadget you've got. Big shoutout to Rajeev from their end. Top bloke. He's given us some solid advice and even sorted us out with a coder to help in the first month. Champion effort. Early days yet, but I reckon we're on to a winner with FLICKNEXS. If you're looking to stream your stuff and want the real deal, give 'em a bell. Top-notch."

RG

Robert G

"Phase 1 of our release has been seamless. From initial enquiry with Rajeev through to hand-holding all the way from Manoj and his support team. In less than two months we have developed and published on Android , Ios and Amazon Fire , with Android TV publishing imminent. We are now moving onto Phase 2, adding Samsung, Roku and LG into the mix. We already run a successful OTT platform on another service; and FLICKNEXS has so far proved to be a good alternative"

FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

Everything you need to know about the paywall on Flicknexs.

The paywall has no separate price; it is included in every plan, and higher tiers add the device apps that enforce it on mobile and television. F1 Standard is the web-only plan, with 300 GB of storage and 20 TB of bandwidth yearly; see our pricing page for current plan and pricing details.

Yes. Access is set per title, so a catalog can mix free titles, subscription titles, rentals and free-preview titles. Series can set the rule per episode, which is how a free pilot sits next to paid episodes. Free titles can also carry an ad tag if you want them monetized.

Yes. A live stream can carry a pay-per-view ticket price, free-preview minutes and a subscription tag at the same time. Subscribers watch as part of their plan, everyone else buys a ticket, and the entitlement check runs when the viewer opens the stream, so late buyers join without any manual step.

Yes. Pay-per-view prices are set per quality level on each title, so a 720p rental and a 1080p rental can carry different prices. The player offers the qualities the viewer has paid for. This is the pattern distributors use when their contracts price high-definition separately from standard definition.

A rental stores a start date, an expiry, an unseen-expiry and an optional view count. The expiry runs from purchase; the unseen-expiry counts down once the viewer first presses play. When either passes, or the view count is used up, the title returns behind the paywall for that viewer.

No. Viewer free-trial days on plans are not offered in the platform code. The sampling mechanisms that exist are free-preview minutes per title, episode or live stream, and free ad-supported titles. Many operators pair a short preview with a launch coupon at the Stripe checkout instead.

Coupons apply at the Stripe web checkout, where promotion codes and the admin coupon settings are honored. They do not apply to purchases through other gateways or inside the store-billed iOS and Android apps. Read the coupons and discounts page for the exact fields and the per-plan toggle.

The platform passes the upgrade to Stripe as a scheduled plan change, so the viewer moves to the new plan without a second, overlapping subscription. On Razorpay the subscription is updated through the gateway's own update call. Access to the new tier's titles follows the plan change.

Yes. The Android TV and Fire TV apps ask the viewer to sign in, then inherit the plan, purchases and rental windows already on the account. The entitlement check that runs for the web player runs for them too. Roku, Samsung, LG and Apple TV apps are add-ons built per customer.

Product IDs from App Store Connect and Google Play Console are mapped to plans and per-title prices in the admin. On iOS the purchase is recorded from the app and access is granted. On Android, real-time developer notifications are decoded server-side and purchase tokens are verified against Google.

Yes. Titles can be free with ad tags while others sit behind a plan or a price, and linear channels can use server-side ad insertion. A common layout is a free ad-supported tier for discovery with the newest titles reserved for subscribers or sold as rentals.

No. The paywall decides who receives a stream; it does not encrypt it. The platform code provides a signed-URL flag with a TTL, geo-fencing and a player logo overlay. DRM is arranged through the delivery layer on request as part of an enterprise plan.

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Set a plan, a rental and a free preview on a free account this week and watch the paywall enforce them on every app, then book a demo call if you want the enterprise team to walk through store billing with you.

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