TV / OTT
TV and OTT app development cost
What a TV or OTT app costs to build in the US in 2026 across Apple TV, Android TV, Roku and Fire TV, in engineering hours and USD.
tvOSAndroid TVRoku BrightScript
Standard tv app
$240,000 – $340,000
Six features, 14 screens, custom backend and an admin dashboard, on TV / OTT alone.
- Timeline
- 4.6 – 6.2 months
- Engineering hours
- 1,875 – 2,375
- Device configurations
- 16
- OS versions supported
- 4
What a tv app costs at each level
The same six-feature app on TV / OTT, built to four different standards. Every other answer is held constant so the only thing changing is depth.
| Level | Cost range | Timeline | Hours | Team |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MVP Prove it works | $170K – $240K | 3.9 – 5.3 months | 1,475 | 6 |
| Standard Production ready | $240K – $340K | 4.6 – 6.2 months | 2,075 | 7 |
| Advanced Built to grow | $320K – $440K | 5.3 – 7.2 months | 2,700 | 7 |
| Enterprise Audited and integrated | $420K – $575K | 6 – 8.1 months | 3,550 | 7 |
Fragmentation and release overhead
Every living-room platform is its own certification and its own remote.
Device & OS test matrix
88 hrs
16 configurations across 4 OS versions. This is QA, and it is unavoidable.
Project setup
68 hrs
Build configuration, signing, platform conventions — before the app does anything.
TV app stores release
48 hrs
Submission, metadata, phased rollout. Review takes 3–21 days, plus $124/yr for the developer account.
TV / OTT is the right call
- Long sessions and the highest watch time per user of any surface
- Genuinely differentiating for a media product
Reconsider when
- You do not have a video catalogue or a living-room use case
Adding TV / OTT to an existing build costs much less. As an additional surface it multiplies client hours by 0.60 rather than 1.00, because the backend, data model, API contracts and design system are already paid for. See how platform mixing works.