Background and Purpose – The thesis explains the emergent nature of video business and the necessity of firms to adapt their relationship strategies to become or stay competitive. Such a method of adaptation has consequences for the various models they use to adjust. There are a lot of variables that must be taken into consideration to develop the proper relationship strategies which can generate new value propositions. Therefore, to change their operating model’s companies need to deploy a new collection of capabilities for flexibility and responsiveness to the fast‐changing customer requirements in the video business segment. The Purpose of this thesis is to identify proper common relationship strategies between MCI and Iranian video OTT players.

Design/methodology/approach – Interviews were done as the core study method for data collection which formed a database consisting of 27 in-depth interviews where the authors used an abductive approach faced with unique observations.

The case study was done in MCI with the intention to find relationship strategies among MCI and Iranian video OTT players by using qualitative methods in the form of semi-structured interviews of both managers and experts. Both business sides were approached to collect relevant and unique data to focus on them. The empirical data was analyzed and compared with our theoretical framework which was finally concluded, and complementary recommendations were proposed.

Findings – Several priceless findings were found such as diverse forms of current relationship strategies among MCI and Iranian video OTT players. Recommended relationship strategies could be affected by main components and factors (e.g. legitimacy, urgency, frequency, power, the impact of OTT’s Business on telco companies, the intensity of relationship)) and newly discovered components such as regulatory authorities and content producers. The main finding was that a long-term cooperative approach is needed among MCI and Iranian video OTTs to create a new revenue stream and a new innovative business model. It was found that MCI prefers less risky cooperation with video OTT players than its competitors. As a result, this study proposes a two-major co-opetition and co-operation relationship strategy among MCI and Iranian Video OTT players.

Delimitations of study - This thesis was done only in the Iran telecom industry and with MCI as the mobile network operator. It would be fruitful to test the empirically developed business model in other countries and another industrial context such as music or games.