(^24) FEAFEATURETURE
July 22> 2018 [ impactonnet.com ]
A BULLISH
OUTLOOK
FOR OTT
By FRANK D’SOUZA
Partner & Leader, Entertainment & Media, PwC India
F
rom an overall growth perspective, the OTT
segment is extremely bullish as far as India is
concerned. PwC’s projections are that India will
be one of the top 10 OTT markets in the world in
the next five years. This growth is going to span out along
the expected lines - we originally had Hindi and English
content, which were the drivers, but then to grow and get a
greater market-share, we have to move to localized content,
beyond Hindi into regional languages. So, that is going to
be the game plan. Then there is the whole question about
original versus repeat content, content which is exclusive or
premium, and first offered on a particular OTT platform as
against being offered elsewhere. Those are all going to be
strategies in terms of how you get people to come on to a
particular platform.
But despite the fact that India is going to be the 10th
largest market for OTT globally in five years, even if you
look at the numbers at that point of time, the overall market
size of OTT is just going to be 120th the market size for
television, both for subscription and advertising.NO REGULATION, NO CENSORSHIP
There is also a regulatory arbitrage that the OTTplatforms currently enjoy. Their content is not subject to any
programming guidelines or certification or censorship, which
means that they can push through edgier content which
otherwise is not possible on Television or in movie theatres.
Edgier not only in terms of the type of content but also in
terms of the experimentation that they can do and therefore
bring new talent into this segment. Effectively, it is like
the second coming of the studios in the country. Possibly,
in future we might see all the players trying to do some
kind of self-regulation, but until then, there is a window of
opportunity from no regulation.ORIGINAL CONTENT AS DRIVER OF GROWTH
Is it so much to do with original content, or exclusivity
of particular content on a particular platform, and possibly
for a short period of time? If Hotstar has a right to Game of
Thrones which Netflix and Amazon do not have for India, it
is as good an original content as far as India is concerned.
Say for example the content creators were to say that this
content will be available only on this platform to begin with
for the first three months. And after that it can be repeated
and shown anywhere else, if they were to monetize it in that
manner... Will that be a good strategy? It could be. How isto create with the audience. On an industry level, the millennial
audience in India is severely underserved with quality and relevant
programming that they can associate with and hence we will help
develop more loyal viewers for the brand.”
While growth in the OTT space will definitely come from
original content, Katial further points out that all formats of content,
be it original, catch-up or syndicated, work with different sets of
audiences. “In addition to the strong original content we host, we
also have a library of syndicated national and international content
including movies, music, TV shows and such that are hugely
popular among our viewers,” he adds.WHY REGIONAL CONTENT WILL
PLAY AN IMPORTANT ROLE
Given that India is not a homogenous market but rather one
that is made up of thousands of smaller, diverse markets, each OTT
player is looking for that sweet space to capture unique audiences.
Most players agree that the way to do that is by going local.
Devendra Deshpande, Head, Content+, Mindshare believes
that the potential for regional original content is limitless because
the success of regional content is not limited to Indian borders.
Deshpande explains, “Indian vernacular content has a lot of
potential in other markets as well. For example, our show No 1
Yaari with Rana for McDowell’s No. 1 saw 40 million views with an
average watch time of 39 minutes in India alone, and that’s a huge
number. However, this content has the potential to resonate wellwith the Telugu diaspora settled in Malaysia or Singapore. The same
thing goes for a market like Bengal, Tamil Nadu or Karnataka. The
scope is huge.”
In May 2018, Viu announced the launch of around 70 original
titles and more than 900 episodes of locally produced content to
be consumed globally. Around half of this will be Indian content,
produced in multiple languages including Hindi and Telugu.
Talking about their commitment to regional original content, Vishal
Maheshwari, Country Head, Viu, India says, “We’ve launched
about 11 shows in two languages in 2016-17 alone. This year, we’ve
already launched nine originals and have plans to launch at least 20
more before the end of the year. We’re entering the Tamil market
with six new originals produced locally with local production
houses and talents by the end of this month. About 70% of our
consumption comes from original content while the other 30%
comes from the other content on our platform.” Viu currently has a
total viewership of 9 million in India.
Echoing similar views is Vijay Subramaniam, Director &
Head, Content, Amazon Prime Video, India. He says, “Providing
local stories helps us remain relevant and relatable and our goal
is to bring new, path-breaking content to our Indian customers.
Our content mix is predominantly local and includes Indian
Prime Originals series of the highest quality with leading content
creators from India. Our local content plays a significant part in our
viewership mix.”
Digital content platform Arre, which creates original content