FEATURE^25July 22> 2018 [ impactonnet.com ]original OTT content different from movies which also have
a window for theatrical release and can go on to any other
platform? Many of the classic OTT players like Hotstar or
Amazon or Netflix started as content aggregators. They
had repeat value. Increasingly they
realize that given the concerns of linear
players, somewhere they are going to
be starved of the supply of content. And
each one individually has started creating
content. Some of them have budgets
that exceed what the traditional studios
spend on content creation. Now, step
back and look at it from the consumer’s
perspective. If you are going to have so
much original content, exclusive to each
platform, to how many platforms does
the consumer subscribe? His spending
capacity is going to be limited. And
therefore which is the model that is going
to evolve ultimately? To have a short
window of release where content remains
excusive to your platform and then you
eventually share it with other mediums,
and you then monetize the licensing
part. Or, do you keep it exclusive on your
platform forever?
ADVERTISING POTENTIAL
OF OTT PLATFORMS
Advertising potential on any medium
ultimately has to play out. Let’s look
at the example of HD channels. When
they were originally introduced, one of
the strategies was that there would be
no ads on HD channels, and then subsequently you had
advertising coming in. Digital platforms have the benefit
that you can narrowcast any advertising. You can get
the right advertising to the right consumer because you
have significant analytics about that particular consumer.
Agencies clearly believe that there are significant
advantages in advertising on an OTT platform. The
struggle today is - how good are the analytics? How do
you measure the efficiency of advertising, as you do for
TV, Print and OOH? Though consumption patterns are
changing rapidly, advertising till date has not moved, not
only in India but even globally at the same speed. The fact
that it has to move is a no-brainer, it is
going to happen. Is original content going
to drive advertising? I am not too sure.
Any good content will drive advertising.
You really target advertising to a
particular subscriber. Therefore whether
the subscriber is watching The Heist or
Sacred Games, or some Hollywood movie
or Bollywood content on the platform,
you don’t go seeking advertising for the
type of content, you seek advertising
for the subscriber. You have data on the
subscriber, and no matter what content
he is watching, you push the right ads
to him. The subscriber is the driver for
advertising independent of what content
he is watching.RESEARCH ON ORIGINAL
OTT CONTENT
Even if you have to do a study, how do
you do it? The pricing is common bundled
pricing. Subscriber numbers are not freely
available. Those are all at best estimates.
Even if a Netflix or Amazon gives out
the number of subscribers, how do you
know how the subscribers are moving, in
the absence of an equivalent of a TRP for
content? The only way one would know
is that over a period of time, if there is
a correlation between number of subscribers and the new
content that you add. And we have to be careful here as to
what is meant by original content. Does it necessarily mean
only new Indian content? Does it mean foreign content
which is dubbed in Indian languages? Say, for example if
Netflix is pushing into India a lot of Spanish content, because
they have found that kind of content works in India, is it
original content? One has to consider all this.Is original content
going to drive
advertising? I am
not too sure. Any
good content will
drive advertising.
You really target
advertising to
a particular
subscriber. You
have data on
the subscriber,
and no matter
what content he
is watching, you
push the right
ads to him.across a range of formats - from thrillers to drama - adopts a fairly
diversified approach towards original programming and spends
between 65-75% of their resources in creating original content.
The platform’s first major project for the regional space was the
official biopic of music maestro Ilaiyaraja, who has a regional as
well as global appeal. Ajay Chacko, Co-Founder & CEO, Arré,
says, “The scope of regional original content is immense and we
are already betting fairly sizeably in the space. The regional TV
and film markets are very large in India and I see the same trend of
consumption of regional content on Digital. Our short to medium
term plans include a sizeable regional foray beginning with Tamil
followed by Telugu, Marathi and Bengali content. Language
versions of our marquee shows are doing quite well in Tamil and we
soon plan to augment the genre with originals.”THE OPPORTUNITY FOR
BIG PRODUCTION HOUSES
With OTT platforms offering a rich variety of content for all
kinds of audiences, will Bollywood suffer in the near future? Or
does there lie an opportunity for big Bollywood production houses
to encash on the OTT craze?
Apoorva Mehta, CEO, Dharma Productions says, “It won’t
be wrong to say that the OTT industry is rapidly moving in the
direction facing innate growth, considering the fact that a major
chunk of content is being consumed on the digital medium today.
They provide a host of enticing features such as convenience and