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  • OTTs give much needed fillip to stand-up comedy

    OTTs give much needed fillip to stand-up comedy

    MUMBAI: Even as recently as a decade ago, making a decision to become a full-time stand-up comedian in India was fraught with uncertainty. Today, however, the business of being funny is taken seriously.

    The genre is still just beginning to get popular in semi-urban and rural areas and the growth of over-the-top (OTT) platforms has given it a much-deserved boost. Offline stand-up shows have time, place and ticket constraints whereas the web takes away all these pains and enables access on a click.

    Comedy as a genre is a hit in India in both movies and TV shows since the 1950s. The stand-up comedy era is a new one and is increasingly being banked upon Youtube, Facebook, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and ALTBalaji among other digital platforms.

    Women like Aditi Mittal, Mallika Dua, Radhika Vaz, Sumukhi Suresh, Kaneez Surka and Neeti Palta have proved that they can tickle your funny bone too. In mid-2017, TLC India launched an all-female stand-up comedy show to break the stereotype that women cannot be inherently funny.

    Most comedians get a breakthrough from YouTube and Facebook where anyone can upload their content. These platforms are open for beginners as well as professionals and have helped transform amateurs into professionals. One of the most viewed and subscribed channels on YouTube in India is ‘BB Ki Vines’ that belongs to comedian Bhuvan Bam, who started his career as a YouTuber and is a celebrity now.

    Amazon Prime India continues to bet heavily on comedy for its original content in India. After the streaming service released a slew of stand-up specials last year, betting high on faces like Kanan Gill, Biswa Kalyan Rath, Kenny Sebastian and others, it has released a new special with 23 acts from 16 March. The new show features Indian artists like Kunal Rao, Sorabh Pant, Zakir Khan and Sumukhi Suresh, among others, as well as sketch shows like The Improvisers, Put Chutney and Sketchy Behaviour featuring well-known comedians from all over the country.

    Since its entry, Netflix has delivered a high-profile comedy special every week. Aditi Mittal is the first Indian female comedian who made her debut on Netflix with Things They Wouldn’t Let Me Say. On the international front, Netflix has Indian-origin comedians like Vir Das, Hansal Minhaz and Brahman Naman to convert the chuckles into belly laugh.

    Looking at the Indian platforms, ALTBalaji has been at the forefront of regional language stand-up shows which has tremendous scope as cultural nuances in India are far and wide. ALTBalaji is the only platform to launch regional stand-up comedy videos in Marathi, Punjabi, Gujarati, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu languages. It focuses more on the last two languages for now because of their presence in India and abroad. In all, it has short, snacky and hilarious videos with 65 episodes and five hours 30 minutes of content featuring famous comic artists like Bharat Ganeshpure, Sagar Karande, Anirudh Madesia, Suresh Albela, Pratap Faujdar, Amit Khuva, Dharsi Baredia, Shanti Kumar, Shaik Baba Sharifuddin, Baggy, Manoj and Mervyn.

    ALTBalaji CMO Manav Sethi says that the platform saw viewership rise by 10-15 per cent after adding these comedy bits into its content lineup. He further added, “We have seen significant double-digit growth in this genre especially in 18-40 age segment from top 30 cities. We have seen new consumers coming to our platform because of our comedy content.”

    ALTBalaji COO Sunil Nair believes, “Users on ALTBalaji consume snacky content during commute time and we see a jump in consumption of stand-up acts during these time periods.” Sethi adds that by adding comedy content from various languages, each with its own flavours, they have been able to hit the sweet spot.

    Earlier, comedy was driven by broadcaster demands who would decide on the content and even own the intellectual property. But OTT platforms are willing to experiment with unconventional content.

    By far, stand-up comedy is emerging as a high growth genre for web audiences. Until a few years ago, career and stand-up comedy in a sentence together would only come up as an example of an oxymoron. But gladly times have changed and people have become more audacious, informed, and most importantly accepting and online platforms have been quick to realise the hidden potential in it.

    Also Read :

    Localised content the way forward for Netflix in India

    2017: The year OTTs went regional in India

    Regional OTT content more than just catch-up TV 

    Indians among top commute streamers for Netflix

  • 63% of the respondents prefer watching movies with their friends than family, says study by Chrome Data Analytics & Media

    63% of the respondents prefer watching movies with their friends than family, says study by Chrome Data Analytics & Media

    MUMBAI: Indian cinema itself is considered to be one of the oldest cinema industries in the world. It is also one of the highest producers of movies in the world. It goes beyond Bollywood and has been entertaining viewers for many years now, across all walks of life.Forecasted to reach 3,000 screens by 2019, movie theatres hold a lot of traction, attracting movie lovers, in spite of growing online video streaming sites like Netflix and Amazon Prime.

    Chrome Data Analytics’ recent research analyses the movie watching story experience in India’s multiplexes.The study is based on a sample of 3,18 respondents. The respondents were selected from six metro cities- namely, Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Pune and Bangalore. The research data was collected through face- to – face interviews, where structured questionnaires with provision for open-ended questions were deployed for data collection.

    Following are some of the import highlights of the study:

    · 43% of the respondents preferred to watch a movie in theatres as compared to 31% who prefer downloading movies online.

    · 47% respondents consider the location of theatre important, as compared to 24% who consider price more important.

    · 38% prefer going to the movies on weekends. However, 8% prefer Thursday due to low prices.

    · Only 33% feel that having food and beverages at the theatre makes the overall experience better.

    · 63% of the respondents prefer watching movies with their friends

    · 43% of the respondents prefer PVR followed by carnival (25%) and cinepolis (13%).

    · 73% of the respondents like watching trailer at the beginning of the movies in a theatre.

  • SonyLIV doubles MAUs to 15.6mn in Feb: App Annie report

    SonyLIV doubles MAUs to 15.6mn in Feb: App Annie report

    MUMBAI: SonyLIV continued to reign the online pie by grabbing more eyeballs in the month of February. It added 7.9 million monthly active users (MAUs) in its kitty. The platform has doubled its base within a month from 7.7 million MAUs to 15.6 million MAUs and has stomped to the third position from fifth last month (January), according to App Annie data report. This ranking is a combination of iOS App Store and Google Play Store.

    According to the report, YouTube is on the top of all digital platforms with 178.1 million MAUs, followed by Hotstar at 48.1 million MAUs. Amazon Prime Video was in the fourth position with 13.4 million active users. Voot garnered the fifth position with a total of 10.7 million active users overall. The international giant Netflix had 6 million active users and stood at the sixth position. The latest OTT player, Zee5, has left a remarkable mark on the audience within a month of its launch by successfully engaging 5.6 million users on its platform.

    Though SonyLIV has an array of web series, movies, sports, catch up TV shows, music and more, the credit to increase in the viewership clearly goes to the recent India-South Africa cricket series streamed during February.

    App Annie is an app market data and insights company headquartered in San Francisco, California. App Annie focuses on the state of video streaming apps in Asia-Pacific region including emerging markets such as India, China and Thailand, among others.

    Also Read:

    Localised content the way forward for Netflix in India

    2017: The year OTTs went regional in India

    Regional OTT content more than just catch-up TV    

    Indians among top commute streamers for Netflix

  • Only 3% of Indian households paid subs of SVoD services: Global study

    Only 3% of Indian households paid subs of SVoD services: Global study

    NEW DELHI: Ground data doesn’t match the hype around streaming video services in India. Only three per cent of Indian households are paid subscribers of such services, while the corresponding figure for the US is 59 per cent, according to a new global market study released recently that was done over 2017.

    The number of households worldwide, which pay for various streaming video services such as Netflix and Amazon, has now breached the 250 million mark, research from Boston-based Strategy Analytics’ TV and Media Strategies service indicates.

    The report, Home Video and OTT Video Forecast – Global, predicts that the number of homes paying for subscriptions to streaming video services will reach nearly 300 million by the end of 2018 and more than 450 million by 2022.

    Interestingly, in China the percentage of paying households of video streaming services is not very high if the population and size of the market are taken into account. The Chinese figure is 12 per cent, while Japan (29 per cent) is the only Asian country to find a mention in the top-10 list. Smaller countries such as Norway (46 per cent) and Sweden (45 per cent) have a higher percentage of paying households.

    Some of the other key findings from the research include the following:

    ∙         Average monthly household spending on streaming video services increased by 5 per cent in 2017 to $9.46.

    ∙         The total number of streaming video subscriptions reached 345 million by the end of 2017.

    ∙         Households paying for streaming video services used on average 1.39 services.

    ∙         The US has the highest penetration of streaming video services, with 59 per cent of households using at least one service at the end of 2017.

    Percentage of Households Paying for Streaming Video Services, Dec 2017

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    Source: Strategy Analytics’ Media Strategies Group, Feb 2018

    “Streaming video is rapidly becoming a normal part of people’s entertainment options,” TV & Media Strategies director Michael Goodman said in a statement put out on 28 February 2018.

    According to him, “Usage is already at around half of households in the most mature markets and is likely to reach those levels in many other countries in the near future. Clearly, market leaders like Netflix and Amazon will benefit from this trend, but there are also major opportunities for media companies, which currently focus on more traditional pay TV and content development business models.”

    In this research, according to an official statement, pay-TV-like services such as NowTV and DirecTV Now were not included. Major services analysed included Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hotstar, IVI.ru, Hulu, Viu and iFlix.

    Though the research did not specify it, but observers of Indian media and entertainment sector explained the low percentage of paid subscribers for streaming or OTT services could be because India has always been a price sensitive market for entertainment services. And, most homegrown OTT platforms’ services are only partially or not at all behind a paywall.

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  • Bollywood actors hit their stride in web series

    Bollywood actors hit their stride in web series

    MUMBAI: Film actors have found a new cosy space to snuggle into–over-the-top (OTT) platforms. OTT shows till now encouraged unknown faces to be stars but the real Bollywood stars are now taking over.

    Digital platforms experimented with Bollywood actors in 2017 and the trend is set to continue this year, too. Platforms such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, Voot, ALTBalaji and Viu featured popular actors in their web series like Rana Daggubati in Social, Rajkummar Rao in Bose Dead/Alive, Vivek Oberoi and Richa Chadha in Inside Edge, R Madhavan and Amit Sadh in Breathe, Swara Bhaskar in It’s Not That Simple, Lisa Haydon in The Trip and Nimrat Kaur in The Test Case.

    Voot EVP and head content Monika Shergill believes that digital is the way to go across the world. She says, “The opportunity to explore acting in roles that are coming up in digital are phenomenal, the kind of storytelling and performing opportunity that artists are getting are exceptional.”

    Amazon Prime India has seen the most popular faces in its shows. Says director content Vijay Subramaniam: “It always starts with the story. All our casting is driven by what does the story demands. It depends on the character requirement.”

    ALTBalaji CMO Manav Sethi agrees with Subramaniam saying, “We don’t sign actors because of their one-shot success or one-time failure. While scripting, we scout for talents to suit a character. We as a creative shop and storytellers, don’t go behind celebrities, we go behind actors.”

    The ease of restrictions is probably the most alluring part of the digital business. But does a web series work only on the name and fame of a popular actor? Shergill doesn’t agree and says, “Digital is not about faces, it is about high concept stories, disruptive and eye catchy short stories that bring curiosity and serious commitment in viewers to dedicate their 8-10 hours and watch it. An interesting face can bring people to the first episode but after it’s your content that hooks them.”

    However, Shergill feels that digital is extremely challenging in comparison to the cinema because you are just a tap and click away from disappointing viewers. Casting is a very thorough thought process and a big face may not deliver in the continuity of consumption. “We have to convince viewers a 30-60 second trailer that the actor justifies the character.”

    The web is a great kick-starter of careers, feels Subramanium. “To tell fantastic stories, highly compelling with a variety of things and great quality, the web is a great opportunity. The creative talent, both in front and behind the camera, they all recognise this opportunity too. They believe it is a great option to add to their versatility and add one more dimension to their acting, directing, writing or judging talent. Digital is the new way of consumption of entertainment and Bollywood recognises that and want to be a part of it,” he says.

    But does a bigger face need a higher amount of marketing spends? The answer is yes. “When you have a big cast, it works both ways. The name pulls some audience in but because of the name, we also feel to push it out more. So, it is a symbiotic process, the name gives you purchase and you push it more also,” reveals Shergill.

    The pay scale of movies is significantly higher than a web series but these actors have been paid significantly well. However, the payment also depends on the days of working and the schedule. An industry source reported that actors have been paid in the range of Rs 50 lakh to 1.5 crore for a series and far more in the case of A-list actors.

    According to Sethi, signing a known face instead of fresh is more convenient. “It increases the ability to reach to millions of people requiring significantly less effort in terms of marketing and communication, though it increases the cost of production. The difference of cost of production ranges from 25 per cent to 50 per cent after signing a known face,” he reveals.

    It may seem like the actors have no agenda in picking web series but Shergill opines that movie actors go to television either to promote their movies or to host a reality show. She said that web series is like a windfall for them. There are large gaps between their films and they keep twiddling their thumbs until the next film. But, shooting a digital series is a continuous schedule of 40-50 days at maximum and an actor is required to dedicate less than a month sometimes to complete his role. At times, the actors are signed up for multiple seasons of the same show.

    In the year 2018, some popular actors will be seen in great series like Saif Ali Khan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Radhika Apte in Sacred Games of Netflix, Swara Bhaskar in It’s Not That Simple S2, Vivek Oberoi in The Family, Irfan Khan in The Ministry at Amazon Prime Video. Khan has previously starred with AIB in several web videos. Shah Rukh Khan’s Red Chillies Entertainment partnered with Netflix to produce eight-episode political espionage series Bard of Blood.

    However, the international digital market is ahead of India. The international actors or the A category actors are not only helming digital series but are also becoming executive producers and producers like in the case of Issa Rae, Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon and Kevin Spacey.

    Web series allow actors to stay in the minds of their audience during gaps between movie assignments while also compensating them well. It’s about time more actors got themselves knee deep into this budding content arena.

    Also Read :

    2017: The year OTTs went regional in India

    Regional OTT content more than just catch-up TV

    Amazon strikes the balance between bingeing and episodic with ‘Breathe’

  • Amazon Prime blends East, West in ‘The Remix’

    Amazon Prime blends East, West in ‘The Remix’

    MUMBAI: Amazon Prime Video wants to hit the right chords with the music lovers of India. Its latest and third Indian original prime show The Remix wants to grab the eye of the music-loving spirit of the nation.  It is a spin-off challenge between DJs and singers to blend Indian and western music beats including regional songs. The Remix will launch as a 10 episode series starting 9 March 2018, with two episodes launching together followed by one every week.

    Till now, music reality shows were restricted to the television but this time it will be a digital-only appearance. The show is created and produced by Greymatter Entertainment while T-Series is the music partner. The success of previous showsInside Edge and Breathe gave Amazon the spirit to come up with a new one in a short time.

    In the new show, according to Amazon Prime Video India director-content Vijay Subramaniam, popular music will be re-imagined by singers and DJ duos, which has never been attempted in the space of reality. He said, “With The Remix, we’ve taken two things that Indian customers have told us they love – reality TV and Bollywood music and made a unique show that we hope will appeal to the whole family. With the launch of this show, we are set to give 10 dynamic musical duos an opportunity to present their unique talent to a global audience.”

    He goes on to say that today is the era of fusion and music was the perfect medium to launch an unscripted original series. “With ambient sound and Indian instruments coming together we feel The Remix as a show will perfectly reflect the blend,” he highlighted.

    Amazon will follow the same release format like Breathe. The strategy of releasing Breathe on weekly basis has worked out well with Amazon according to Subramaniam. “The staggered release allows more consumers to come in and engage over a period of time versus binge watch,” he said.

    The multimedia marketing campaign will soon commence but Subramaniam believes that since the show is about music, there will be much activity on social media.

    The contestants of the show will be judged by popular singer Sunidhi Chauhan, national award winning music composer Amit Trivedi, and king of the DJ console Nucleya, while the element of humor will be added by Karan Tacker as the host of this digital reality series.

    The contestants of the show are a mix of singers and DJs. Among the singers, they have Anirudh Bhola, Rashmeet Kaur, Sreerama Chandra, Rupali Jagga, Thomson Andrews, Prakriti Kakar, Akasa Singh, Sonam Topden, Yash Narvekar and Manasi Scott. And, in the talented DJs, they have Megha Kawale, SuReal, Candice Redding, Nawed Khan, NSG, Kiran Kamath, Skip, Rink, Kryll and Akhil Talreja.

    The competition features fusions of multiple genres of music from trap mixed with bhangra, to future bass mixed with East Asian sounds, from blues to desi beats and much more. The contestants explore different themes like ambient sounds, retro remixes, live instrumentation, sounds of India, global beats and more in each episode. Over the course of ten episodes, one team will be crowned the winner who will walk away with a booty of Rs 50 lakh.

    The Remix is the second original releasing in 2018 after Breathe and Amazon is planning to launch 10 originals in all this year.

    Amazon is keen to creep into every aspect of what makes an Indian viewer tick and it is leaving no stone unturned for it.

    Also Read :

    Amazon strikes the balance between bingeing and episodic with ‘Breathe’

    2017: The year OTTs went regional in India

    Regional OTT content more than just catch-up TV

  • Amazon Prime Music ties up with Saregama

    Amazon Prime Music ties up with Saregama

    MUMBAI: Amazon announced its partnership with Saregama to stream the label’s catalog of 117,000 tracks on Amazon Prime Music when the ad-free music streaming service launches in India.Saregama has one of the largest and the most coveted Indian music selections across multiple Indian languages. It offers a quintessential collection of classics with a catalogue dating back to the era of first talkie film – Raja Harishchandra. Prime members will soon be able to easily discover and listen to melodies on Amazon Prime Music from movies like Guide, Don, Kati Patang, Waqt, CID; contributions from legends like Lata Mangeshkar, Mohammad Rafi, Jagjit Singh, Ghulam Ali, M. S. Subbulakshmi, Asha Bhosle, R.D Burman, Kishore Kumar, and more artists; and have fun with songs like “Ek Chatur Naar” or fall in love with “Ajeeb Dastan hai ye”.

    Amazon Music India director Sahas Malhotra commented, “We are excited to partner with Saregama to add classics over the decades in several Indian languages to boost our always expanding Indian and International catalogue. At launch, Amazon Prime Music listeners will enjoy hundreds of especially hand-curated playlists across their favorite eras, genres, and artists”.

    Saregama India. MD Vikram Mehra said, “Music streaming has fast emerged as one of the foremost ways of consuming music in India. We are excited to partner with Amazon Prime Music, in bringing our extensive and rich catalogue of songs from our label – Saregama, to their platform, ensuring that we reach out to the fast-growing base of Prime members. We believe this digital experience would only enhance the level of popularity of our songs across a wide demographic of people in India.” 

    Saregama, with a catalogue size of more than 117,000 Tracks across 15000 albums, has one of the most comprehensive collections of evergreen songs, ghazals, regional classics, Hindustani, Carnatic and devotional music in India. It has an impressive repertoire across Hindi and regional languages such as Bengali, Tamil, Telugu and many more. 

  • The BCCI India rights conundrum

    The BCCI India rights conundrum

    MUMBAI: With BCCI’s India media rights coming up in March, big broadcasters and digital players are readying their war chest of cash.

    The current holder, Star India, acquired the rights in 2012 at Rs 3851 crore for a six-year period across 96 matches. The amount comes down to an average of Rs 40 crore per match. Multi Screen Media (Sony) bid a close second with Rs 3700 crore.

    Last year, The Hindu quoted a BCCI official who said, “I wondered how Star India even agreed to pay that price for each of the three forms of internationals. The reserve price could be Rs 30 crore for home internationals, if not even lower, next year.” In the last couple of years, BCCI officials, both former and present, have made no secret of the fact that Star India would not agree to enter the India bid race if the reserve price for a home international match (including Tests, ODIs and T20Is) is set anywhere close to Rs 43 crore.

    Therefore, it is fair to assume that Star India struggled to make money on the matches. Supporting this argument, a media observer said, “We can’t say how much of the subscription revenue they would be apportioning to India team, because when Star sells its subscription bouquet, it is sold as an overall sports package, not right wise. If we compare ad rates vis-à-vis the rights acquisition, they have not made money.”

    Star India, in September 2017, hit all other bidders in the fray for a six with just one single mind-boggling global bid of Rs 16,347.50 crore to acquire the broadcast and digital rights of the Indian Premier League (IPL) for the next five years. IPL is hotter than even international events. An IPL game will fetch Rs 55 crore per whereas an international match brings about Rs 40 crore. Star India might focus on making the IPL the biggest revenue-generating property in the world after the EPL and the NBA.

    According to industry sources, broadcasters will be looking at paying Rs 35 crore per match, touted to be a fair amount in current market standards, to the BCCI for the upcoming rights acquisition.

    Sony Pictures Network (SPN) India is likely to make a strong bid for the Indian cricket team home rights. We know that Sony already has the Rs 11,000 crore that it was ready to splurge on the IPL rights.

    The other contender, Dsport, is also rumoured to throw its hat into the ring for the BCCI rights. In an interview to Mint last month, Discovery Communication India SVP and GM Karan Bajaj stated, “We may look at putting cricket on Dsport next year after launching the general entertainment channel Discovery Jeet.” The channel even picked up the bidding document for IPL media rights but didn’t turn up on the bidding day.

    For digital rights, players like Facebook, Twitter, Reliance Jio, Amazon Prime, Hotstar, and Sony Liv will play a crucial role. Facebook was the highest bidder from the digital communication platforms for the IPL with Rs 3900 crore followed by Jio with Rs 3075 crore. Hotstar, which was launched in February 2015, wasn’t in the picture when Star India acquired the BCCI rights in 2012. 

    Meanwhile, Twitter and Amazon have gotten their hands on one of the most high-profile sports properties in the world, the National Football League (NFL). In the time to come, both players have vowed to dominate the live sporting segment on digital in India, too.

    The contract with Nimbus, before the rights went to Star in 2012, had a base price of Rs 31.25 crore per game for each of the three formats purely for the broadcast rights. The BCCI’s marketing committee had kept the base price at Rs 31.25 crore plus Rs 1 crore (i.e, Rs 32.25 crore) for an international game in the A category and Rs 33 crore plus Rs 1 crore (Rs 34 crore) for B category matches.

    Looking at the current scenario, broadcasters will have to cough up a reasonable amount, which can be in the range of Rs 32-38 crore, in order to be in profit. The fact that Star India may not agree to enter the India rights bid, if the reserve price for a home international match is set anywhere close to its previous bid, will help broadcasters such as Sony and Discovery to be in strong contention.

    Also Read :

    The year of big switch in sports broadcasting

    BCCI invites brands to acquire third-party rights for IPL

    Comment: Is BCCI lbw on Star’s sponsorship googly?

  • Airtel offers free Amazon Prime subscription on plan

    Airtel offers free Amazon Prime subscription on plan

    MUMBAI: Bharti Airtel and Amazon India have joined hands to ring in an entertaining new year for customers. New and existing Airtel postpaid customers with an infinity plan of Rs 499 or above will get a one-year Amazon Prime membership, worth Rs 999 for free.

    Customers can watch Amazon Prime Video and access over 11 million Prime-eligible products while shopping on Amazon.in. The offer for one year of Amazon Prime is activated exclusively through the Airtel TV app. Access to Prime Video is available after downloading the Prime Video app on supported devices.

    Amazon Prime Video India director content Vijay Subramaniam said, “We are delighted to associate with Airtel to bring Prime membership to Airtel’s consumers. At Amazon Prime Video, we are focused on bringing the latest and exclusive content to India. This exclusive offer enables us to reach Airtel’s significant customer base across the country, providing entertainment—anytime, anywhere on a reliable service, with great playback quality and low data usage.”

    Wynk CEO Sameer Batra said, “This partnership is a major milestone in Airtel’s endeavour to build a world-class content platform. With Airtel TV, we are stepping up the value proposition and offering a complete digital entertainment experience to our postpaid and home broadband users.”

    Also Read:

    Cartoon Networks with Amazon Prime Video

    Amazon Prime plans to add more originals & evaluating regional content

    Amazon India seasonal sale boosts Prime Video subscribers 

  • 2017: The year OTTs went regional in India

    2017: The year OTTs went regional in India

    MUMBAI: Over-the-top (OTT) services were undoubtedly the centre of attraction in 2017. The boom in India’s internet users, mainly aided by the growth of Reliance Jio, ensured that OTT players got the right reception and target audience. Not just  mainstream TV broadcasters but even smaller players exponentially increased their consumer engagement on digital.

    Viewership increased as data cost decreased. Consumers were entertained and content makers got a boost to create fresh stories. The online content library was flooded with genres like comedy, thriller, drama, romance, rom-com, suspense, action, humour, reality, etc.

    Regional India was the focal point for 2017 and will continue to be in 2018. It also enabled new companies to take a risk in the OTT space. Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Bengali, Marathi, Punjabi and Gujarati languages have been pampered the most by the creators.

    Comedy emerged as the ultimate king in 2017 along with the rise of stand-up comedy. Ideas increased and so did production cost due to competition. Movies jumped over TV to directly go for digital movie premieres. However, this turned out to be a costly affair for OTT players but a good bargain for producers.

    Another trend was of creators holding IP rights for content instead of the platform.

    There’s no shortage of OTT platforms now, just like the rising number of TV channels. Let’s take a look at how some of the main players performed last year.

    Amazon Prime

    Amazon Prime, which recently completed one year in India, hiked its annual subscription fee to Rs 999 from the initial annual subscription of Rs 499 in India. In its first month, Amazon had 5.82 million active users, according to data from app tracker App Annie. That number almost doubled by May to 9.57 million. Total engagement time tripled from 622 million minutes to 1,815 million minutes in the same period. In the month of August, Amazon India had a big fall when its director and country head, Nitesh Kripalani resigned, but then Vijay Subramaniam, who has been in the entertainment industry for 25 years, joined Amazon for the interim as content head in June 2017.

    It launched the first original series Inside Edge in collaboration with Excel Media & Entertainment in July 2017, which is now available on Apple TV, Sony PlayStation and Vodafone along with the library of Amazon Prime. The OTT platform is expected to come up with four Indian originals series, i.e., Breathe, The Remix, Comicstaan and Mirzapur in 2018.

    Amazon realised that kids content will play an important role. It tied up with Green Gold Animation for Chhota Bheem and its new series Kalari Kids. It also commissioned an animated version of mega-blockbuster Baahubali.

    Amazon Prime Video has bet big on Indian movies by releasing them on the platform before they leave theatres. It has signed a digital rights deal for five movies of Bollywood actor Salman Khan before it goes on to television for $10 million. Tubelight was the first and Salman’s next four movies, including Tiger Zinda Hai, will come to Prime first, television next. It has also bagged the streaming rights for the movies like Lipstick Under My Burkha, 2.0, Arjun Reddy and much more along with the streaming rights for the year’s most controversial movie – Padmavat.

    Comedy is a big market in India, so Amazon went after it by associating with OML for 14 exclusive stand-up comedy specials and six new series created by stand-up comedians like Anuvab Pal, Biswa Kalyan Rath, Kenny Sebastian, Zakir Khan, Sumukhi Suresh and Varun Thakur. 

    Viu

    Viu, the OTT video service by PCCW, focused on regional content in the year 2k17 and extended the library with over 3000 hours of compelling original content in Asia. As of October 2017, the global number of downloads was 26 million to which India contributes 9.5 million. Viu rolled out its first ad campaign titled ‘Kaaf feels Bro’ from 28 August. The company has appointed Times Network’s Shantanu Gangane as the head of marketing of Viu in January. It has also enrolled Eros International Media’s Sameer Gogate as distribution and monetisation head of Vuclip for converting certain costs in revenues through non-ad revenues.

    In the beginning of the year, the platform promised to create long and short form regional original shows and started with Telugu as a region with shows such as Cinema Pichollu, Pelli Gola and PillA as well as Gehraiyaan, Spotlight, No. 1 Yaari, Munching with Mahathalli and Social. It also experimented with cricket comedy chat shows like What the Duck and Virender Sehwag’s micro-original Viru ke Funde. Viu also partnered with Nicotex for an adventure journey series I Can You Can. Apart from Indian languages, it has a big original content library of Korean language shows, which is now available for Indian audience. It inked a licensing deal with content house Shemaroo Entertainment to access a handpicked catalogue of Hindi movies.

    Viu created a new trend of bilingual content in Telugu and Hindi like Social, which is the first such show. There will be more bilingual shows next year.

    As a part of the global strategy, Viu has formed strong partnerships with Samsung, Micromax, Vikram Bhatt’s Loneranger Productions and Annapurna Studios for creating refreshing original localised content that keeps the viewers glued.

    Amazon’s Fire TV streaming stick, which launched last month in India, has added Vuclip’s streaming service Viu as an app on its platform.

    Hotstar

    As an early entrant in the OTT space, Hotstar has been building a differentiated proposition for its free and premium users comprising local and international TV shows, movies and live sports, helping it cross 175 million downloads and 60 million users in January 2017. Hotstar continues to have the largest number of active users about 69 million in May, according to AppAnnie. Based on the November report, Hotstar topples the chart across all platforms with 15 billion minutes total time spent in the month.

    Hotstar has appointed Punitha Arumugam as platform evangelist, with the mandate to showcase the power of the platform to India’s leading brands. 

    This year, Hotstar launched an original series in Tamil, in association with celebrated film director, Balaji Mohan, titled As I’m Suffering from Kadhal on 6 June. Apart from Tamil, the series was dubbed in Telugu,with English subtitles available for both languages. Hotstar brings back comedy show Sarabhai vs Sarabhai this year. It streamed Kabaddi World Cup in Ahmedabad in stereoscopic 3D virtual reality. News platforms like Republic TV and ABP News were added to its live feed.

    Disney acquired 21st Century Fox in December but before the acquisition could take place, Hotstar inked a multi-year SVOD deal with Disney India to showcase the studio’s hits exclusively on its premium offering in India which includes movies like Lucasfilm Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Disney’s The Jungle Book and Moana, Marvel’s Captain America: Civil War and Doctor Strange, Disney.Pixar’s Finding Dory amongst others.

    The highly anticipated premiere of Game of Thrones Season 7 launched on the platform on 17 July, with the first episode available for viewing within minutes of its American telecast.

    A new storytelling format, CinePlay, was launched under its originals banner that showcased classics and contemporary stories from the theatre world presented in a cinematic fashion. In April, Hotstar became the first ‘Made in India platform’ to cross 100 million downloads on Google Play Store and crossed more than 200 million downloads across Play Store, App store and other Android app stores.

    Jio TV

    The game changer of telecom and digital industry, Jio TV, has recently launched a web version of JioTV app which allows Jio users to access over 500 TV channels. This service was previously exclusive to mobile users via the app. Now with the support for web platform, users will be able to access TV channels through their web browser as well.

    Reliance Jio offers a suite of apps which includes JioTV, JioCinema, JioMusic, and more. Jio’s suite of apps is free along with the Jio Prime membership and users can enjoy all the content on these apps for free. On the other hand, JioTV, an online version of cable TV, that’s free as of now, has partnerships with almost all national and regional channels, and allows users to stream content up to seven days old. It also has JioCinema, which is a free movie streaming service.

    Jio had 42 million users in May and gained momentum in a short while with free data and free content service. Based on the November report by App Annie, Jio TV grabs the second position leaving behind all the OTT players with 8.8 billion minutes total time spent on the platform in the month.

    Netflix

    Netflix’s focus this year was entirely content, partnerships and technology to build a great experience in India. IT has announced six original productions in the country, namely Sacred Games, Selection Day, Again, Bard of Blood in association with Red Chillies Entertainment, our first kids original series from India, Mighty Little Bheem and Love Per Square Foot, the first mainstream film from India to be exclusively available on Netflix. Over 2017, Netflix tied up with Airtel Digital TV, Videocon and Vodafone to make it easier for Indian consumers to watch Netflix, whether on a set-top box or on a mobile.

    Simran Sethi joined Netflix International Originals Production Group in August after leaving the position of SVP of scripted development at Disney’s Freeform to lead the creative Indian content. Netflix executive Nick Nelson moved to Ownzones Media Network as the new head of product innovation.

    According to a Netflix survey, Indians are the second-highest public bingers in the world (88 per cent), just behind Mexico (89 per cent).

    SonyLiv

    SonyLiv played safe this year. It launched the first regional original series, in the Marathi language titled YOLO – You Only Live Once, conceptualised and developed by Indian Magic Eye. Later, it launched the first ever Gujarati rom-com web series titled Kacho Papad Pako Papad in May. SonyLIV and Jossbox have co-produced a web-series called House Proud. In the month of October, the platform came up with the second season of the home-grown originalLoveBytes 2 focussed primarily on youth issues. In association with Beyond Originals, SonyLiv served the last original of 2017 titled Black Coffee. Along with that, to see India fit-n-fine, in the beginning of the year, it launched health and wellness segment LIV Fit.

    SonyLiv partnered with Web Talkies, Pocket Aces (for Filter Copy and Gobble) and Fanform Mediaworks for originals content. It bet long on short films from the catalogue of Pocket Films by including 50 award-winning shorts in its bouquet. It joined hands with super chef Sanjeev Kapoor and food YouTubers like Rajshri Foods, Varun Inamdar and Ruchi Bharani to expand its unique food content library. 

    SonyLiv has appointed Times Internet’s regional head Maruti Indoria as national sales head for its sports division in February.

    To expand the reach, it has signed deals with Videocon d2h, Amazon Fire TV and Apple TV to enable customers to access a seamless broad selection of content available on SonyLIV app.

    Voot

    Viacom18’s digital venture Voot was a complete package of fun without pay. However, they unlike others, it planned a significant regional line-up for the next year. It launched several web series back to back this year which includes Time Out, Yo Ke Hua Bro, Stupid Man Smart Phone and Untag.

    Voot has also put the spotlight on the kids section and rolled out a hi-decibel TVC campaign to promote it Voot Kids in Hindi, Kannada and Marathi. It has included various internationally acclaimed characters in its kitty and aims to expand their kids library with 30 plus shows in the year 2018. In association with HDFC, Voot has launched digital talent hunt show for kids in the mid of the year.

    In its partnership with Google, Voot has turned its mobile website into a Progressive Web App (PWA) and won the coveted International Broadcasting Convention 2017 (IBC2017) Innovation Award for Content Distribution for its Progressive Web App (PWA) product – Voot Lite, in Amsterdam on 17 September. Next year, it is experimenting with making video available offline on its PWA.

    The key strategy of streaming Bigg Boss has awarded the platform with 550 million views till date and 60 minutes average time spent per viewer per day. However, shows like Splitsvilla, which is watched 52 per cent by males, has also added 150 million views.

    In 2017, Voot has gained 32 million monthly active users, six million plus daily active users and 50 minutes time spent per viewer per day. Their daily time spent has taken it to the second position after Netflix, according to App Annie November report. Also, it has secured third position with 7.5 billion minutes total time spent on the platform across all OTT platforms, followed by Hotstar and Jio TV, reported by App Annie.

    ALTBalaji

    ALTBalaji, the ad-free subscription-based platform that launched this year on 16 April with seven originals, today has 12+ original shows available on the platform apart from original regional stand-up comedy in languages like Marathi, Punjabi and Gujarati and content for kids. ALTBalaji recently launched the first Bengali original show Dhimaner Dinkaal and also has a Tamil original Maya Thirrai on the app and the website. It launched a big bunch of Hindi web series including Romil & Jugal, Bewafaa sii Wafaa, Boygiri, Class of 2017, CyberSquad, Pammi Aunty, Karrle Tu Bhi Mohabbat Season 1, Dev DD, Ragini MMS Returns and BOSE: Dead/Alive.

    ALT’s kid’s kitty is full with twelve shows including Get Crafty With Rob, Ding Dong Bell L-O-L, Moe Doe, Happy Lucky ki Katti Batti, Mademoiselle Zazie, Ratz, Nursery Rhymes and many more.

    Last year, Nachiket Pantvaidya was promoted to Group COO of Balaji Telefilms. In his current role as the Group COO and CEO ALTBalaji, Nachiket has additional responsibilities at Balaji Telefilms across the television and movie business.

    Within six months of its launch, ALTBalaji has been ranked amongst the top three revenue-grossing video streaming apps in the country, as per ‘State of Video Streaming Apps in India’ report compiled by App Annie Intelligence.

    ALT will begin 2018 with its Urdu language original series title Haq Se along with three Hindi originals The Test Case, Karrle Tu Bhi Mohabbat Season 2 and Mangalyaan.

    ZEE5, Ozee & Ditto TV

    The year was quite low key for Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited’s (Zeel) already existing digital platforms Ozee and DittoTV. In the mid of the year, Zeel announced the launch of its new digital entertainment platform ZEE5. Existing platforms Ozee and DittoTV will be defunct and merge into the new platform Zee5, and the subscribers of both the existing platforms will be auto-upgraded. On Zeel’s 25th anniversary celebration, it launched the new logo of ZEE5.

    Yupp TV

    YuppTV, this year, added a new category of original series to its bouquet of offerings. It partnered various directors and production houses to provide original video content. Mid-year, it launched its first series, Endukila, written and directed by Laxman Karya. Later in November, YuppTV along with prominent producer Swapna Dutt, Vijayanthi Movies has launched another new web original Mana Mugguri Love story.

    YuppTV partners with leading production house, Yash Raj Films, to offer premium Hindi cinema to its subscribers on YuppFlix. Vodafone has also joined hands with YuppTV to expand its Vodafone Play service. It collaborated with cab aggregator Ola for its connected car platform for ridesharing, Ola Play.

    YuppTV, recently received funding from Emerald Media, a Pan-Asian platform established by leading global investment firm KKR for investing in the media and entertainment sector, wherein Emerald Media acquired a significant minority stake in the company for US$50mn.  YuppTV had earlier raised its Series A round of funding from Poarch Creek Indian Tribe of Alabama.

    Sun NXT

    Sun TV Network launched its digital content app compatible with every screen format, ranging from smartphones to living room TV called Sun NXT. The platform has a movie library of over 4000 titles, over 40 channels streaming live and catch-up TV programmes in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada. The company claimed that the app had already crossed more than 1.1 million downloads, within four days from its launch.

    Hoichoi

    Shree Venkatesh Films (SVF), a media and entertainment company of West Bengal, launched the first ever Bengali digital platform Hoichoi in September. In the last few months, the platform has released ten originals – Hello, Cartoon, Holy Faak, Dupur Thakurpo, Byomkesh, Bouma Detective, Paranoia Series, Bhootoorey and Stand Up across multiple genres like drama, detective, adult comedy, rom-com, thriller and non-fiction. The platform is aiming to expand the reach by launching on Amazon Fire TV, Roku TV and Apple TV in January 2018.