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Tag: Kanchan Samtani

  • Indian content producers see uptick in revenues from online video platforms

    Indian content producers see uptick in revenues from online video platforms

    Mumbai: The production of local originals in India is heating up and giving a boost to the creative economy. Online video platforms are expected to invest heavily into local original content to ensure robust paid subscriber growth.

    “The market for digital content has definitely increased,” said Fremantle India managing director Aradhana Bhola. Fremantle India is known for its unscripted TV reality series like “India Idol” and “India’s Got Talent.”

    Fremantle is a global production and distribution company based in the UK that has created hit reality series “Too Hot To Handle” on Netflix and “Hear Me. Love Me.” featuring actor Shilpa Shetty on Prime Video. The Indian arm of the production company has collaborated with YouTube India for two YouTube originals “Hello 2021” followed by “You V YouTube” hosted by actor and cricket presenter Gaurav Kapur.

    “We don’t have a formal partnership in terms of some kind of output deal, however, we are working a lot with them (YouTube),” said Bhola.

    According to Media Partners Asia, investment in online video content reached $1 billion in 2021. Furthermore, the investments in local content increased from 29 per cent in 2020 to 37 per cent in 2021. Licensed/acquired content accounts for 63 per cent share of investments in online video content.

    OTT platform Lionsgate Play, the streaming arm of Lionsgate Entertainment is also launching its first Indian original “Hiccups and Hookups” starring Lara Dutta and Prateik Babbar. Prime Video is releasing the third season of its hit series “Inside Edge.” Disney+ Hotstar is releasing its family drama “Dil Bekaraar.” Netflix is releasing its comedy “Decoupled” that stars R Madhavan and Surveen Chawla. The space for local originals is heating up.

    There is a strong correlation between OTT players who are willing to invest in premium content to service uptake and audience stickiness, according to a study by Boston Consulting Group (BCG). “In the last two-three years, the Indian OTT industry has come of age. The subscription OTT industry is growing at a much faster pace compared to the rest of the industry. This indicates a maturing of the consumer who is now willing to pay for specific content,” said BCG senior partner and managing director Kanchan Samtani.

    Media Partners Asia vice president and head of India Mihir Shah estimates that if OTT players continue to invest in local content at this rate the subscription video on-demand adoption will grow by four times and reach 224 million subscribers and $ 2.1 billion in revenues by 2026.

    The leading OTT players in terms of subscriber share in the SVOD market are Disney+ Hostar (50 per cent), Prime Video (19 per cent) and Netflix (5 per cent). Revenue share of SVOD subscriptions is at 25 per cent for Disney+ Hotstar, 22 per cent for Prime Video, and 29 per cent for Netflix.

  • Entertainment Goes Online – A $5 Billion Opportunity in India

    Entertainment Goes Online – A $5 Billion Opportunity in India

    Mumbai: Over-the-top (OTT) content market in India is at an inflection point in India, as per the latest report by The Boston Consulting Group titled ‘Entertainment Goes Online’. 

    The report pegs the Indian OTT market to reach $5bn in size by 2023. This growth is being driven by rising affluence, increase in penetration of data into rural markets and adoption across demographic segments including women and older generations. 

    The ‘Entertainment Goes Online’ report is based on a first -of-its-kind consumer survey that seeks to understand consumers’ motivations in adopting OTT content over other conventional modes of content delivery. Survey results showed that there is a room for many types of OTT models such as SVOD (subscription-based platforms), AVOD (advertising-based platforms) and TVOD (transaction-based platforms) to succeed in the market. 

    “Majority of India has a single TV per household. Affordable data has created an alternate medium where consumers, for the first time, can tap into content basis individual preference at a time and space convenient for them. Whilst the current market operates with a largely advertising paid content paradigm, consumers are not averse to paying for convenient content access that OTT unlocks,” said Kanchan Samtani, Partner & Director, The Boston Consulting Group. Affluence and wide variety of content being developed for OTT market including diversity in genres and language gives OTT market a favorable edge over it traditional counterparts.

    The study identified three archetypes of customers in the Indian market, 1) traditionalists – who primarily consume on other than OTT platforms, 2) OTT Experimenter – who has significant consumption on both conventional and OTT platforms 3) Early Adopter – whose primary consumption occurs on OTT platforms. While early adopters are still a more urban phenomenon, going forward it will be more equally distributed.

    48% of India’s internet users (~650 million by 2023) are expected to be from rural areas. With development of regional content by various players, the rural market is poised to become a significantly large opportunity for players. OTT is riding the wave of increased data consumption and internet access in rural India, has opened a new distribution channel that is viable for regional and niche content. 

    Indian content including music, Bollywood content and cricket have large following in the Indian diaspora also. OTT Players with Indian content have potential to tap into this market too. “While the NRI content market is huge and demonstrates willingness to pay, it is not only dominated by cricket – Bollywood music and films are very significant. With their large content libraries, Indian OTT players are sitting on a metaphorical gold mine to serve this increasingly important customer base”, said Gaurav Jindal, Principal, The Boston Consulting Group.

    “One of the key insights of our consumer work was that, while OTTs rely on top-notch hero content to attract consumers to the platform, the stickiness of these consumers is not very high unless accompanied by ways in which they engage more deeply with the platform and is associated with strong marketing efforts," said Kanchan Samtani when discussing the subscriber acquisition and retention strategy of various OTT platforms.

    While Indian OTT players have taken many steps to capture the market, there is a lot that needs to be done before, Indian OTT market achieves the same penetration and maturity as its western counterparts.