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Tag: Mihir Shah

  • India premium VOD revenues top $1B in 1H 2024

    India premium VOD revenues top $1B in 1H 2024

    Mumbai: The premium video-on-demand (VOD) category, driven by advertising and subscription, generated $1.04 billion in revenues over 1H 2024, up 38 per cent from $760 million in 1H 2023. Local content accounted for 86 per cent of premium VOD engagement in 1H 2024, with live sports and local drama & romance leading category demand. Sports content attracted the highest number of unique viewers, with nine of the top 15 titles belonging to the sports genre – six of which were BCCI events. Cricket was the standout, as IPL 2024 and the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 were the top two sports properties, driving significant viewership.

    The take-outs were revealed by the latest analysis conducted by ampd, the digital measurement platform owned and operated by Media Partners Asia (MPA), which measures consumption and engagement across the digital economy in India, including VOD. In 1H 2024, a total of 8 trillion minutes were streamed across online video platforms in India. YouTube dominated the landscape, capturing 92 per cent of all online video consumption, while premium platforms—comprising AVOD, freemium, and SVOD services—accounted for the remaining eight per cent. Within the premium video segment, freemium platforms led with 92 per cent of the 645 bil minutes streamed during the same period.

    Jio Cinema, Netflix, and Disney+ Hotstar led premium VOD category monetisation, contributing 70 per cent of the total revenues garnered by the category. Jio Cinema was the category leader in 1H 2024 with 36 per cent revenue share while Netflix led pure-play SVOD monetization with a 38 per cent share.

    Premium VOD ad revenue in 1H 2024 was driven by Jio Cinema and Disney+ Hotstar, leveraging marquee cricket with the Indian Premiere League (IPL) and ICC World Cup. After a turbulent CY2023, total SVOD subscriptions rebounded from 110 million to 120 million in 1H 2024. India’s TAM of affluent audiences continues to expand, with Netflix and Prime Video capitalising on this trend through investments in local originals and films. Together, these platforms accounted for nearly 70 per cent of SVOD revenue in 1H 2024. Meanwhile, Jio Cinema’s launch of an affordable plan has further broadened the SVOD audience, incentivising more users to pay for streaming content.

    Commenting on the findings, MPA India vice president Mihir Shah said, “Subscriber growth momentum will continue in 2H 2024, driven by aggregation and deeper partnerships with telcos, pay-TV operators, and OEMs. In addition, with the onset of the festive season at, advertising spending should be robust in Q4 2024. However, with no major sports events, spending will shift toward tentpole non-fiction shows on premium VOD platforms, with a significant portion moving back to high-reach UGC platforms. Netflix and Prime Video have a steady stream of content planned for 2H 2024. For freemium platforms, entertainment spends have started to come back under new advertising-friendly formats like TV++, which are similar to daily TV soap operas with 40-120 plus episodes per season. These formats have proven to attract new users and drive engagement with lower budgets.”

  • 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.

  • Virginia Sharma joins JioSaavn as VP, brand solutions

    Virginia Sharma joins JioSaavn as VP, brand solutions

    Mumbai: Virginia Sharma has joined the largest streaming platform for South Asian music and audio entertainment JioSaavn, as vice president of brand solutions. Based out of JioSaavn’s Gurgaon office, Sharma will lead the company’s global digital ad monetization efforts across platforms. She will be responsible for driving adoption of JioSaavn’s innovative advertising solutions for brands, while overseeing agency and client relationships. 

    With more than 20 years of experience leading marketing and sales teams, Sharma joins JioSaavn from LinkedIn, where she excelled in the top 10 per cent of sales leaders. Virginia also worked with IBM for more than 15 years in various global and regional roles, including India vice president of marketing and communications before joining LinkedIn Asia Pacific in 2014. 

    In addition to an impressive track record at some of the world’s largest technology companies, Sharma is an industry leader in her own right. She was recognized on the 2018 Economic Times Women Ahead list, as well as Impact Top 50 Women in Marketing Media and Advertising in both 2018 (#38) and 2019 (#35). Sharma was also the first chairperson for the Marketing Society India Chapter and a member of the Global Advisory Board for UVA’s McIntire School of Commerce.  She was the first Indian leader to become a Marketing Academy Fellow delivered by McKinsey and Co. Sharma is currently pursuing her doctorate in Business Administration from Indian School of Business in Business Model Innovation.

    “I am excited to join the passionate and like-minded leadership team at JioSaavn, where music and people take center stage every day. Music is a lifelong companion; it evokes moments and memories, it’s a conduit for emotional expression; and it connects people of all ages and backgrounds. As a seasoned marketer and early JioSaavn user, I already recognize many opportunities for brands to find their voice on the JioSaavn platform, allowing them to engage and build loyalty with millions of consumers. Let’s play!” Sharma said about her new role. 

    Having worked in the US, Singapore, Japan and India, Sharma brings a truly global perspective to JioSaavn’s Brand Solutions team. Part of her new role will be finding innovative solutions that balance a great user experience, advertisers’ needs and respect for content creators. As a former marketer for many years, she is in a unique position to identify with brands looking to achieve a variety of different objectives to grow their businesses. 

    Vinodh Bhat, co-founder, president and chief strategy officer, JioSaavn, said about Sharma: “As the JioSaavn user base continues to grow, the company was ready for a strong, seasoned and passionate executive in our core market to scale our advertising business. Virginia is recognized as one of the top digital leaders in the country and set records at LinkedIn for monetization in India. She is an accomplished Marketer turned Sales Leader with the proven capability to understand marketer needs and create durable long-term solutions for them, applying a mix of business creativity and strong ad technology. In addition to her wealth of expertise and strategic understanding of the industry, she is also a great culture fit at JioSaavn. We are pleased to welcome her to the team and very excited to work together on this road ahead.”

    The on-boarding of Sharma is the latest in a few valuable additions to JioSaavn’s management team. Mihir Shah, VP of consumer revenue, joined the company last year from Hotstar, where he led product and marketing growth teams through the stellar growth in just two years. At JioSaavn, he leads the global consumer premium business and is already demonstrating similar traction. Under Shah’s leadership, a new version of JioSaavn Pro led to an organic 4x growth for JioSaavn’s paid subscriber base in 2019. 

  • Indian pay-TV expanding by 10.6 pc, 77 pc to be digitised, ARPUs to rise by ’22: MPA

    Indian pay-TV expanding by 10.6 pc, 77 pc to be digitised, ARPUs to rise by ’22: MPA

    MUMBAI: Pay-TV players in Asia-Pacific region are girding up their loins to integrate online video into their service bouquets and recalibrate owing to broadband growth while concentrating and scaling up their investment on premium content as they stare at competition

    Indian pay-TV revenue, according to the new Media Partners Asia (MPA) report, is set to expand by 10.6 per cent this year. The annual ‘Asia Pacific Pay-TV Distribution 2017’ report covering 17 markets includes analysis of 80 pay-TV and broadband operators with KPIs and P&L.

    Pay-TV industry revenues in India are on track to pass the US$-10 billion mark this year, MPA states. Industry revenues are set to expand by 10.6 per cent this year, picking up the pace again after a 6.3 per cent growth rate in 2016.

    Cable, the dominant platform in Indian pay-TV with 59 per cent of subscription revenue and 67 per cent of subscribers, will expand by 7.0 per cent this year to exceed US$ 3.6 billion, according to MPA forecasts. Revenues for DTH satellite meanwhile will grow by 13.6 per cent to reach approximately US$ 2.6 billion. Pay-TV advertising, meanwhile, is set to contribute just over US $3.8 billion.

    Media Partners Asia president – India Mihir Shah said: “India’s pay-TV market has been shaken and stirred by macro-economic developments, from demonetisation to tax reform, as well as structural shifts in the marketplace, notably TV ratings for rural areas as well as proposals for a new tariff regime from the regulator. That said, the market continues to offer scale and opportunities for monetisation. India’s pay-TV industry will add five million net new customers this year, lifting the base to 155 million homes. By 2022, this base will have grown to 173 million homes.”

    “Although average revenue per user or ARPU is relatively low at US$ 3.4, this will rise to US$ 3.8 by 2022,” Shah added.

    “Digitalisation offers a major opportunity, not only to incumbent cable and DTH operators, but also to new platforms such as DD FreeDish. By the end of this year, there will still be 44 million analogue cable homes in India that need to be upgraded to digital networks. We expect 77 per cent of India’s pay-TV base to be digitalised by 2022. On-ground enforcement of the government’s cable digitalisation programme, together with more foreign direct investment as well as healthy primary and secondary capital markets, will also help drive digital subscriber growth.”

    India’s pay-TV market is poised to be the fastest growing in Asia Pacific over the next five years, as revenues increase by a 7.1 per cent annual growth rate between 2017 and 2022, according to MPA forecasts. Analysts projected pay-TV industry revenues in India to pass the US$ 14-billion mark in 2022.

    Revenue from pay-TV advertising will grow by a 10.5 per cent annual growth rate over this time-frame, increasing its share of the pay-TV pie from 38 per cent in 2017 to 45 per cent in 2022. Pay-TV subscription revenue will grow by a 4.8 per cent annual growth rate, with its share of the pie set to fall from 62 per cent in 2017 to 55 per cent in 2022.

    India is the second largest pay-TV market in Asia-Pacific, after China, which is expected to generate US$ 21.0 billion in revenue this year, according to MPA. Japan, a US$ 6.5 billion pay-TV market, is third. Korea sits in the fourth place, at US$ 5.5 billion, while Australia lies fifth at US$ 2.8 billion.

  • Indian online video to grow to US 1.6 bn at 35 percent CAGR by 2022

    MUMBAI: Media Partners Asia (MPA) estimates that the Indian online video industry generated approximately US$ 230 million in total sales in 2016, and is on course to reach approximately US$340 million in 2017. MPA projects a 35 percent CAGR to 2022 as total industry sales top US$1.6 billion.

    Further, the MPA report entitled Asia Pacific Online Video & Broadband Distribution, says that the Asia Pacific online video market will scale to US$ 46 billion by 2022, with China contributing more than 75 percent. MPA indicates that online video revenues, including net advertising and subscription fees, will grow at a 21 percent CAGR across the region between 2017 and 2022, climbing from US$17.6 billion in 2017 to US$46 billion by 2022.

    Said Mumbai-based MPA Vice President Mihir Shah: “In 2016, Jio’s 4G launch intensified competition slashing mobile data prices. The currency demonetization initiative by the government, implemented towards the end of 2016, also helped spur a significant improvement in the digital payments infrastructure in the country. Both these events have served as catalysts for online video consumption and monetization. By 2022, SVOD will account for 17 percent of the online video market in terms of revenues. Online video consumption will remain dominated by YouTube with domestic challengers Hotstar and Voot performing robustly but in a distant second and third place, respectively.”

    China will continue to contribute the lion’s share of customers and revenues to the online video industry in Asia Pacific, garnering 85 percent of SVOD customers and 78 percent of online video sector revenues by 2022. Such growth and scale reflects: (1) Wide-scale investment in original and acquired OTT content, including early and exclusive windows; (2) A weak market for traditional pay-TV, creating an opportunity for premium content distribution and monetization through online video; (3) Steady improvements in broadband reach and infrastructure, as well as increased adoption of smart TVs and set-top boxes; (4) Consumer adoption of seamless payment systems, developed by the owners of some of the most popular online video services, who are also leveraging data analytics and bundling to create new cohesive new ecosystems for content, commerce and communication. China’s online video market is largely ad-supported but with subscription’s share of revenue hitting 33 percent in 2017 (compared to 18 percent in 2015 and 26 percent in 2016), prospects for a demand-driven subscription model remain bright.

    Japan, Australia, India, Korea and Taiwan will emerge as the markets ex-China with the most scale in online video revenues and distribution. This reflects robust payment infrastructure, including in India, along with the growth of advertising-funded platforms and the steady rise of premium, subscription-based platforms. Piracy and under-developed payment infrastructure will continue to limit growth across much of Southeast Asia although increased broadband penetration (led by mobile connectivity) positions telcos as key partners to drive online video revenues. Online video advertising, in particular, remains a scalable and vital opportunity in Southeast Asia while SVOD revenues will grow rapidly from a very low base.

    Said MPA executive director Vivek Couto: “Advances in telecoms and payment infrastructure continue to point the way forward for the online video sector in Asia Pacific, although business models and regulations continue to evolve in a sector that’s still nascent in most territories. Key trends are emerging: (1) Services anchored to nimble, robust and sustainable business models – built around strong execution and scalable content consumption – are rising to the top; (2) Access to local and Asian content is increasingly essential in almost all markets, while demand for recent windows for franchise-based Hollywood product is also robust. Demand for original content along with movies, kids content and sports is also becoming more important; (3) Content curation, packaging and pricing remain critical, along with brand equity. Telecom operators, which have been focused on either paid conversion or mass reach to drive value, are increasingly moving to tighter payment per consumption models in pursuit of ROI across key video partnerships; (4) The value of branded destinations will increase rapidly within the online video ecosystem as platforms and operators forge partnerships with broadcasters and content players; (5) Leading local and regional players ex-China will start to capitalize on a massive online video advertising opportunity, hitherto dominated in the main by YouTube.”

    According to MPA, the online video advertising pie in Asia Pacific will grow from under US$12 billion in 2017 to more than US$25 billion by 2022. Ex-China, this opportunity equates to US$7 billion by 2022 versus US$3 billion in 2017. YouTube and to some extent Facebook will remain dominant, with an average 75 percent market share of online video advertising between them ex-China by 2022, versus 85 percent in 2017. Japan, India and Australia, followed by Korea, will be the biggest online video ad markets after China over this period. In SVOD, consumer spend ex-China will accelerate from a low base as revenues reach ~US$3.1 billion in 2022 versus US$1.5 billion in 2017. Japan and Australia will account for a combined 55 percent of value by 2022 versus 68 percent in 2017. Southeast Asia’s contribution will climb rapidly from a mere 9 percent in 2017 to 15 percent by 2022. Indirect SVOD revenues, which reflect wholesale fees paid by telcos to online video platforms as part of bundling and integration agreements, will remain important in the medium term but become less significant longer-term. Even in the short-to-medium term, telecom operators are recalibrating their approach to ROI with a greater focus on payment per consumption models. Ex-China, SVOD indirect fees will grow from only US$110 million in 2017 to US$213 million by 2022. Average SVOD subscriber penetration of the population will only reach 9.8 percent in 2017. This should increase to ~19 percent by 2022 as total SVOD subs, including direct and indirect connections, scale from 341 million in 2017 to 676 million by 2022 (from 58 million to 102 million ex-China).

    Exponential growth of mobile internet connectivity, combined with a slow but steady transition to next-generation fixed broadband, will provide a significant boost to online video consumption, reach and monetization. According to MPA, data revenues across fixed and mobile networks in Asia Pacific are sizable at US$236 billion in 2017. These will reach US$318 billion by 2022, with the ex-China market size at ~US$175 billion by 2022 versus US$126 billion in 2017. Average mobile broadband penetration will reach 73 percent per capita by 2022 versus 59 percent in 2017, with some of the biggest growth coming from India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. Average fixed broadband penetration will grow steadily from 44 percent to 52 percent of households over 2017-22, with the focus increasingly on upgrading high-speed networks using fibre and next-generation cable technologies.

  • India’s pay-TV revenue to grow at 12% CAGR over five years: MPA

    India’s pay-TV revenue to grow at 12% CAGR over five years: MPA

    MUMBAI: India’s pay-TV market remains growth oriented. A new report released by Media Partners Asia (MPA) projects a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12 per cent in total pay-TV channel revenue between 2014 and 2019 and a nine per cent CAGR between 2014-23.

     

    The report further says that the total channel revenue will reach $8 billion by 2023 with 67 per cent derived from advertising and 23 per cent from subscription.

     

    Moreover, during 2014 the pay-TV channels sector generated $3.5 billion in aggregate revenue, a growth of nine per cent year-on-year. The revenue mix stood at 68:32, skewed in favour of advertising sales. Affiliate fees for pay-TV broadcasters reached $1.1 billion in 2014, with $525 million from cable and $592 million from DTH.

     

    For the first time, revenue from digital cable outgrew analog cable revenues. International revenues for pay-TV channels, which MPA does include in its analysis, totaled $280 million in 2014.

     

    Additionally, India’s pay-TV industry will grow sales at a 9.8 per cent CAGR between 2014 and 2019 to reach $12.4 billion in revenue by 2019, according to the report.

     

    The report further projects the sales to reach close to $16 billion by 2023. The pay-TV industry, as per MPA report, generated $7.7 billion in sales in 2014.

     

    The report further highlights that the total pay-TV subscribers are expected to grow from 140 million in 2014 to 184 million by 2023. Pay-TV penetration, including multiple subs in a home, will climb incrementally from 80 per cent to 83 per cent over the 2014-23 period.

     

    That apart, total digital pay-TV subscribers will grow from 68 million to 126 million over the 2014-23 period. Adjusted for multiple subscriptions, digital penetration of total pay-TV subscribers will be trending towards 67 per cent by 2023 versus 46 per cent in 2014.

     

    According to MPA, analog to digital conversion will facilitate a gradual increase in pay-TV monthly ARPUs from $3.2 in 2014 to $4.7 in 2023, offset by a 30 per cent-plus share of pay-TV subscribers still accruing to analog, by 2023. Cable will remain the dominant platform; however, its share of pay-TV subscribers is expected to decline from 71 per cent in 2014 to 60 per cent in 2023, as DTH will command a majority share of net-new additions in the industry.

     

    MPA vice president Mihir Shah said, “The pace of digitalization has slowed to a crawl as the cable industry pauses to address issues in order to improve monetization. This will help the industry deliver more ROI on already digitalized markets before addressing the remainder 70 million plus analog cable homes that require conversion. This is a big opportunity for cable, DTH and other emerging alternative pay-TV platforms.”