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Tag: OTT

  • Lower 2020 outlook, review investments, use big data for advertising, says EY M&E report

    Lower 2020 outlook, review investments, use big data for advertising, says EY M&E report

    MUMBAI: Given how things have unfolded in the last three months, media and entertainment companies foresee a lowered outlook for 2020, will have to review their investments and ramp up capacity to address the challenges, as per a new report by EY titled ‘Building a resilient enterprise- Now, Next and Beyond’. It shows that OTT, gaming, eSports, digital subscriptions and VFX will be most benefitted in the near future while live events, films, sports, out of home and print will be hard hit.

    The report adds that digital advertising saw five per cent to 15 per cent growth till 31 May but will drop to under five per cent by 30 June. Additionally, TV subscription will also reduce from minus five per cent to minus 15 per cent in the same time period. However, film will be worse off with minus 50 per cent.

    The media and entertainment sector is facing unprecedented challenges from the spread of Covid2019. Rapid changes in consumer behaviour and consumption, stoppages in content production, cancellation of live events and sports and cuts in advertising spend are impacting companies across the ecosystem.

    Publishers and media companies are benefitting from some marketers seeing the opportunity but face advertising revenue losses. Film and TV producers are under pressure to mitigate the impact of delayed-release schedules, theatre closures and production stoppages. Companies are currently focused on enterprise resiliency and triaging revenue, but will likely need to turn to rapid cost reduction as business models settle into new norms as business models are not on a solid foundation. Bright spots across the industry include digital pure-plays (such as video gaming) and other virtualised production capabilities, the report said.

    The report suggests that for ad revenue, companies should provide ad packages that are “calibrated to the gradual geographical lift of the lockdown as well as reorient ad products and capabilities to build targeted offerings for marketers.” The industry also needs to shift to a big data-based advertising.

    As a way to mitigate costs, companies can develop work-from-home strategies and consider real estate cost reduction strategies, with a focus on utilising purpose-built spaces. It also suggests updating the insurance coverage and contract clauses to provide cover for similar events in the future.

    Going forward, the report stated that segments such as online education, broadband and internet, hygiene, home entertainment and OTT, e-commerce/home shopping, health and wellness and online banking will see a rise.

    For advertisers, EY suggests engaging with marketers to understand changes to media strategy, content and ad placement. Additionally, leverage consumer insights and brand sentiment analyses to better engage marketers and provide targeted packages and offerings. One good source will be to introduce ad spend continuity initiatives.

    For content producers, it suggest coming with precaution-led production schedules to get back to shoot. Companies can repurpose their library or acquire content to serve loyal customers with new things. There needs to be more ways to shoot from home and ideation.

    Content distributers should look at leveraging digital platforms and OTT solutions to engage consumers and potentially serve as alternative channels for planned launches.
     

  • Indians lead amongst 70 mn global OTT account password sharers

    Indians lead amongst 70 mn global OTT account password sharers

    MUMBAI: Indian streaming service subscribers lead the world in lending their accounts to others who don’t have one, says a report by market research firm Ampere Analysis. Next in line are OTT subs in Netherlands and France with the Japanese expectedly being the country where the least number of users borrow OTT accounts. The UK, China and Indonesia are nations where account borrowing is growing the fastest.

    That’s good news and it’s bad news too. It clearly shows how much in demand, the content on streaming services is; it’s bad especially for SVOD platforms as they are losing subscription revenue on account of this tendency.

    Ampere estimates there are 70 million households in 22 countries who are borrowing one or more accounts. It also stated that the trend has picked up in the past 12 months, with the growth in popularity of existing services and the launch of new services from eight per cent of global internet users in Q1 2019  to 11 per cent in Q1 2020.

    The market research firm expects this tendency to increase with the proliferation of OTT services worldwide.

    Ampere further highlighted in the report that  SVOD service providers should see the glass half full not half empty as far as the borrowers are concerned. There’s a possibility to convert some of them into subscribers. Reason: almost three-quarters of them representing 50 million subscribe to at least one OTT service and more than two-thirds of them have pay TV at home. Additionally, half of these borrowers acknowledged that they would not mind paying extra for something that gives them exactly what they want.

    And guess what, a large subset of borrowers are viewing mainly sports and that too for specific periods during the seasons when their favourite games are aired. 

    Netflix has raised concern about shared accounts in the past. In a Q3 2019 financial investor call interview in October 2019, Netflix chief product officer Greg Peters had observed that the streamer was looking at consumer-friendly ways to push back at the edges of password sharing.

    Some surveys have revealed that just under 10 per cent  of Netflix subscribers are not paying for their accounts, even as millennials are rampantly  sharing their passwords around. Estimates are that the loss accruing on account of this, to Netflix, would be in the region of $150 million every month.

    That is not something anyone can sniff at. 

  • Tamil Nadu minister says film releases should come back to theatres

    Tamil Nadu minister says film releases should come back to theatres

    MUMBAI: Will blockbuster film releases make a comeback to the cinema halls away from OTT platform premieres?

    The jury is out. First the government has to allow theatres and multiplexes to pull down the padlocks they have put on them. Of course the multiplex association, Ficci and CII have all been making a push with the government on how the opening up can happen. 

    Now another push has come from Tamil Nadu, which has seen some  films coming out on OTT platforms first, skipping  theatre releases. Tamil Nadu’s state minister of information and publicity Kadambur Raju today stated that the their unfettered release would end up as a revenue loss for the state government.

    Speaking at a local function in Tuticorin in southern Tamil Nadu  he said it was okay that films such as Ponmagal Vandhal were released on OTT platforms during the lockdown phase but now that Unlock 1.0 has started, the government is not in favour of filmmakers taking such a route. He had a simple reason for this: the government is losing GST as well as entertainment tax in Tamil Nadu.

    Hence, he has urged the various stakeholders – producers, distributors and exhibitors –  to come together to find solutions to reverse this trend, according to a report in The Hans India.

    Meanwhile, the union minister of information and broadcaster Prakash Javadekar had last week told  a delegation of film producers and distributors via video-conference that he would look into the opening up of cinema halls by end June. He also told them he would inform the various ministries to provide succor as far salary subsidies, interest free loans for three years, exemption on taxes and duties, waiver of minimum demand charges on electricity and power at industrial rates. 

  • ALTBalaji partners with Ujjivan Small Finance Bank; offers customers significant value deal

    ALTBalaji partners with Ujjivan Small Finance Bank; offers customers significant value deal

    MUMBAI: Known to be the one-stop destination for entertainment that also provides viewers an affordable viewing experience, ALTBalaji, one of India’s leading homegrown platforms, has joined hands with Ujjivan Small Finance Bank. As part of the deal, Ujjivan Bank customers can avail of a 15 per cent discount on the ALTBalaji subscription by using the Ujjivan Bank RuPay Debit Card.

    Having played a vital role in the massification of content in Tier II and III markets, ALTBalaji has revolutionized how India consumes content. Led by its clutter-breaking shows, that span diverse genres, the homegrown platform has established a foothold in non-metros like no other. With Ujjivan Bank’s diversified portfolio seeing more than 39 per cent of its customers spread across semi-urban and rural markets, this partnership helps ALTBalaji reach out to a fresh set of viewers from Bharat by making their content more accessible.

    Customers can use the offer which is valid till 31 October , 2020 by using the code FIFJ7by. The code is applicable for the Quarterly Subscription pack and its validity will start from the date of activation. Users can click on the link https://bit.ly/ALTBalaji_Baarish_S2 and they will be navigated to the app store or Google Play Store depending on their smartphone. This association will allow ALTBalaji to tap into a new set of customers while simultaneously motivating them to stay indoors.

    "Having established our presence with entertaining Hindi originals, we have been working towards the massification of OTT space across markets. Ujjivan Small Finance Bank's well-established presence will see us tap into a new segment of hinterland audiences and help them discover our engaging content. With a vast number of viewers in these areas having an account with Ujjivan Bank, this association will ease the subscription process for them with value benefits. Users can avail this offer in just a few clicks making it extremely simple and convenient,” ALTBalaji CEO, and, Balaji Telefilms Group COO Nachiket Pantvaidya said.

  • Why Indian OTT services should adapt to survive after pandemic

    Why Indian OTT services should adapt to survive after pandemic

    Despite huge spikes in streaming service viewership during Covid209 lockdown, OTT streaming services in India need to remain vigilant in these uncertain times, especially with the global recession reaching its worst. The stakes are especially high for independent players who have heightened pressures to meet their metrics, or else face the same fate as OTT platforms like Viu and HOOQ.

    According to Evergent VP and GM Paolo Cuttorelli, streaming services need to entice consumers to keep their memberships for the months ahead with new bundles, services, and special retention offers to keep users on their platform. a global provider of revenue and customer management for telcos, streaming providers, and digital entertainment companies. In an interview with Indiantelevision.com, he provides some insights on the pitfalls streaming services in India have to avoid at this time.

    Excerpts:

    What are some pitfalls streaming services in India have to avoid during this time?

    Currently, streaming services around the world, India included, are capitalizing on an increase in subscribers during country lockdowns. Having said that, Covid2019 will pass, meaning viewership and subscriber numbers may fall as individuals are allowed to socialize and resume their everyday activities. Streaming services need to entice consumers to keep their memberships for the months ahead and can do so by having the agility to respond accordingly with new bundles, services, and special retention offers to keep users on their platform. With respect to India in particular, overall video viewing behaviour continues to increase in both the traditional Pay TV or OTT segments. We expect this trend to continue beyond COVID for the foreseeable future.

    How can streaming services stand out from the crowded space of OTT?

    To stand out, OTT players need to leverage innovation and digitalization. The legacy mindset must be replaced with a new approach focused on delivering value to customers. Digital (and even traditional) players need to utilize integrated revenue and customer management platforms to help reduce time to market for products and services. This also helps them simplify the complex monetization models and back-office processes so that they run more efficiently.

    OTT businesses must also genuinely engage with consumers to help them manage and subscribe to new services without being invasive. The ability to listen to their audience and quickly pivot both systems and people will help keep Indian video streaming businesses on course for continued success. Combining these improvements together will result in dramatically improved customer experiences. Enabling customers to digitally manage all aspects of their connected services provides superior customer experience and sets the stage for personalized offers that are much more likely to succeed.

    How can OTT streaming services navigate the landscape in India post-pandemic?

    As mentioned above, businesses must understand the need to convince customers to continue with their services post-COVID or risk getting left behind. An unwillingness to innovate, listen to their customers, and adapt, coupled with a refusal to evolve with the market will have devastating effects on any business — it is crucial that streaming services keep this top of mind post-pandemic. Streaming services must respond accordingly to the needs of their customers with new bundles, services, special retention and win-back offers.

    For streaming services in India to be successful, it's absolutely critical to have a deep understanding of payment, product and content preferences specific to each market. It’s also important for OTT providers in India to look beyond their borders and understand how they can best service their international audiences who may be more inclined to pay for access to OTT services that give them a taste of home. Getting the mix of offers, promotion and payment types right by region is critical to the success of any OTT platform with global aspirations. In addition, it is essential to adopt a continuous learning mindset and avoid the temptation of replicating models that work elsewhere — all markets are completely different and streaming services need to acknowledge this from the get-go.

  • Amazon in talks with Airtel to acquire stake

    Amazon in talks with Airtel to acquire stake

    MUMBAI: The Indian telecom industry may become a hotbed of deep-pocket foreign investors as  Amazon is reportedly in early-stage talks to buy a stake worth at least $2 billion in Bharti Airtel.

    According to a Reuters' report, if talks go well, Amazon will be acquiring a roughly five per cent stake based on the current market value of Airtel. Recently, Facebook invested Rs 43,574 crore in Jio Platforms. In addition to that, Google is also considering to buy a five per cent  stake in Indian telecommunications provider Vodafone Idea.

    According to the report, the talks between Bharti and Amazon are at an early stage and the deal terms could change. There are even chances that the talks will not come to fruition.

    "We routinely work with all digital and OTT players and have deep engagement with them to bring their products, content and services for our wide customer base. Beyond that there is no other activity to report," Airtel said in a statement.
     

  • Lionsgate India acquires exclusive streaming rights for Hollywood Blockbusters from PVR Pictures

    Lionsgate India acquires exclusive streaming rights for Hollywood Blockbusters from PVR Pictures

    MUMBAI: Hollywood content leader Lionsgate has acquired streaming rights of multiple blockbuster movies from PVR Pictures for Lionsgate Play. Lionsgate Play is one of the leading Hollywood content curator platforms in the country with various critically and commercially acclaimed films in its database.

    The deal includes several titles that are premiers and some marquee library titles with huge box office behind them.  Lionsgate Play is constantly adding to its already-robust movie catalogue to bring the best of Hollywood to the Indian consumers. The Lionsgate Play portfolio already includes hit Hollywood films across genres such as action-thriller to comedy and drama and has seen very promising response from Indian consumers.

    The newly acquired cinema collection has films which have witnessed enormous global box office numbers. To name a few, Brad Pitt starrer Fury earned 200+ Million Dollars; Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone-starrer The Tomb Aka Escape Plan which earned approximately 150 Million Dollars; and Vin Diesel, Karl Urban-starrer Riddick which earned about 100 million Dollars, among many others. The films will be released in batches; this June Lionsgate Play will release Bandidas, a Western action comedy film starring Salma Hayek and Penélope Cruz and Jet Li’s Kiss Of The Dragon as part of its Friday blockbusters series.

    The rollout will continue through 2020. Recognizing the growing demand for Hollywood films in local Indian languages the OTT player will be dubbing some of these films in Hindi, Tamil, Telegu and more in the near future.

    This partnership with PVR enables Lionsgate Play to offer world-wide quality content to their audiences. With the changing times and the country being under lockdown due to the global pandemic the demand for content has only gone up. This is the first of many such deals to be announced, Lionsgate is constantly investing into exclusive premiere titles for its platform.

  • Story of product, digital marketing and tech to ensure customer retention: Voot’s Akash Banerji

    Story of product, digital marketing and tech to ensure customer retention: Voot’s Akash Banerji

    MUMBAI: This is not only the time to focus on what the business is gaining but also giving the best experience to existing consumers, Viacom18 AVoD business head Akash Banerji believes. While he notes that there has been an obvious upsurge in engagement, Banerji highlights that consumers are watching a variety of shows and sampling a wider roster of content.

    “Ealier, consumers would only come to watch certain content. But now they are much more open to watching different stuff and experiment. And then they're also trying to sample what works for them and what doesn't. So their propensity to try out new content also seems to have increased,” Banerji says in an interaction with Indiantelevision.com.

    It has been more than two months since the country has started grappling with this pandemic. People had taken refuge in the leading over-the-top players including Voot to beat the monotony and blues of the lockdown. In such a crisis, Banerji believes innovation becomes an inherent part of every business’s DNA. One of the big steps that Voot has taken is doing collaborations and partnerships with content platforms at scale. He mentions that their partnerships with UpGrad, Cultfit, Sadhguru are aimed at giving knowledge, tips around health and helping them stay focused. Moreover, it has partnered with nearly about 15 linear live channels also.

    Banerji also talks about Voot’s new show amid lockdown Go Fun Yourself hosted by Kusha Kapila. “Our idea was to bring a content piece to life, where engagement with the consumer has to be at the centre and driving the entire content creation path. It's a great win-win for both the platform and viewers. We get a lot of content and they find a voice and a platform to showcase their talents and abilities,” he adds.

    Other than user-generated content, two types of genres have worked very well during this period for the platform: mythology and romance. Moreover, a rich roster of news has also seen good uptick.

    While many of the players and experts in the OTT ecosystem are speaking about growth of connected devices during this period, Banerji says the growth already started happening at scale even before Covid2019 happened. He says, citing industry sources, that about the end of last year itself there were about 15-16 million users. He adds that it won’t be surprising if that number doubles in July-August.

    “Right now, while the individual consumption on mobile has increased significantly, this is also a time when all the families and individual members in the family are coming together and watching content. The interesting thing is now these consumers prefer to watch content that they wish to do. But on a device, joint watching and group consumption can also happen. Now, connected TV absolutely sits right in the middle. It offers the flexibility of video on demand. And yet, it offers the flexibility to watch content on a bigger device and with everyone together. So the growth was already there. It has only got accelerated,” he adds.

    While there has been a sudden spike in traffic on all OTT platforms creating more pressure on back-end, he mentions that most of the OTT platforms don’t only plan a capacity on the basis of average consumption but for peak levels which is always 20-30 per cent more than what the platform will be seeing naturally at any given point in time. While many OTT platforms have seen a substantial increase, he says that the backend, the tech part has always been geared to have managed to service the demand in a very, very seamless fashion. “If they have not planned for it, I think now would also be the time for a lot of the platforms to go back to the drawing board and plan it out,” he mentions.

    For the tech team, another challenge is spike in users.

    “I think what the product and the tech team need to see is how different will the journey of a new consumer be from that of an existing company. What is the content that you're going to dish out to a new consumer versus an existing consumer? How will the new person discover his or her target content, what is the kind of ad load you would provide or do you want to give them an ad experience for the first few times? How do you ensure that the retention levels of the new consumer are sustainable?” he asks.

    “So it's a story of the product, digital marketing and tech to ensure how and what the behaviour of a new consumer is. You should have the necessary tools to know who the new consumers are and try the maximum retention possible,” he concludes.

  • Tata Sky launches new, improved offer on Tata Sky Binge+ Android STB

    Tata Sky launches new, improved offer on Tata Sky Binge+ Android STB

    MUMBAI: Tata Sky announced a new and improved offer on India’s next-generation Android set-top box Tata Sky Binge+, aimed at providing customers an upgraded and immersive content-viewing experience.

    Introduced at a subsidised rate of Rs 3,999, the new offer will enable subscribers to watch both linear channels (broadcast via satellite) and OTT content (via internet) from popular apps on their TV screen using a single remote.

    Tata Sky chief commercial & content officer Pallavi Puri said:  “Entertainment consumption is evolving rapidly. As content becomes multi-platform, we are constantly pushing the envelope to expand our expertise so that we can take content to our viewers through whichever touchpoint they are most attuned to. Bringing the strengths of traditional DTH with next-generation features and the world of OTT content together, the fully integrated Tata Sky Binge+ device delivers an enriched viewing experience, with the highest image quality and a consistent end-user experience on their TV screens.”

    Additionally, Tata Sky Binge+ enables viewers to play any show, movie, music, game on their laptop, tablet or mobile phone and watch it directly on their TV with its in-built Chromecast feature. Empowered by first in-class technology, Tata Sky Binge+ also includes Google Assistant that makes discovering content easy, using the voice search feature thereby allowing access to plethora of games and apps available on Google Play store. It is compatible with all types of TVs including 4K, HD LED, LCD, or plasma technology as it supports HDMI output and can also be connected to older TV sets over audio and video cable.

    Priced at Rs 3999/-, Tata Sky Binge+  provides the benefit of six months OTT content that the user can watch on their STBs including 7 days missed shows and access to 3 months Amazon Prime subscription at no additional cost. 

  • Indian OTT platforms dish out special fare for kids

    Indian OTT platforms dish out special fare for kids

    MUMBAI: Streaming services have started taking the central stage of entertainment in Indian living rooms for quite a while now, catalysed more by the Covid2019 crisis. But it’s not possible to lay a strong foundation if the new-age entertainers don’t have anything in store for those loved little ones. While YouTube with numerous kids’ channels has been reigning  supreme over others for quite a while, the game is changing as over-the-top (OTT) platforms pay their attention to kids programming with new strategies. Along with international players, leading home-grown players have also made strides towards building noticeable offerings in the vertical.

    On last children's day, Viacom18’s VOOT, one of the major home-grown services in India, launched a dedicated service VOOT Kids, despite having a good portfolio of kids’ content on the main service. Rather than limiting it to entertainment, the new subscription-based service is a combination of fun and learning. VOOT Kids business head Saugato Bhowmik said the service started showing very good results from December onwards. Followed by customer acquisition, the journey from free trials to paid subscribers also started climbing significantly till February. From the mid-March when children started staying home, VOOT Kids’ daily subscriber additions jumped 6X from the pre-lockdown period.

    “In fact, in the early days of April, the peak we reached was nine times of pre-lockdown period. We were adding nine times and then we stabilized at about six times. So, the user base has expanded dramatically. Secondly, the time spent on the platform has also grown dramatically. So we already started this platform with a very high time spent, 70 minutes per viewer per day in December itself. Now 70 minutes is higher than most other OTT platforms. Today that number stands at 95 minutes, even some days it touched a hundred minutes,” Bhowmik added. The numbers shared by him relate to VOOT’s separate venture in kids’ space.

    Another leading OTT player in the country also revealed a hefty line-up of kids content recently; ZEE5 launched ZEE5 Kids, a dedicated section within the app. “It becomes an integral part of the content offering that we need to have on the platform, so it becomes holistic in nature. We are coming with hyper sports, there are kids content, premium content, direct-digital movies, there are movie premiers, catch-up content, news content. In that sense, there is something for everybody. Kids are an important target group that we needed to address on ZEE5,” said ZEE5 India programming head Aparna Acharekar commented.

    Acharekar mentioned that even before launching the section, the platform had kids content. It saw good viewership coming from limited hours of kids’ content leading to a full-fledged vertical, she said. However, both ZEE5 and VOOT Kids are not limiting the content bouquet to entertainment, but a blend of fun and learning.

    ShemarooMe, one of the newest entrants in the OTT race, is also focusing on the vertical. “At Shemaroo, we have always kept the preferences of audiences at the core of our offerings and our kids’ content is a high point for us with a special emphasis on learning about the rich Indian heritage, culture and values, which distinguishes us. The kids’ content on ShemarooMe is for a wider age group of two to 14 years, with focus on Indian mythology, stories, Indian personalities and early learning too. The kids’ genre has always been under-indexed,” Shemaroo Entertainment Animation, Digital Kids and L&M senior vice president Smita Maroo said.

    “However, the current situation has seen a growth in the overall kids’ genre across all platforms. Kids’ content on OTT platform helps in bringing the entire family together in consuming content which has seen a significant rise. There has been a spike of nearly 100 per cent in the viewership and the consumption has nearly doubled on kids’ movies and edutainment content since lockdown,” she added.

    Although international platforms lack content in local languages, Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, Disney+Hotstar have a significant amount of programming for the younger audience. Moreover, Disney+ recently making itself available in India has opened up a humongous amount of classics for the children. While Netflix has upped its local content in India, it has rolled very few original kids content in India. But in the limited store, Mighty Little Bheem has emerged as the most-watched preschool series on the service globally, and the second-most-watched kids’ series for the service worldwide. Released on Netflix in April 2019, it has now been watched by 27 million households around the world. The global streaming giant has also announced another animated show Ghee Happy.

    ZEE5’s Acharekar highlighted an important aspect: there is a great opportunity to create content for pre-teen age groups in the Indian market. While there is content like Chota Bheem for the younger age group, there is not much content available for the nine to 14 age group. While acknowledging that international content which has been created for those age groups coming to the country, she noted that there is a limitation of language. 

    “When you want to target nine to 14 years’ age groups, we need to serve content for them in languages they are comfortable with. In that sense, certain pockets of the kids segment are underserved.  There are opportunities to do better in regional languages and catering to Indian sensibility and creating more Indian viewers,” she added.

    VOOT Kids’ Bhowmik said that the space was underserved but now more and more players are coming in. He said that the ecosystem would only build more because kids need different solutions. Amid the rising competition, he is confident that VOOT Kids will always remain differentiated because of its approach to kids and solving their problems. He also added that the service is adding a lot more features in the next 90 days.

    ZEE5, on the other hand, intends to get into user-generated content for kids also. Describing its nature, Acharekar added that it could show auditions, talents that children can come forward and showcase on the platform. She also noted that they are building at the backend a very safe technology for children; so when they launch UGC, parents will find the platform safe to let their children be and brands realize it as a best bet.

    “As a content house, we continuously check the consumption patterns and trends in the kids’ space and plan our content pipeline accordingly while Indianness and Indian culture-inspired content always remain at the core of our hearts. We have a rich slate of films, shows and some very interesting edutainment content in the pipeline,” Shemaroo’s Maroo said.

    Yes, children will not fall out of options despite the exponential increase in screen time.