ITV

Tag: OTT

  • ZEE5 records peak DAU base of 11.4 mn in December 2019

    ZEE5 records peak DAU base of 11.4 mn in December 2019

    MUMBAI: ZEEL's (Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd) digital venture ZEE5 has recorded a peak DAU (Daily Active Users) base of 11.4 million in December 2019. Along with more users flocking towards the platform, the engagement has also gone up to 140 mintues watch time every month during the third quarter. The media conglomerate has revealed the statistics in its third-quarter result. 

    During the quarter, ZEE5 ramped up its quantity of content, updated user interface and widened the distribution. The platform launched 26 original shows and movies, of which 14 were in regional languages. Moreover, a refreshed ZEE5 Progressive Web App (PW A) was released in December to enable a seamless user experience on mobile web.  The launch led to improvement in user engagement metrics across all parameters.

    Content slate for the quarter:

    After the success of the first season, the second season of Rangbaaz was premiered in December. The show was an instant success, garnering the highest video views and viewers on the day of launch for any show. Digital premieres of movies like Jabariya Jodi, Judgemental Hai Kya, Dream Girl, Saandh ki Aankh brought new users to the platform. In the regional space, Kaale Dhande in Marathi, God of Dharmapuri in Telugu and Karoline Kamakshi in Tamil were critically acclaimed and received positive reviews from users.

    Partnerships forged in the quarter:

    During the quarter, ZEE5's partnership with Tata Sky Binge and IRCTC went live, accelerating subscription growth. ZEE5 is the only OTT platform integrated with IRCTC. To leverage the rapidly growing penetration of smart TVs in India, ZEE5 has inked deals with leading smart TV brands for placement of hotkey on their remotes.

    International expansion:

    ZEE5's international expansion is seeing initial signs of success in the APAC and MENA regions which has close affinity to Indian content. A mix of high-decibel marketing campaigns along with partnerships with local telecom operators in key target markets like Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, UAE, among others is helping increase the platform's reach.

    “We also continue to invest in original content for ZEE5, to create a rich content library that will make it a really compelling offering for consumers,” ZEEL MD and CEO Punit Goenka said.

  • Voot to soon launch premium SVOD Voot Select

    Voot to soon launch premium SVOD Voot Select

    MUMBAI: Tiering is coming to the OTT ecosystem in India. AVOD, SVOD, premium SVOD is the direction it seems to be taking. Following in the footsteps of Hotstar which launched its VIP service earlier this year, Viacom18, India’s fastest growing entertainment network  has announced its second subscription video on demand service called Voot Select.  Pricing was not revealed in the announcement sent out a short while ago.

    To be helmed, by Ferzad Palia head –youth, music and English, Voot Select will give users access to diverse multi genre marquee content experiences which includes exclusive originals.

    Says Viacom18 Group CEO & MD Sudhanshu Vats: “The video on demand market is the fastest growing segment in the media and entertainment sector today.  Subscription led business models are going to be the next big growth drivers in the years to come. Having established Voot as India’s second largest premium AVoD platform, we think the time is apt for us to unveil our premium subscription offering, Voot Select.  The new premium offering will bring more bespoke content to our always-on viewers.”

    Adds Viacom18 Digital Ventures COO Gourav Rakshit:  “With Voot, the successful launch of Voot Kids and now Voot Select, our aim is to build a versatile and immersive digital ecosystem that will add value to our users. The new offering will provide them with differentiated content experiences across genres and segments. Currently in its final leg of testing, the all new Voot Select once live will see many untapped genres being made available for our users to experience and enjoy.”

    An exclusive logo has been designed for Voot Select that reflects the company’s commitment to providing exclusive content and quality entertainment for subscribers. “Minimal, premium, and contemporary, this wordmark distinguishes itself from the mother brand through its form, while being intimately connected with the core brand ethos through subtle gradients and rounded edges. It is a visual translation of the brand proposition to provide the best digital content for a discerning audience,” says the release.

  • Audience open to stories that push imagination: Amazon Prime Video’s Vijay Subramaniam

    Audience open to stories that push imagination: Amazon Prime Video’s Vijay Subramaniam

    MUMBAI: The steaming boom in India has unleashed the creativity of storytellers across the country. While several barriers to freedom of storytelling have disappeared with the entry of the over-the-top (OTT) platforms, a considerable expansion in content themes is noticeable too. Hence, streaming services have led to an evolution in consumers’ content preference and taste along with their viewing habit. Amazon Prime Video India content director and head Vijay Subramaniam says on a happy note that people are definitely open to stories that push their imagination.

    “Everybody is hungry for a compelling fresh take on stories. People are definitely open to stories that push their imagination, that are smart, that are authentic. These are things that people really care about. You look at the success of Four More Shots Please, truly authentic, feminine gaze about women, unashamedly front and center. So I think it's great validation and understanding that customers are open and keen on embracing this kind of story,” Subramaniam shares during a conversation.

    Subramaniam says that 2019 was mounting in terms of film content too as there were lots of big films, in the various languages, not just in Hindi. He also adds that it’s very encouraging to see creators and producers getting more ambitious with the kind of stories they want to tell cinematically, and that's good for customers, whether they are watching it in theatres or own devices. He thinks it is equally encouraging to see high concept stories winning the other end of the spectrum which allows producers to think on both ends of the spectrum.

    “2019 was interesting (for Amazon Prime Video). The ramping up content takes some time and I think in 2019, we were able to come close to a full suite when it came to our films. We will be committed to expanding the overall coverage by adding four more Indian languages Malayalam, Kannada, Gujarati and Punjabi. I think our selection in the film when it came to Hindi, Tamil, Telugu besides Hollywood, we were able to take it up a few notches whilst getting started on the other four languages,” he comments.

    He also mentions that it was the first year for Amazon Prime Video India to put returning seasons of the shows including Comicstaan Season Two and Inside Edge season Two. The returning seasons and putting up content more frequently helped in lot of learnings. According to him, 2019 has prepped them well for next few years and helped them to improve some of the processes including how they go about bringing content to customers, marketing along with other elements.

    Talking about the challenges, he says that creatively still the amount of time it takes to bring a good show together remains. While he also mentions there is no shortcut for that, he adds that as people get better with craft and the whole framework of long-form, they will be able to generate things faster. They are also ramping up the content in development on their side, so the pipeline becomes fatter and content cones quicker.

    “I think, from an expansion standpoint, some of the languages we'd like to do a lot more in, is constrained by the, the dynamics of the marketplace, there's just not enough high quality content to go and acquire. And that remains, I mean, but that's also descriptive of the nature of that local market. That's something that will evolve as we show more interest and I am pretty hopeful more creators will step forward,” he adds.

    “Customers today have their specific interests. And alongside those specific interests, they have this large overlapping interest as well. So they detach when it when they need to go to their specific interest. And they reconnect when it when the interest are common. So when it comes to stand up comedy, young adults love, they have their own  different flavors, but all of them congregate to watch Family Man or War because it's broadly appealing. So it's very interesting to see that and therefore, it's important to make sure that the Thali (content slate) has enough variety in it, but at the same time that it's not for the sake of it, but because people actually have different tastes while there is something right in the middle, which is the main-course,” he brings up one of the interesting leanings from the last year.

    Amazon Prime Video is expected to release 10-12 originals in 2020. Moreover, Subramaniam says that they will continue to grow the platform’s language selection. The platform will ramp up its language catalogue in Malayalam, Kannada, Gujarati and Punjabi while they want to take up Tamil, Telugu further a few notches. The platform looks at going deeper across its content verticals whether it's films, originals or stand up comedy.  The platform promises to stay committed to continuously improving the overall customer experience including product, content, UX, UI.

    “I think for us from a content lens, it's important to continue to look at India with all of its diversity , the Indianness, the local language elements whilst telling stories that continue to, you know, remain in different spaces, bringing people together,” he states. 

  • Netflix and its binge spending: $17.3 bn on content in 2020

    Netflix and its binge spending: $17.3 bn on content in 2020

    MUMBAI: Netflix is stubborn with its content spending despite being criticised often for being “irrational”. The streaming firm is sticking to its 'grow now – pay later' strategy. According to a recent estimate, the streamer will invest around $17.3 billion on content in 2020.

    In 2019, the streamer spent little up from $15 billion on content. The report by BMO Capital Markets predicts the company is on track to spend $26 billion by 2028. An increase of almost $2 billion indicates that users will not get a chance to lower their screen time from the streaming engine as most of the money is expected to go on originals.

    While the popularity of the streaming platform rose with years, the competition has also turned tougher with the entry of other deep-pocket players in the ecosystem. Apple TV+ and Disney+ launch have thrown major challenges on the unofficial streaming king. Moreover, Warner Media’s HBO Max is also going to enter the market in mid 2020.

    "Netflix remains the clear leader in the global streaming video, and we believe there is still room to grow as incremental investment points enter the story: continued international growth (particularly India and Japan), improving per subscriber leverage on content spending, and the beginning of long-promised FCF improvements," BMO Capital Markets entertainment analyst Daniel Salmon comments in the research note.

    Considerably, among the other competitors, no one is spending extraordinarily big on content like Netflix. Disney said it would spend $1 billion on original programming for Disney Plus and will have nearly $1 billion in operating expenses in FY 20 while WarnerMedia will invest up to $2 billion in HBO Max in 2020. Comcast/NBCUniversal has planned about $2 bn for its streaming service Peacock in the first two years.

    "We continue to believe the 'streaming wars' narrative is false and there will be multiple winners in global streaming and thus continue to recommend buying Netflix (NFLX), Amazon (AMZN) and Discovery (DIS) together," the note also adds.

    Netflix is upping its India game significantly as the streaming giant is ready to spend Rs 3000 crore (around $418 mn)  on Indian content for this year and the next. Netflix founder and CEO Reed Hastings spoke about the investment during a recent India visit while illustrating the country’s importance in their business.

    "We launched in 2016 and we have continued to invest. So we have a lot of content from the United States, the UK and Spain. We are developing our Indian content here,” Hastings said. "This year and next year, we will spend about Rs 3,000 crore developing content and you will start to see a lot of stuff hit the screens," he added.  

    The streaming giant is set to report its fourth quarter earnings on 21 January. Netflix reported revenue of $5.24 billion, up 31 per cent year-over-year in the last quarter. 

  • ALTBalaji’s ‘Gandii Baat’ enjoys popularity across demographics

    ALTBalaji’s ‘Gandii Baat’ enjoys popularity across demographics

    MUMBAI: ALT Balaji's  highly viewed show Gandii Baat enjoys a tremendous fan base for its projection of stories revolving around the harsh realities of the society, mental taboos in regards to sexual orientations and many more relevant issues.

    Its fourth season being launched in less than two years of its inaugural season is proof of its popularity and how immensely it is being accepted by the audiences throughout the globe. To be precise, the web-series attracted 22 per cent views from global audiences whereas the show earned a place in the heart of the Indian audience with a staggering 78 per cent of views coming from this respective demographic, as per company data. Its controversial content has struck a chord with the ladies as well, with an unprecedented 24 per cent of the viewership pie belonging to women, a number that grows by 10 per cent with every season.

    Gandii Baat is one of ALTBalaji’s most-watched and appreciated series which has, in no time, created many milestones. Offering viewers content that is not only new but also engaging and intriguing, the show has witnessed a massive completion rate of 78 per cent across seasons. Apart from highlighting the major issues which are usually brushed under the carpet, Gandii Baat breaks the common notion that the show is perceived only by people coming from a lower-middle-class background. Viewers with high-end devices (Apple+ Connected devices) who watch Gandii Baat are 18.5 per cent and this number has seen an 8 per cent incremental growth each season.

    While ALTBalaji caters to audiences across ages, viewership figures further reveal that Gandii Baat audience base comprises of 86 per cent in the 18-35 years age bracket that strongly translates into an audience that is young, savvy and has a higher wallet share.

    ALTBalaji Balaji telefilms and CEO group CEO Nachiket Pantvaidya said, “Exceeding expectations of the entire team as well as audiences around the world, the series has gone on earn such a massive fan following that today, if there is a name synonymous with erotic web content, it would have to be Gandii Baat. Pushing the envelope in every season, the core in each of our stories is leaving a lot of room for one's imagination. Enjoyed by audiences around the globe, both young and old, as we offer a new take with every season by depicting the myths and beliefs of rural India, we shall continue to do so and present content in a bolder avatar with a fresh take on situations.”

    ALT Balaji yet again with its show Gandii Baat has managed to break the stereotypes while highlighting the major issue prevailing in the country which is unaddressed.

  • Data has made us richer in thinking and approach: ZEE5’s Aparna Acharekar

    Data has made us richer in thinking and approach: ZEE5’s Aparna Acharekar

    MUMBAI: Data, touted as the new oil, has empowered creativity, especially in the segment of over-the-top (OTT) platforms. As audiences across the country are spoilt with options, streaming engines are integrating data massively in content strategy. ZEE5 India programming head Aparna Acharekar is also of the view that data has made the platform richer in thinking and approach, bringing a change in the decision-making of starting new projects as well as in content strategy.

    "Data is the first benchmark. It is the ammunition we have. Data is the new oil that runs the entire industry. The process is not different because all of these choices. Then again whether it is acquisition or buying, your filters will have to be the same,” she said.

    In a freewheeling chat with us, Acharekar, the mastermind behind all the great content ZEE5 is churning out explained how the decision-making process changed from what it was a couple of years ago. She also threw light on the evolution of the content strategy looking back at 2019 as time goes forward.

    While earlier a lot of commissioning was based on overall knowledge of what consumers in OTT want, now on the back of data they are noticing what each consumer likes. While ZEE5 has an enormous library of originals alongside catch-up content from the network, it’s important to keep a track of what a consumer is liking to retain him on the platform.

    According to her, last year the trends they picked up was different consumer sets and consumer tastes rather than the genres. She also added that most of the platforms have gone beyond from this typical thing of genres.

    “More than clear genres emerging as viewers, clear consumer taste evolved as viewers because at ZEE5 we tried out everything. We didn’t go after one genre because very early on we realised that if you go after any one type of content then you will get only one type of people, who are watching that type of content at multiple different sources. So for me to widen my base I have to keep attracting people who like different things,” she added.

    She also explained how the business and content strategy collide.

    “If two taste clusters overlap then we will make something that both of you like. The most valuable customer for us is the one who likes multiple things. If you are very rigid you are important for me but you give me less value. The ARPU I get from you is less. Content strategy is derived from business strategy,” she added.

    One big driver for the platform this year will be taking forward successful shows into the next seasons while the trend has been already set with Rangbaaz Phirse. As in last two years, the platforms have already set a base, now it plans to capitalise on all the wins that it had in the earlier seasons.

    “It is more of an evolution, not a change,” she commented on ZEE5's content strategy for 2020.

  • Madras HC asks govt to allow national sporting events on Doordarshan’s OTT platform

    Madras HC asks govt to allow national sporting events on Doordarshan’s OTT platform

    MUMBAI: Demanding that change is the need of the hour and that every legislation should in terms with updated technologies, the Madras High Court on Monday questioned the government about the PIL seeking the approval to tweak sports broadcasting laws. The court has given the centre three months to decide on amendments that will allow Doordarshan to stream top sports events on its over-the-top (OTT) platform in addition to its DTH networks on a free-to-air basis.

    The change is likely to impact broadcasters even further who had raised objections in sharing their streams with the pubcaster. Currently, broadcasters such as Star India and Sony hold rights to exclusive online streaming of key sporting events and a change in the regulation can not only impact their viewership but also revenue.

    The High Court bench consisting of chief justice S P Sahi and justice Subramonium Prasad pronounced their verdict on a PIL filed by a Mumbai-based sound engineer Aditya Modi, who has requested the Sports Broadcasting Act to be amended to include OTT as a streaming medium apart from Doordarshan’s DTH and terrestrial networks.

    As quoted by Times Of India PIL petitioner Aditya Modi said, "In view of the obvious lacunae in the act, users/viewers, who do not have access to or use of such networks, are either unable to watch these sporting events of national importance or compelled to watch such sporting events on highly-priced sports channels, thwarting the very objective of the act."

    As per the counsel for the petitioner Karthik Seshadri said that Prasar Bharati does provide content on OTT platform on a free-to-air basis. However, due to the challenge faced by the non-inclusion of OTT platform in the law, Prasar Bharati is not able to stream sports events on its digital platform, thereby restricting Indian citizens to have direct access of such events.

    Adding further details he said, “Due to usage of smartphone coupled with the access of cheap internet data, especially in rural India, a person is able to keep abreast of ongoing events. One is also able view streaming device wherever he travels, and he can also stream any event on the streaming device with ease at any place. However, due to heavy subscription charges levied by the private OTT players, who have rights to broadcast for big sporting events, millions of citizens are deprived of such entertainment due to the embargo placed on Prasar Bharati by the legislature."

    Seshadri further argued that in order to enable millions of Indians to access live national sports events, Doordarshan should be allowed to re-transmit such events on its OTT platforms. 

  • OTT platforms should focus more on retention: VOOT’s Akash Banerji

    OTT platforms should focus more on retention: VOOT’s Akash Banerji

    MUMBAI: As more and more users are flocking to over-the-top (OTT) platforms, the contenders in the race are getting aggressive about acquiring new users. Viacom18’s digital arm VOOT has garnered 100 million monthly active users amid this fierce competition. The three-year-old streaming platform is, however, focusing more on retention of users, engagement on the platform and consumer life-time value (CLTV).

    In a media briefing, VOOT Advertising Video Platform (AVoD) business head Akash Banerji stated that the sharp focus on driving constant engagement and reach through partnerships, product and tech innovations, and content strategy has lead to the success. Along with reaching 100 million MAU target, the platform said it's first in terms of engagement (46 minutes) and frequency of visits according to App Annie data.

    Elaborating on the importance of customer retention, Banerji pointed out that 90 per cent of consumers who install an app on day one, do not use or install the app on day 30. He also added that digital video business is about driving habit like TV.

    Banerji who emphasised on good watch time also spoke of a different metric to pay attention to. “Watch-time still is the only story half-told. In this new era, the story is clearly going to be about what is driving CLTV. What is indeed driving the value I am getting out from a consumer versus the cost I am incurring to dish a certain piece of content on my platform. Till the timing I am driving higher CLTV, I am taking tangible steps to make profitability for my business,” he commented.

    After the media briefing we caught up with Banerji for a short chat to delve deeper into the platform’s strategy. Here are the edited excerpts from the interview:

    What are the challenges for consumer retention on platform? How does VOOT ensure that users keep using the platform?

    Retention happens at three levels -content, product experience and technology. A platform which has a rich roster of content that can at different points in time appeal to the varying and changing tastes of consumers has a much higher propensity to be able to retain consumer. Higher the chances a platform offering all your needs and hence a platform which has a massive catalogue of good quality content always in a much better position.

    Second comes experience. You have content but if you are unable to help the user to discover that content, your story is already gone. Now, if your content is there, discoverability is there, you are bombarding him with too many ads, consumer will be pissed. Experience is great, content is great, minimal ads are there but on your 3g phone it does not work, your app us not compatible with it or keeps on buffering, streaming is not great then also consumer will leave.

    So, across these three facets is what eventually drives retention- content, UI,UX, and third is the tech part.

    Across each of these three things, what we have built is good balance of reality shows, drama shows, big roster of content across languages, across audience segment. On UI, UX side we have launched a new version, a V3, refreshed app. At the backend, we are building our own-house expertise.

    What is your strategy to reach the target profitability?

    I think two things we need to do that- to look at each and every user segment, the value that I get from him, value basis the demand from advertisers to chase that audience and what is the content cost, marketing cost, streaming cost, product cost to service that user. If I can do this for one user, 100 users, 1 million, 100 million users, then I exactly know that each and every user at any given point in time is giving me as a value and what is the cost I am incurring to service him. If the cost is high, then I am okay to let go of that consumer. If the user is very very valuable then I will do anything to get him on that platform. The more I am able to drive value higher than my cost, then I can drive profit.

    What is the current ARPU of users on the platform?

    I am looking at CLTV as the whole foundation stone. From the marketing point of view, for marketing cost point of view, my CLTV is higher than marketing cost.

    What will be other key areas in 2020?

    We will keep focusing on driving more revenue, streamlining cost, partnerships, regional content. This year was about big high revenue, big milestone in user, watch time. The story for next year is about not just user and watch-time but all of it eventually leading to profitability where specific intervention on marketing, on product, ad sales are supposed to drive towards that.  

    How are you taking decisions of commissioning or licensing content?

    User is going to be at centre of this. Product, marketing, tech, content revolves around him. Either it can get me a lot of new users which are not there on my platform today or to my existing audiences it will drive higher views.

    Did you feel the heat of economic slowdown as brands cut down on their marketing spend?

    It has affected in a way that people have realised that this proportion of money spending on content and marketing for a sustainable period of time is not going to help the cause. What you need is a very clear focus on hardcore business metrics. And hence I feel the debate is going to be about retention as opposed to acquisition.

  • Aim to make product smarter, broader, deeper in 2020: ZEE5’s Rajneel Kumar

    Aim to make product smarter, broader, deeper in 2020: ZEE5’s Rajneel Kumar

    MUMBAI: A large numbers of Indians enjoy OTT experience across locations, languages, devices at any convenient time nowadays. Consumers as well as the industry players mostly talk about content but what goes on behind the seamless experience often goes unnoticed. From hyperpersonalisation to recommendation, consumer data platform, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (ZEEL)’s digital arm ZEE5 has undertaken a number of innovations in technical segment along with content in 2019. In 2020, the platform, which boasts of 8.9 milion daily active users, aims to make the product smarter, broader, deeper.

    ZEE5 business head-expansion projects and head of product Rajneel Kumar took us through the back-end journey of the streaming platform during a candid conversation recently. In a freewheeling chat, he shared ZEE5’s innovations in 2019 and outlook for 2020.

    In three words he summed up his aim in the product side for the year 2020 – smarter, broader, deeper. When he said smarter, Kumar meant it is about how they create products which are more intuitive for the users and constantly keeps evolving. By the term broader he meant how the platform can serve wider cross-section of the consumers in the country ranging from high-end smart TV users to low-end handset users. Making the product deeper is about creating an engaging experience on the platform to be able to give more to the consumer very conveniently across various needs.

    “2019 was a very active year for us in trying to take our product significantly ahead of what we started off with and where we wanted to end with it. There are couple of areas in which we specifically focused on where we partnered with various organizations and with a lot of them we have seen the results come already and with some of them the results are still to come out but they will be out in 2020 with all the work we have done,” Kumar stated.

    The platform is extensively focusing on hyper-personalization which starts with a combination of a bunch of various heads including recommendation. Last year, ZEE5 worked with an Israeli company called Talamoos in the segment and that resulted in a massive uplift of content consumption of each user. Kumar added that recommendation is a journey that keeps improving not only on the content side but also on the experience side. In 2020, on the hyperpersonalisation side, the company is looking at customising the whole experience of the user as far as his entire journey on the application is concerned. While content is one part of it, navigation is the other part of it, notification and communication to him is another part of it.

    “The second part that we focused on getting a CDP in place which is a consumer data platform which becomes the heart and soul on which you start to do all segmentation and build out various clusters of consumers you can target for both communication and up selling so well and so forth. That’s when we worked with a company called Optimove. We rolled out a CDP which has been great at creating both consumers insights and taking action on it as far as communication to the users are concerned,” he said.

    ZEE5 also paid high attention in the previous year on how to give great playback experience to users. The company has come out with a progressive web app (PWA) which has a new interface, a new player, certain features and sections which were not available earlier. On the playback part of it, the platform worked with a foreign company Kaltura. Kumar claims to see good traction and results coming out from PWA implementation.

    While a lot of premium users now have started to consume content on large screen devices, ZEE5 worked highly last year on making living room experience better. They worked with large cross-section of manufacturers and operating system owners.  As people started to buy smart TVs back in 2015, the consumers who had brought it then face the challenge of support for the operating systems that were launched then. Hence, ZEE5 dedicated its focus on making its presence on these devices on being backward compatible to cover a broad spectrum of users.

    According to Kumar, the fundamentals of a great consumer experience first start with discoverability as the consumer present on the platform wants to discover content. To improve discoverability, ZEE5 has several heads under it including UI, UX. For better recommendation, the platform also looks at how consumers discover the launch of content and how they navigate through it.

    “Another part is recommendation. When I come to the platform how do I come to the content which is more relevant to me, which is where a lot work is done, in not only learning the users past behaviour but also looking at his persona and people like him and being able to see if he has watched this content and somebody else has watched other content, and what is it the most likely  he is also able to watch, not only his behaviour but also behaviour of the segments which is there,” he added.

    “The second part of it is how do I make it seamless for him across the platform and we do a significant amount of work on the player by itself. That's why we have gone from a refresh from the earlier player to a new player,” Kumar pointed out.

    For better consumer experience, ZEE5  is also focusing on handling languages. “We have 12 languages. So, when a user comes you are not forcing him to communicate in a non-native language which is where we give him the option right away to a native language of his choice and start his journey which helps him in navigation and looking at the content and leading more about the content which he needs,” he added.

    ZEE5 being a large multi-lingual OTT platform it cannot be focused on only the youth segment, Kumar added. From the very onset, ZEE5’s focus has been to be inclusive of the whole platform which includes people who are not that digitally native.

    “We focus on how do we make it easy to navigate in their choice of language. Number two, we have worked on voice search and being able to discover content purely using your voice. Number three, by being able to handle all types of handsets. Not only the higher-end handsets but also lower-end handsets, handsets which are not necessarily IOS, Android but KaiOS,” he added.

    Kumar predicted smarter use of AI and ML for the OTT segment in 2020. According to him, key trends in the industry in the tech segment will be how OTT platforms make an easier user experience, easier  payment journeys, grow the user base using AI and ML. 

  • Regional Music Consumption Hit A 3-Year High in 2019

    Regional Music Consumption Hit A 3-Year High in 2019

    Mumbai: India's No.1 music streaming app, Gaana’s annual report on the country’s music consumption trends registered an unprecedented demand for regional music. This genre accounted for more than 1 Bn music streams in Dec 2019, registering an incredible (8X) growth in the past 2.5 years – making regional music the most vibrant and potent genre in the country’s audio OTT market.  

    Currently regional music accounts for more than 35% OTT music consumption, with more than half of all users of regional music coming from smaller cities. Given the rising popularity of Punjabi, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam music across the country, the country’s audio OTT market is expected to grow to 600 million users in the next 3 years, buoyed by the surging interest in regional music consumption. Gaana Originals, Gaana’s initiative to promote regional non-film music also saw a sharp jump and now contributes more than 100 MN streams per month. The most notable song amongst the Gaana Originals was Lehanga by Jas Manak that topped all charts in 2019 and crossed 115 Mn streams on Gaana.  

    Commenting on the year gone by, Gaana CEO Prashan Agarwal said: “2019 was a landmark year for music lovers, artists and the industry in more ways than one. The meteoric rise in regional music consumption across the nation marks one of the biggest cultural shifts in perception of music in the past decade. As established and emerging musical artists across the country realised the growing importance of music streaming apps to reach their fans at scale in their own language, our primarily young music streaming population are embracing their respective cultures and are ‘going back to their roots’. It's no longer ‘uncool’ to groove to music from your own region or culture, it's rather the ‘in’ thing to have a playlist featuring music in multiple languages. At Gaana, we are humbled to be at the centre of this vibrant blend of cultures, powering these musical connections that celebrates our country’s unity and diversity.”