ITV

Tag: OTT

  • Esports, streaming wars, shopvertising to dominate digital media trends in 2020

    Esports, streaming wars, shopvertising to dominate digital media trends in 2020

    MUMBAI: Technology will continue to disrupt and reshape the digital media industry in 2020, presenting new opportunities and challenges for advertisers and media owners. While digital media will continue to grow globally, the coming of new technologies, platforms and digital touch points will force marketers to readapt their skills, engagement models and measurement capabilities to meaningfully engage with consumers in a cluttered media market.

    This emerging digital paradox – the co-existence of growth and expansion potential in digital media alongside the deluge of digital touch-points which will make it more difficult to connect with consumers – is the focus of the Kantar’s global 2020 Media Trends and Predictions report. In this fast-changing digital media landscape, marketers will also need to navigate the ‘data dilemma,’ to meet consumer demand for relevant, personalised content. And as third-party cookies start to crumble, advertisers will need to find alternative measurement solutions, the report says.

    The curse of the plenty? Streaming wars to continue in 2020

    Nowhere is the deluge of digital touch points more visible than in the crowded OTT space. Considered a niche space with limited players just a few years ago, there are now dozens of big OTT players in every OTT market in the world now. 2019 also saw the entry of Apple TV + and Disney + to the club whereas HBO Max and Warner Media are also getting in action.  

    This increased competition for customer retention and acquiring new customers may seem healthy, providing more choices to consumers, but subscripting fatigue can lead to industry consolidation, the report predicts.

    The report quotes TGI Global Quick View Data to show that 44 per cent of connected consumers in Great Britain who pay for online streaming services have at least two subscriptions, 18 per cent pay for at least three, and seven per cent pay for four or more. This means that entry for new subscription-based services might not be easy.

    “Consumers will continue to use advertiser-funded and subscription-based services, but the ever-increasing amount of available content and platforms will lead to a paradox of choice; more is not always better,” the report says, adding that content will be key to stand out in this crowded OTT market.

    Esports: The next frontier of expansion

    Originally, a hobby for teenagers, esports has now gone truly mainstream. Esports is huge. Over 1.2 million people claim to watch esports in Great Britain alone, according to the TGI survey. In Brazil, nearly one third (32 per cent) of internet users, around 30 million people, say they are active esports fans. This growth is also reflected in the increase in the number of minutes streamed on Twitch, the leading esports platform. Twitch usage totalled 292 billion minutes in 2016 and is expected to reach 600 billion by the end of 2019.

    Global brands like Gillett, Mastercard, Dell, Coca Cola, Toyota, Intel, Nike are already sponsors of esports tournaments.

    The report predicts that as esports tournaments gain more mainstream prominence in 2020, they will present lucrative opportunities for the media owners and advertisers who are ready to capitalise on them.

    2020 will also see more traditional sports move into esports: for instance, football clubs establishing their own esports teams, and Formula One streamed
    over Twitch with gamification.

    And as coverage of esports expands into traditional media, the report predicts, esports players will become well-known celebrities and influencers in their own right.  

    Shopvertising: When shopping meets advertising on digital media

    Content meets commerce in Western markets with shoppable ads on Snap and Amazon, Google, Pinterest ‘shop the look’ ads, and Facebook’s dynamic ads. Brands globally are flocking to formats like Instagram’s shoppable posts.

    Even on TikTok, the ByteDance-owned short-form video platform popular for lip-syncing clips and user-generated challenges, video ads redirect to microsites where people can shop.

    The report also talks about a new frontier of shoppable TV. South Korea's LG is enhancing TV sets with shoppable Augmented Reality (AR) in home shopping shows.

    The report predicts that with the rise of social commerce, direct commerce revenues could boost ad revenues for online media owners and more media channels will experiment with their versions of shoppable ads.

    The experimentation with shoppable formats in digital and traditional media will speed up this year, the report adds.

  • Jiocinema to bring Sun NXT’s South Indian blockbuster catalogue to Jio users

    Jiocinema to bring Sun NXT’s South Indian blockbuster catalogue to Jio users

    MUMBAI: JioCinema, the on-demand video platform yet again surprises millions of Jio users, especially the South Indian Movie Buffs!

    In association with Sun NXT, the online video streaming platform from Sun TV Network, JioCinema will present the best of south Indian movie catalogue to Jio users across the country.

    JioCinema will host all the movies available on the SUN NXT platform across 4 South Indian languages viz: Tamil, Telugu, Kannada & Malayalam.Fans will have access to an unbeatable catalogue of over 4,000 South Indian movies from Sun NXT’s library. South Indian movie buffs can explore this extra strong entertainment in a highly optimized and world-class video streaming experience offered by JioCinema.

    Jio users have exclusive access to JioCinema and can be a part of JioCinema’s “Super South Swag” with their favourite stars Thalaivar Rajnikanth, Ilayathalapathy Vijay, Allu Arjun, Thala Ajith Kumar, Mammootty, Mahesh Babu and many more.The unbeatable catalogue of South Stars from Tollywood, Kollywood, Sandalwood & Mollywood can be enjoyed on the mobile app or the website.

    JioCinema is known for its wide ranging and versatile on-demand video experiences, including exclusive original videos across genres and vernacular languages. Sun NXT is the top destination for the biggest blockbusters from south Indian studios and hosts the latest and most popular TV content from the southern region. The association between the two digital platforms will help deliver the best of south Indian video content to the south Indian movie fans on Jio.

    JioCinema already has the widest content including 10,000+ Movies, 1 Lakh+ TV Show Episodes & Originals. And now, with the movie catalogue of SunNXT, it becomes the first choice of the users to enjoy unlimited South Indian Blockbusters.

  • Continuously launching content targeted at different taste clusters ensures good retention: ZEE5’s Aparna Acharekar

    Continuously launching content targeted at different taste clusters ensures good retention: ZEE5’s Aparna Acharekar

    MUMBAI: Among the home-grown over-the-top platforms, ZEE5 has shown most aggression in creating its original content library. As a part of its content strategy for the upcoming year, franchises will play a key role along with a line-up of nearly 20 original films.

    “We’ve lined-up enough shows till March 20-21 with backup shows too. This 20-21 is going to be huge. If 19-20 was big then 20-21 is going to be bigger and I don’t know how 21 -22 will be,” ZEE5 India programming head Aparna Acharekar shares ecstatically.

    The OTT platform plans to focus on its franchise shows. “Franchise will be key to content strategy. So, some of our successful shows from 18-19 and 19-20 will go into new seasons. Some new shows will be introduced as now we have acquired newer taste clusters and new audiences. Every month we will have series, films and regional content launch. This is in addition to all the commercial movie acquisitions,” she adds further.

    Sharing her understanding of the Indian audience, she notes that the platform looks at audiences from the point of view of taste clusters rather than classifying them demographically. According to her, it’s not really about one type of content and audience is not behind one genre. There are shows which do well across age groups and cities. Moreover, she also mentions that tastes also evolve over a period of time. According to her, people are happy to sample all sorts of genres.

    “OTT is now maturing. It’s really now not so early for us but the Indian consumer is happy to pay for content. The Indian consumer wants good engaging content so all the fear we always had around whether the Indian consumer will pay or is it only free audience, I think that is over. The industry need not worry about it anymore as Indian consumers are happy to pay for good content. He is value-conscious but at the same time if there is enough interesting content for him he is happy to take a long term subscription also,” she says.

    According to her, from a consumer retention point of view, consistent releases and a good line up for all sorts of taste clusters is very important. “Continuously launching content targeted at different taste clusters ensure that there is good retention on a platform and then, of course, the complete convenience, the experience of making payment easy is also important,” she adds.

    Re-emphasising the regional boom in OTT, she said that regional audiences give healthy responses to OTT.  They not only consume content of their language but also happily adopt content dubbed in their language.

    “We have seen very good adoption of ZEE5 because we also give consumers an option to change the display language of the app. So if somebody is not comfortable navigating in English, he can change the display language to Hindi, Tamil or Telugu or any of the 12 different Indian languages we offer and we have seen a great uptake for that also. In fact, with every passing month, we see more uptake of this and the relative share of English as a display language going down,” she adds.

    The challenge of finding good scripts and writers is still there. There are good content makers but it is difficult to learn the art of the writing for the medium. Writing for a 400-minute series is like a two-hour-long movie. Additionally, every episode needs to be engaging.

  • ZEE5 ups engagement level with gamification feature for fiction TV shows

    ZEE5 ups engagement level with gamification feature for fiction TV shows

    MUMBAI: Gamification is gradually taking up more space in different areas of digital entertainment but it has pertained to largely sports content or non-fiction shows in India. Taking it one step ahead, ZEE5 recently announced the launch of ZEE5 Super Family (ZSF) to provide consumers with a gaming experience for fiction TV shows as well. However, currently, the experience will be limited to Zee TV shows.

    “We believe in the power of gamification as from a consumer perspective it helps drive engagement. And so far on our own platform we have done gamification for non-fiction shows and you would have heard gamification happening across other mediums also for non fictions shows. Zee Super Family League is a very innovative concept,” ZEE5 India head AVOD, SEO, news and stories Yogesh Manwani said.

    “The viewers have a deep relationship with these TV characters and ZSF helps them express this fan love and take it to the next level in a fun and engaging manner. So it’s an attempt for us and we are very proud of the product as it is turning out,” he added.

    ZSF will allow viewers to take a pick of their favourite on-screen characters across TV shows and curate their own Super Family. With roles such as saas, bahu, beta, dost, etc., to fill in, players can place bets on how the chosen characters will act out in the day’s TV episode and stand to win gratifications such as a car, smartphones, gift vouchers and ZEE5 subscriptions in case their predictions come true.

    “We have been doing gamification on the platform for shows like Dadagiri, DID, Movie Masti with Maniesh Paul. Consumers like to engage and interact with these kind of solutions because it also is in a way an extension of the show property. We have seen some great numbers in terms of reach and our page views. Basis that we got encouraged and thought we should amplify our game application and ZSL is an attempt in that direction,” Manwani noted.

    ZSF will include detailed easy-to-understand video tutorials that will assist viewers in playing the game and excel it to earn higher scores. The game also allows viewers to modify their family characters to improve scores and move ahead in the game. ZEE5 will be conducting an intriguing marketing campaign involving artists to encourage viewers participation and gratify first 50 viewers who submit their families with bonus prizes.

    Although the platform has designed the concept and the product keeping only the consumer in mind, the property allows advertisers to come on board also and reach out to their audience.

  • Reimagining SonyLIV: the story begins

    Reimagining SonyLIV: the story begins

    MUMBAI: Way before international streaming giants entered the Indian over-the-top (OTT) market, Indian broadcast networks had already rolled out their digital offerings. Sony Pictures Networks India's (SPNI) digital arm SonyLIV – one of the early-movers in the “streaming race”, is now undergoing transformation under a new leadership team. While its business has largely been driven by advertising revenues and catalogue offerings till now, the streamer is all set to increase its focus on subscription and original content.

    Led by digital veteran Uday Sodhi for around half a decade, SPNI rejigged its team, plonking in old-time SPNI executive Danish Khan to lead it, adding to his responsibilities as business head of its leading GEC Sony Entertainment Television. Khan roped in the A-Team that works with him at SET, Ashish Golwalkar and Aman Srivastava, to also help him revitalise SonyLIV. Golwalkar, the content head at SET will now help build the streamers slate, while Srivastava, who steered the rebranding and positioning of SET, will also have the digital business marketing title on his visiting card. Amogh Dusad as head – programming and new initiatives, digital business has been given the mandate of strategic planning, operations, viewership management and analytics for SonyLIV.

    Golwalkar says his experience at SET will help him steer the streamer’s content play well. “As we jokingly say that on SET, in any case, we make digital content. The digital traction of SET is very good because as a channel we are largely urban. We are focussed on metros and newer metros and the urban markets and digital growth is also happening here which very nicely coincides,” he says with a twinkle in his eye. “In terms of learning, of course, it is a different medium. So we will have to evaluate the content basis that.”

    “However, there are certain inherent aspects that we have as a network in terms of the ethos of content and the kind of people we talk to. I think we will take a lot of synergies from that piece and we will navigate those people who are already there on the network and look after how we navigate them to our own digital platform as opposed to them straying to some other OTT platforms. I think that’s going to be a challenge but I think we’ll do it,” he adds.

    Golwalkar confesses that for any streamer the real traction for subscription is driven by premium sports or premium content and SonyLIV is going to play both. As the network already has premium sports properties, the major focus will be on originals for the next few months.  “Anyway, we did not have any significant original content play before this,” he says.

    In terms of language, Hindi and English are going to be important languages, followed by Marathi and Bangla as SPNI already has linear television channels in those markets. The platform will also consider some of the south languages also.

    “We already have Sony Pictures Television content, some of it is with other OTT platforms. So we will see how we can attract more studios and international content to SonyLIV, the talks are on. These relationships with the international studios are forged over many years. Some of the relationships we already have and some of them we intend to kind of build,” he comments on English content portfolio.

    “We have just started SVOD last year. We started the relationship with Lionsgate which gives us almost 400-500 hours of content. Some of the bigger shows from their slate include Power, Anger Management, Sweetbitter. We strengthened our Hollywood offering with SPT content also. We believe that there is an audience for English content also. It has just been six to eight months into the journey.  I think we will continue to push and strengthen Hollywood offering,“ comments Amogh Dusad, another key person in the transformation.

    “We are looking at the entire piece like a strong SVOD service coming and the idea is to be in touch with the consumers whether online or offline or on any social media or the basic consumptions on the app to ensure that what we show on the app  is in sync with his /her taste and preferences. And a lot of work is going to happen in the next two months,” Dusad adds.

    The reason for the SVOD shift: with higher investment in originals and acquisition of premium TV content, reliance on just ad revenues is proving a challenge for Indian streamers. The subscription curve is growing at a faster clip than the ad revenue one, although the Indian market is going to remain an ad-led one as per experts. A recent KPMG report projects subscription revenue from OTT platforms to grow to Rs 22 billion in FY20 and Rs 62 billion by FY23.

    “The insights tell you what are the triggers that get a person to start sampling the product and what is it that keeps the person as well. So what it helps especially for us is to design the consumer experience around that,” explains Srivastava. “So, one is an experience which is on the app, the other is the interaction with the brand outside the product as well. We will also have to work on is where do you get the consumers as insights will play a role where you find a like-minded set of audiences. All of these help in defining the consumer journey – some of who are on the platform, some of who are not on the platform and some who are not even aware of the platform. So we are going to work around all three sets of people using all kind of insights we get on or outside the platform.”

    Is pricing going to stay put or will a new package be drawn up?

    “Everything is up for change. As all were saying, all businesses go through a transformation, so SonyLIV, the digital business in SPN, is going through one such transformation and everything is up for discussion. What we are very sure is that we are going to shift the focus more towards subscription, currently, a large bulk of it is ad revenue. It’s a no-brainer that if anyone wants to have a play in this, we will have to drive subscription,” Golwalkar sums up.

  • The Q India hopes to cross 75 million Pay TV households, plans to launch regional version in 2020

    The Q India hopes to cross 75 million Pay TV households, plans to launch regional version in 2020

    MUMBAI: Even as most new media entrepreneurs are going the digital way, The Q India is taking a different approach. The Q India’s first focus is traditional pay TV where it feels this audience is still underserved.

    As the completely owned subsidiary of QYOU Media, the channel has been targeting the Hindi speaking audience in the age group of 20-30 years. To address this need gap, not only has it ramped up distribution but is also going to extend the channel with regional languages by 2020.

    The Q India co-founder, MD and Locomotive Global Inc (LGI) co-founder and partner Sunder Aaron in an interaction with Indiantelevision.com’s Gargi Sarkar spoke on the network’s content strategy, expansion plans outside India and future goals.

    Edited excerpts:

    Please elaborate on The Q India’s content strategy and partnership deals.

    The Q India was launched a couple years ago, and has become a fully Hindi language channel in the course of the past year. The content strategy is simple: we want to work with the best digital content creators in India who are also social media stars and media influencers, and create a channel that is relevant for young Indians. We've fashioned the channel to appeal directly to Hindi-speaking young Indians, 20-30 years old, who, we feel, are under-served in the Indian pay TV landscape. Of course, The Q India is available across platforms. So while pay TV is our immediate focus, we are also widely distributed on OTT and mobile platforms. These digital platforms are of vital importance to us, and will only grow in value and primacy over time. It may take a few years, so until that time, we are going to make sure that the linear TV channel continues to grow and improve. Since the channel is a Hindi language general entertainment channel, we apply to our FPC some basic principles for programming broadcast channels. As we get more and more info and data about our audience and their viewership patterns, we are able to tweak and refine the programming offering and schedule. We've seen rapid growth in our audience and viewership over the past year, so we seem to be doing something right! 

    We have a number of partnerships with leading distribution platforms including Tata Sky and Airtel Digital for Pay TV, and MX Player, Zee 5, Sony LIV, Dish Watcho, and Jio for mobile and OTT. 

    We have got terrific content partnerships as well, including with Pocket Aces, Culture Machine, Miss Malini, Nirvana Digital, Arre, Spot Boye and AajTak, to name a few. 

    What is the target audience you are looking at?

    Young Indians, 20-30 years old. While our flagship channel, The Q India, is Hindi language, we are aiming to launch regional versions of The Q starting in 2020. 

    What do you want to achieve by the end of 2019?

    We have started distribution of The Q with cable operators, so we hope to cross a reach of 75 million pay TV households as we enter the new year. We have just started our ad sales efforts in earnest, so would also love to start adding some blue chip advertising partners going into 2020. Of course, our expectations and objectives for 2020 are expansive, so finishing 2019 on a high note will give us the platform we need from which we can really take off as a business and brand!

    Are you looking at expanding The Q India outside India?

    Yes, in fact, our strategy in India for The Q is the same approach that we expect to take as we enter other Asian and European markets. We have been eying local versions of The Q in Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam as well as Germany and the United Kingdom. 

    You have partnered with a few OTT platforms. What has been the content consumption trend from the feedback you received from the platforms?

    We are still newly-launched on most of our partners' OTT platforms. The early feedback has been positive, and it's clear that we are a good fit, since we share the same target audience as our OTT platform partners.

    What are the major challenges right now is the ecosystem which may impact you as well?

    It would be great to have an independent ratings service (equivalent to BARC for TV) for digital viewership. Once we have a trusted currency for this space, it will help really grow the market adoption of advertising on digital platforms. While digital advertising continues to grow every year, it's still dominated by Facebook and Google. It will be a challenge but a big step forward when agencies, advertisers and companies begin to widen and diversify their media plans. 

    The economy has also been a challenge for advertising-supported businesses. While India is generally fine, the market has been a little slower and festive period less robust than expected. While all the signs seem to indicate that the summer will see a more robust market, we will have to wait and see. 

    Meanwhile, marketing costs continue to be high. It's difficult and costly to build a brand in India (especially in the metros). We expect to start investing more resources into brand building and activations (e.g. Q FEST) so that The Q will grow and expand across India's young people. Fortunately, we own a television channel ourselves, which is the best possible vehicle to rely upon to create profile and familiarity for a new brand! 

  • VOOT garners 7.5 billion minutes of watchtime in October

    VOOT garners 7.5 billion minutes of watchtime in October

    MUMBAI: In a world where loyalty is a diminishing commodity, Viacom18’s Advertising video-on-demand (AVOD) platform VOOT has emerged as the most preferred premium OTT service with a fiercely loyal fanbase of 80 million Monthly Active Users (across multiple platforms ), and a phenomenal 65 per cent growth in watch-time month on month.

    With 7.5 billion minutes of watch-time (as per the latest third-party source App Annie, Oct ’19) on the app, VOOT’s watch-time is more than the combined watch-time of its nearest AVOD competitors. Not just that, as per the report, the platform engagement of VOOT at 29% (as measured by the average Daily Active Users to Monthly Active Users ratio) and time spent of 50 mins per day per user makes it the No. 1 premium AVOD platform in the OTT category on engagement. This shows that when it comes to brand love & viewer loyalty, viewers in India have made a clear choice.

     “Driving consistent engagement is the holy grail that we all at VOOT constantly focus on. And our fundamental belief is that in this age, businesses need to converge data and technology with impeccable storytelling to drive consumer engagement – and do it every single time – to earn, not buy, loyalty. Everything else is noise. And our persistence and single-minded focus on driving this ambition has created a unique and a superlative experience for our consumers on our platform. The massive 7.5 billion minutes of watch-time on app last month is a testimony to the success of this belief and is sure to help establish a long-lasting relationship with the audiences.” VOOT AVOD business head Akash Banerji said.

    The stupendous growth in the scale of this loyalty has come on the back of Voot’s consistent focus on offering a massive depth of premium content across genres, languages, formats and content duration.  Vernacular content in particular has played a pivotal role in driving this massive growth, growing at more than 2X over last year and contributing close to one-fourth of total consumption on the platform.

     Driving share of attention on the back of blockbuster reality content has always been VOOT’s forte and Bigg Boss this year, across languages, has packed an even bigger punch. The latest season of Colors’ Bigg Boss Hindi on VOOT that offers a plethora of interactivity features, first time a live magazine show right from the studios  and a massive roster of exclusive not-seen-on TV content, has led to the creation of a strong & loyal  ‘Asli Fan’ base on VOOT. The show with a nearly 1 billion views, has become the biggest digital entertainment property, India has ever seen.

    It is this reach and loyalty that has ensured that advertisers have made VOOT an integral part of their outreach and engagement plan.  Enhanced and immersive user experiences and continued audience patronage is driving VOOT towards new echelons of growth.

  • The secret sauce behind long-running Hindi GEC shows

    The secret sauce behind long-running Hindi GEC shows

    MUMBAI: India has a history of long-running soap operas right from Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi to latest ones like Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai and Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashma. In the urban market, both the shows continue to remain in the top five programming list of BARC India in primetime slots.

    How is it that these shows are continuing to thrive in the era of seasonal content and high impact limited episode show on OTT platforms?

    The prime reason for their high attraction is the ability to reinvent and stay relevant. A decade ago, when these shows launched, there were no signs of OTT platforms. As the shows progressed, the creators kept changing the plotlines to suit the evolving tastes of the audiences.

    One key reinvention strategy that has kept Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai on top of the ratings charts is its youth appeal. 
    “We wanted to show Kartik and Niara as real couples and be connected to the reality of life. This was the most calculated risk that I took as a maker. We did not want to sugarcoat reality and keep them perfect. They make mistakes and learn from them and that’s what the audiences like. Imperfection is the new mantra that resonates well with them,” explains Director's Kut Production founder Rajan Shahi.

    Zee TV business head Aparna Bhosle explains that long-running shows are the hallmark of a creative team that truly understands their channel’s audience and tells them stories that hold their attention over a sustained period of time. 

    “Having properties on air that people want to keep coming back to is crucial to any broadcaster as it is this viewer behaviour that defines brand loyalty," she says.

    Sony SAB business head Neeraj Vyas points out that character affinity is one of the key reasons for the popularity of Taarak Mehta. "People watch television not because of the shows, but because of the characters. The characters’ action, relatability and empathy are what drive viewership.”

    Long-running shows also increase the  confidence of advertisers in the show. "Advertisers are interested in reaching out to the largest demographics through our platforms and long-running shows with a dedicated viewership serve this purpose most effectively and hence command a premium," says Bhosle.

    Apart from Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai and Taarak Mehta Kaa Ooltah Chashma, Zee TV's longest-running show Kumkum Bhagya has crossed 1500 episodes. "Kumkum Bhagya is one of our longest-running shows in the current context. Ever since the show launched in 2014, it has consistently found its place amongst the top five fiction shows across GECs week-on-week," says Bhosle.

    Vyas adds that the new TV channel pricing regime on account of the New Tariff Order (NTO)  has made it essential for channels to have marquee shows with a loyal audience base. Unfortunately, it’s difficult to do that today. The earlier shows are still surviving because they were launched when appointment viewing was the norm and OTT did not exist.

    Shahi concurs  with Vyas on OTT posing challenges. But Star India’s OTT platform Hotstar is aiding the growth of Yeh Rishta. “On Hotstar as well as TV, the show is highly rated. Keen audiences can watch the show early in the morning at 7 am on Hotstar while primetime viewers catch up at night with the family on TV,” he explains.

    Another key aspect has been to keep the production team consistent. Shahi says, "Yeh RishtaKya Kehlata Hai is a success for the entire television industry. In this chaotic and unstable market, keeping the team together and getting the show to stay on course for years is an achievement. Our teamhas 90 per cent of the same unit today since the show was launched. My biggest achievement is to have people who would team up for such a long-running show. Over the 11 years, they have been through phases of setbacks and achievements so to keep up the spirit and morale of the team is a challenge."

    With multiple choices available, producers have a hard task to keep shows running. To compete with shows on OTT, TV shows need to understand changing trends and adapt quickly.
    About the future, Bhosle says it’s not about a show being finite or infinite shows that will determine success. “It is a story that touches a chord, a character that grows on you or that palpable chemistry between two endearing characters that make people return to watch more,” she says.
     

  • Q India launches on MX Player

    Q India launches on MX Player

    MUMBAI: QYOU Media on Friday announced the launch of Q India on MX Player, one of the fastest growing OTT platforms in India and the world.  MX Player currently has over 175M monthly average users in India alone and features a vast array of content targeting the millennial India demographic. This marks another significant milestone for Q India as it continues to grow its base of ad supported distribution partnerships. 

    MX Player launched its OTT service formally in February of 2019 and has quickly become the second largest streaming platform in India.  Digital TV Research has cited that India will be the fastest growing OTT territory in the world from 2019 – 2024.  In addition, ad revenue in India is expected to realize similar rapid growth according to recent reports from WPP/GroupM that project India ad spend growing at a rate of 14.3% annually as compared to a global average of 3.6%.

    Q India has established itself as a leading Hindi language channel for Young India featuring India’s top digital creators and influencers.  Q India's content partners include Arre, Pocket Aces, Ms. Malini, SpotboyE, Culture Machine, Power Drift, UngliBaaz, AajTak, Nirvana Digital, StarTruck, CurlyTales and hundreds of other popular digital creators.

    “Q India is perfectly matched for the users of MX Player," MX Player CEO Karan Bedi said. "Our mission is to create India’s leading entertainment platform for millennials and young audiences that demand an anytime/anywhere viewing platform.  We are excited to have Q India join our offering of the best free entertainment on one platform,” he added.

    “The Q India is thrilled by the partnership we have now forged with MX Player, which is emblematic of our strategy: to engage with Young India on leading platforms, across OTT, mobile and television. We expect that The Q India relationship with MX Player will be long and fruitful, and that The Q itself will be a terrific value addition for all the MX Player subscribers,”  Q India  co-founder and general manager  Sunder Aaron added.

  • ALTBalaji looks at sachet pricing model to more than double the ARPU

    ALTBalaji looks at sachet pricing model to more than double the ARPU

    MUMBAI: The ongoing streaming war across the world has seen OTT platforms investing aggressively in original content with high cash burn. But ALTBalaji, the digital venture of Ekta Kapoor-led Balaji Telefilms, is not taking the same path. With conservative rational investment, the company has seen a profit before tax level breakeven in the last quarter and is keeping a hawk-eye at achieving break-even targets before launching the second phase of its strategy possibly after two years using rich analytics data.

    “We are focused on our breakeven targets, which we will achieve and therefore we are right-sizing our business to this. We are not a bottomless hole where you have to keep showing widening losses and keep acquiring consumers. We do not believe in this philosophy at this stage. We first want to have the proof of the pudding, we want to break even and then use our rich analytics data to launch phase two of our strategy possibly two years from now,” Balaji Telefilms management said in an earnings call after the Q2 2020 results.

    Under phase two of planning, ALTBalaji is looking at producing enough hit content to be able to ‘sachetize’ its pricing two years from now. The company thinks if it can sell content at Rs 2 per day, its ARPU can rise up to Rs 730 a year, which currently stands at Rs 300 a year.

    To enter the next step, the company thinks it has to be able to cater to two major target groups – the under-served male viewing audience, which lacks good quality TV shows, and individual female audience of the age group 20 to 40. Hence, it will look at developing a significant library there.

    “Thirdly, we will have the richest data in terms of numbers and analytics and we need to build an efficient recommendation engine two years from now to be able to optimise retention. Right now, because of the massive inflow of new Internet users, retention is not a top priority also. We do not have more than 42 shows. Once we reach 100 shows, taking a recommendation engine, investing in more AI and ML to ensure that retention happens will bring down the cost of consumer acquisition and retention considerably,” the management said.

    Moreover, the company will also evaluate one single regional language to go into as it learning has led to the belief that sporadically launching single shows in languages cannot attract the audience. Hence, the platform will explore a business plan of launching it in one of the south languages.

    “The ZEE deal understanding is that we shift from a multi-partner system to a kind of pay-based single partner system. We are also kind of exiting the telco environment to partner with the broadcast environment. As part of our strategy, in our first two years, we had to use the widespread telco environment because we had a smaller library, which was growing every month but it still was small,”  the management said on the rationale of its recent deal with homegrown OTT giant ZEE5.

    The other reason for telco partnership was the high cost of consumer acquisition and marketing. "Now, we feel we are in phase two of our business where we will go with single-partner models. In two or three years, we will also be able to have enough library and add enough data to be able to acquire consumers efficiently,” it added.

    However, the company is confident about achieving breakeven between 36 – 48 months of launching ALTBalaji while cash breakeven has already been achieved. After seeing a PBT level breakeven in the last quarter, the company hopes it will be improved in the Q3 and Q4 because of the ZEE deal. The management thinks that being a debt-free Rs 250 crore plus  cash company, it is positioned much better than many debt-ridden companies. Moreover, having a library of 48 original shows, it has a significant lead to drive it going forward.