Mumbai: US based end-to-end streaming and OTT (over-the-top) solutions provider ViewLift has announced the elevation of Shraddha Pednekar to CXO (chief experience officer) and Sujith Vellat to CTO (chief technology officer).
The announcement comes as ViewLift, an enabler of regional focused OTT platforms like Hoichoi, Oho Gujarati, Kachaa Lannka, looks to further expand its operations in India and the subcontinent.
“The talent that ViewLift is looking to recruit in India, will support increasing the B2B presence on separate OTT platforms,” said the statement. “Those additional teams will be tasked with developing ViewLift’s long-term capabilities, with its strong leadership at the helm.”
“Having experience of operating in the Indian and global markets, both Shraddha and Sujith will be instrumental for ViewLift as we continue with our market expansion,” said ViewLift co-founder and president Manik Bambha. “Since Shraddha and Sujith joined the team, we have seen the direct impact of their dedication to our customers and to improving our product offerings constantly. We have exceptional talent in these two, and we are eager to watch them flourish in their new roles.”
Shraddha Pednekar will be responsible for global project delivery and client engagement and satisfaction, as well as help to strengthen ViewLift’s end-to-end product development based on ongoing client experience.
As CTO at ViewLift, Vellat will be responsible for guiding the continued development and innovation of the company’s end-to-end streaming and OTT platform, enabling customers with advanced monetization, real-time analytics, growth tools and significantly reduced time to market.
ViewLift has a presence in multiple locations across the US, Europe and India. Its clientele is spread across media and entertainment, sports and broadcasting.
Mumbai: With 53 over-the-top platforms (OTT) offering video, music, gaming and news content in India, regional and niche OTT platforms are veering towards an aggregation driven model to grow revenues. A report by E&Y stated that 400 million consumers will consume content via telco and aggregator bundles by 2025 as data prices increase.
Video aggregators such as Amazon Prime Video Channels, JioTV+, Tata Sky Binge and telcos have become important drivers for regional and nice OTT platforms to reach a wider audience. As per E&Y report, 85 per cent of viewership volumes of certain OTT platforms were generated by telcos.
“We believe that top three-four aggregators would dominate the market,” observed Hoichoi chief operating officer Soumya Mukherjee. “While it is difficult to predict the future, it does seem that regional OTT is heading towards an aggregation model. That’s because it takes a lot of investment and time for any player to enter the regional space.”
Bengali OTT player hoichoi is a successful example of a regional OTT player that has grown its subscription base, majorly driven by content. In its three years in the market, the platform has released over 100 original web series and many films.
“There were two inflection points in the history of OTT. First when the Jio revolution took place in 2016 and data became really cheap. The second was in 2020 when Covid-19 happened and the OTT industry got a boost,” said ViewLift director sales – APAC and EMEA Manish Manwani.
When major OTT platforms such as Amazon Prime Video, Netflix and Zee5 began investing in regional content pieces, it expanded the market for regional content.
“When these big players entered the OTT market with their regional content, we realised there is a market out there,” said Oho Gujarati and CineMan Productions founder Abhishek Jain. “When bigger platforms are marketing their regional content, it is indirectly having a positive impact on us because our library of content is much bigger.”
Last year was a fantastic period for the growth of regional original content. According to E&Y, 47 per cent of OTT originals and 69 per cent of films released on streaming platforms were in regional languages (non-Hindi).
The challenge for regional OTT platforms is that most of their budgets are spent on creating content with little left over for marketing. According to Hoichoi’s Mukherjee, 60 per cent of the company’s P&L goes into producing content with little to no advertising. While hoichoi has become an established brand in the Bengali market, it is tougher for other regional OTT players.
“In some regional markets like Bengali, there’s already an established ecosystem and all one had to do was adapt the content for OTT,” said Oho Gujarati’s Jain. “Specifically, talking about Gujarati content, there is no legacy industry. There’s only one general entertainment channel and I don’t know how much it is working. The audiences predominantly watch movies in the theatre and local language films have only just started.”
He added, “The challenge for a regional OTT player like us is that we have to create an ecosystem for Gujarati content and then adapt that and bring that to OTT. In the ten months of existence of Oho Gujarati, we’ve featured nine debutant directors, six debutant writers and 34 debutant actors.”
Most of the regional OTT players are coming from a production background, however, technology is the backbone of such platforms. While it is important to create good content, experience in terms of payment options, auto renewals, marketing automation and data tracking are also critical aspects of the user experience. Relying on aggregators or partners allows these platforms to focus on what they do best – churn out amazing content, without having to reinvent the wheel from scratch.
“We expect to see more bundled products like Amazon Channels, where platforms with large reach provide that to smaller/ boutique/niche OTT players on a revenue share basis,” said the E&Y report.
Mumbai: Regional OTT platform aha announced the launch of its Tamil slate of content at an event held in Chennai on Thursday. The platform, which offers Telugu content, has launched a new service aha Tamil that is targeted at the Tamil-speaking audience. Speaking exclusively with IndianTelevision.com, CEO Ajit Thakur said aha, which has a subscriber base of two million, aims to double up current number with the launch of this new service.
“India’s SVOD subscribers are at 42 million and the share of these two markets (Telugu and Tamil) will be six-eight million. We are aiming for a 25 per cent share in each language,” Thakur stated. “The internet penetration in Tamil Nadu is one of the highest in the country and there are a great bunch of storytellers working in Tamil cinema. There is an excellent opportunity in terms of available audience for subscription-driven OTT. At the same time, it is also a challenge because the content preferences are dissimilar from any other part of the country and the benchmark is high.”
The launch event was graced by Tamil Nadu chief minister Muthuvel Karunanidhi Stalin and was joined by actor Silambarasan and music composer Anirudh Ravichander who were announced as the brand ambassadors for aha Tamil. aha Tamil announced the launch of the film “Thattina Tamil Mattume” which stars the brand ambassadors.
When queried why aha Tamil was launched as a separate service from aha Telugu, Thakur explained, “We have always believed that there is no homogenous South audience. When we started aha Telugu, we observed that people were watching everything from Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam on OTT but there was still a native language preference within a large part of the audience. 100 per cent local positioning was our core strategy no matter the language. If we put all languages under one service then we would lose that differentiation and that’s why we had to launch aha Tamil as a separate service.”
While the backend i.e., app, website to access aha Telugu and aha Tamil is the same, the two services will have separate content, marketing and teams managing the operation. The platform offers two plans to access Tamil content, a quarterly plan priced at Rs 149 and a yearly plan priced at Rs 365.
Speaking about the wallet share of consumers in the Tamil market, Thakur noted, “It holds true that subscribers in Tamil and Telugu markets on average subscribe to two paid platforms from a consumer habit point of view. A lot of national OTT players are fighting for this pie with multilanguage global scale content. However, we are uniquely placed in these two markets, where nobody is offering local language content at our scale.”
aha Tamil has a library of 150-200 films and 10 web originals at the time of launch. By the end of the year, the count of originals should increase to 40-60 with a commitment to release four originals per month. Thakur was not able to share details about the expansion of the film library as theatrical releases are still fluid all over the country owing to the effects of the pandemic.”
“People don’t pay for the content library, they pay for new premieres,” said Thakur, commenting on what will drive subscriptions. “Initially, a lot of our library will be available for streaming for free so that audiences can sample our content. What will drive subscriptions are the new pieces of content that we’ll add every week. The library will help consumers spend more time on the app.”
In the coming months, aha Tamil will offer theatrical films including “Selfie” featuring GV Prakash Kumar and Gautam Menon, “Sardaar” featuring Karthi, Venkat Prabhu’s “Manmadha Leelai” starring Ashok Selvan. The content slate also includes director Vetrimaaran’s “Pettakaalai” along with a host of originals such as “Bhamakalaapam” featuring Priyamani, “Ammuchi 2,” and “Ramany vs Ramany 3.”
“We at aha are constantly working towards catering to all demographics through our diverse and relatable content offerings,” said aha promoter Ram Jupally in a statement. “The reveal of our Tamil slate today on the occasion of Tamil New Year is a reflection of the belief that entertainment and stories are best told and enjoyed in one’s local language. After its success in Telugu, aha is aiming to provide quality content in Tamil with diverse genres to fulfill the interest and demands of different age groups. A majority of our Tamil slate is original content and I believe it is only prudent for the platform to associate with content creators who can complement us in meeting our vision”.
“We are excited to present our Tamil slate that has been developed locally with creators from Tamil Nadu,” said aha promoter Allu Arvind. “It is a collection of diverse stories and genres, told through web series and movies. Today, aha will disrupt the Tamil industry with phenomenal content, bringing the best Tamil talent to the fore and showcasing their artistry globally.”
aha was launched in 2020 as a Telugu OTT service with original programming such as web series and films.
Mumbai: Mukti Production LLP is set to launch a new Bengali OTT platform Mukti Prime on 8 March. Interdisciplinary artist Sujoy Prasad Chatterjee will oversee the content on the app, which has been created by Partha Chatterjee.
The app will be available for download on the Google Play Store for Android users and App Store for iOs users. “It will showcase content such as web series, Bengali films, short videos, short films and other original content across genres,” said the statement.
The platform has already announced a slew of Mukti Prime originals including the series “Condom Kelenkari,” “Ganesh Murti,” “Morichika” and “Chittorgarh Murder Case.”
“Mukti Prime is offering subscribers three plans – basic, standard and premium that give access to all its content for a period of 12 months. The basic plan priced at Rs 199 can be accessed using a single device, the standard plan priced at Rs 299 can be accessed by up to three devices and its premium plan at Rs 599 can be accessed by up to six devices,” according to the statement.
India’s regional OTT space is increasing in competitiveness with the share of regional language consumption on OTT platforms expected to cross 50 per cent of time spent by 2025 from 30 per cent in 2019, overtaking Hindi at 45 per cent as per FICCI-EY report. There are more than 45 OTT platforms in the country.
