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Tag: SVOD

  • Online video surpasses 1 billion subscriber mark globally

    Online video surpasses 1 billion subscriber mark globally

    KOLKATA: For the first time ever, online video services have surpassed the one billion subscriber mark globally. In the pandemic hit year 2020, the overall subscriber base has reached 1.1 billion, recording a 26 per cent year-on-year growth, according to a report from Motion Picture Association.

    The global home/mobile entertainment market has raked in $68.8 billion in revenue, marking a 23 per cent increase over 2019. In the United States, subscriptions have crossed 308.6 million, representing a 32 per cent growth from 2019, and the home/mobile market increased 21 per cent, reaching $30 billion.

    While the global market for theatrical and home/mobile entertainment distribution fell 18 per cent to $80.8 billion, the surge in the digital entertainment market has helped partially offset the decrease in the global box office caused by theatre closures during the pandemic.

    “Despite the challenges to the global economy brought on by the Covid2019 pandemic, the film television, and streaming industry has once again risen to the occasion,” said Motion Picture Association chairman and CEO Charles Rivkin.

    “Streaming experienced another huge boom, with new entrants into the market and more than one billion subscriptions worldwide for the first time ever. We kept audiences connected and entertained wherever they were and whenever they desired. Theatrical and home entertainment remain two essential parts of this dynamic and iconic industry, and I am confident that movie theatres will experience a great comeback in the months ahead,” he added.

    However, cable TV revenue is still larger than the online video market. Cable revenues for global industry stood at $116 billion.

    55 per cent of US adults reported that their viewing of movies or shows/series through an online subscription service increased, while 46 per cent reported that their viewing via pay TV increased. More than 85 per cent of children and over 55 per cent of adults watch movies or shows/series on mobile devices.

    Daily viewers of movies or shows/series on mobile devices skew more heavily towards the 18-24 and 25-39 year-old age groups, as well as the Hispanic/Latino and African-American/Black ethnicity groups.

    The global box office market for all films around the world was $12 billion in 2020; Within that number, the US/Canada box office market was $2.2 billion. The top three box office markets outside the US and Canada were China ($3 billion), Japan ($1.3 billion ), and France ($500 million ).

  • Face of M&E industry in the next 5 years

    Face of M&E industry in the next 5 years

    KOLKATA: Overall advertising spend took a hit in 2020 due to the unprecedented Covid2019 crisis. With hints of recovery, experts are upbeat about adex growth this year as well as in the long term. India’s advertising market is estimated to post a CAGR of 16 per cent over the next five years factoring Covid2019 impact. While digital advertising is estimated to double its share in the overall ad pie, TV spends will largely remain stable, according to a report from Elara Capital.

    However, it mentions that TV advertising may witness a decline in the ad share pie post-2025, if digital scales up further. Globally, digital advertising accounts for 61 per cent of ad spend whereas TV is 23 per cent, given demographics in India (the big mass market with several languages), it is believed that the share of mediums like TV and print will remain higher than the global average.

    Elara Capital VP research analyst (media) Karan Taurani said huge pent-up demand in some sectors (travel, retail & tourism), which were negatively affected during Covid2019, an increase in the number of SME-led advertisers, and the surge in digital advertising led by favourable demographics will drive the growth.

    “Facebook, Google and YouTube will continue to dominate the social, search and video advertising segment within digital advertising. Video advertising, which accounts for almost 30 per cent of digital advertising spend, has outperformed with a 50 per cent growth rate in CY19; however, the larger share keeps moving toward Hotstar and YouTube as they account for almost two thirds of this video advertising pie,” he stated.

    During a panel discussion in Vibes 3.0, The Everywhere Content, Elara Media & Entertainment Conference, experts also reflected similar optimism. They said broader advertising trends within the TV vertical indicate a good recovery, backed by IPL after a big blow during the lockdown. Currently, ad spend stands in good stead after a K-shaped recovery, with some new ad verticals coming up while some old ones are drying up, they added.

    The panellists added that digital will trigger new opportunities as millions of advertisers have moved to digital. SMEs do their own digital advertising, but their adoption is much slower. However, gradually these businesses have been shifting, in line with trends overseas a few years back.

    Digital adoption has been noticeable in consumption patterns too, especially as it has leapfrogged during Covid times. In India, around 10 million viewers have cut chords during Covid2019 lockdown, choosing OTT platforms largely due to a variety of content. The key remains to keep up the engagement of audiences on the OTT platform. TV and OTT can coexist at least for the next eight-ten years. While men used to explore OTT content and women preferred daily soaps on TV, this trend has changed during the pandemic, where family viewing has grown significantly.

    According to the panellists, the value of a revenue-paying subscriber is going to increase significantly. Earlier, with 30-40 OTT platforms and several TV networks, content demand was high. But now, the audience has become quality content-specific and is willing to spend on marquee shows and content. Partnerships with telecom service providers (TSP) will continue to account for a larger chunk of SVOD revenue for broadcaster and other OTTs in the near term; smart TV and smartphones too will support the growth of India’s SVOD ecosystem in the medium term, Taurani added.

    Among other trends in media and entertainment industry, Taurani said cinema remains an outing and socialising trend in Asian countries, such as Singapore, Taiwan, China, the UAE and India. This means there is relatively low or no threat of OTT, unlike the West (US and UK) wherein consumers visit a cinema only to watch a movie. In terms of screen openings too, APAC has 88 per cent of screens open, whereas the US and the EMEA have opened up only 38 per cent and 24 per cent of screens, respectively, until now.

  • Sony acquires Crunchyroll from WarnerMedia’s AT&T

    Sony acquires Crunchyroll from WarnerMedia’s AT&T

    NEW DELHI: WarnerMedia’s AT&T has agreed to sell Crunchyroll to Sony in a deal worth $1.175 billion.

    Crunchyroll is an anime direct-to-consumer service within AT&T’s WarnerMedia segment with three million plus SVoD subscribers. It currently serves 90 million registered users across more than 200 countries and territories offering AVoD, mobile games, manga, events merchandise and distribution.

    Funimation is a joint venture between Sony Pictures Entertainment and Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) subsidiary, Aniplex.

    “The Crunchyroll team has done an extraordinary job of not only growing the Crunchyroll brand but also building a passionate community of anime fans. Crunchyroll’s success is a direct result of the company’s culture and commitment to their fans,” WarnerMedia CRO Tony Goncalves said. “By combining with Funimation, they will continue to nurture a global community and bring more anime to more people. I’m incredibly proud of the Crunchyroll team and what they have been able to accomplish in the digital media space in such a short period of time. They’ve created an end-to-end global ecosystem for this incredible art form.”

    “We are proud to bring Crunchyroll into the Sony family,” Sony Pictures Entertainment chairman and CEO Tony Vinciquerra said. “Through Funimation and our terrific partners at Aniplex and Sony Music Entertainment Japan, we have a deep understanding of this global art form and are well-positioned to deliver outstanding content to audiences around the world. Together with Crunchyroll, we will create the best possible experience for fans and greater opportunity for creators, producers and publishers in Japan and elsewhere. Funimation has been doing this for over 25 years and we look forward to continuing to leverage the power of creativity and technology to succeed in this rapidly growing segment of entertainment.”

  • Lionsgate Play enters Indian streaming arena with SVoD model

    Lionsgate Play enters Indian streaming arena with SVoD model

    KOLKATA: Another global player makes its official foray in India with the rollout of Lionsgate Play. After running on partnerships for more than a year, Lionsgate has now introduced its independent streaming service. Along with international premium content, it will also deliver high-budget Indian originals. Like other global streaming services, Lionsgate Play will also run on subscription model.

    The service has two pricing points – Rs 99 per month, and Rs 699 per year, which is very competitive compared to other OTT services in India. The app will be available to download across a broad array of platforms and devices including Google Play store, Apple app store and Amazon firestick.

    The platform anticipates continued strong growth in the Indian OTT ecosystem and is capitalising on this opportunity by bringing a host of “new, provocative, and edgy movies and web series”  to the country.

    Starz (a subsidiary of Lionsagte) president and chief executive officer Jeffrey A Hirsch said, “India has always been a key market for us. The large and diverse population, increased data usage in urban and rural markets, and adoption of OTT across all demographics created an exciting opportunity for us to launch Lionsgate Play. We’re confident that our unique, exclusive and exceptionally curated content will generate a great response from Indian audiences.”

    Lionsgate South Asia managing director Rohit Jain added, “We are thrilled to launch the much-awaited Lionsgate Play app in India. We want to provide the finest, never seen before content that will captivate our audiences with bespoke entertainment drawing on the most exciting current releases and our premium library.”

    Talking about content slot, Jain added that it will  be launching Indian originals in the coming months, featuring untold edgy urban stories from some of the best creative minds in the Indian film industry. Jain mentioned that it tied up with the famous B-Town faces like  Anil Kapoor, Mukesh Bhatt, Kunal Kohli and studios such as Endemol Shine, Jar Pictures.

    Starz first launched internationally with its Starzplay international premium streaming platform in 2018. This month it will expand  its global footprint into 55 countries throughout Europe, Latin America, Canada, Japan and India, aiming to become one of the most widely distributed and fastest growing premium OTT services worldwide while entertaining millions of users with bold and curated content.

    The Lionsgate Play app features a broad portfolio of content ranging from the best of original feature film and television dramas, romances, comedies, thrillers and action favourites and premieres, bringing world cinema and television series directly to Indian audiences.

  • US, India to account for around 50% of Disney+ subscriber base in 2025

    US, India to account for around 50% of Disney+ subscriber base in 2025

    KOLKATA: With an overwhelming surge of users on over-the-top (OTT) platforms, the global SVoD users are growing significantly. Analyst firm Digital TV Research expects five global platforms to have 678 million paying SVoD subscribers by 2025 based on September results.

    While Disney+ has already added over 73 million subscribers, it will add another 112 million subscribers between 2020 and 2025 to reach 194 million. The report adds that Netflix will increase its subscriber base by 73 million.

    “Much of Disney+’s initial growth came from the US, mainly due to the attractive bundle of Disney+ with ESPN+ and Hulu. More recently, India’s Disney+ Hotstar subs count has rocketed due to its coverage of IPL cricket. The US and India will account for nearly half of Disney+’ subscriber base by 2025,” Digital TV Research principal analyst Simon Murray says.

    According to the report, the streaming giant Netflix will take its revenue up to $37 billion and its rival Disney+ will generate $13 billion in revenue by 2025. The report adds this is a lot lower than Netflix due to lower ARPUs charged in developing markets.

  • Hoichoi achieves a subscriber base of 13 million

    Hoichoi achieves a subscriber base of 13 million

    KOLKATA: The leading Bengali OTT platform, Hoichoi, has completed three years in the industry with its grand launch in 2017. It has achieved a subscriber base of 13 million with 40 per cent of its revenue coming from international customers. It has also doubled its revenue in the past year.

    With the vision of "entertaining people in their local language” and having over 60 Originals and 50 World Digital Premieres, Hoichoi has unveiled a fresh slate of 25 new Originals, two first day first show films and multiple world digital premieres for the upcoming year.

    As a Hoichoi subscriber spends 50 minutes a day on the platform, the OTT player is always keen on bringing the best of technology for its customers. It has revealed a sneak peek into its new UI/UX (user interface/user experience) built which is seamless and easy to use for the customers.

    Read more news on Hoichoi

    A parental control feature will soon be added, which comes with Hoichoi being among the top 15 OTT platforms of India who have signed up for a unified self-regulation process with IAMAI for classification and demarcation of content available on all video-on-demand apps and websites in India. 

    Having customers over 100 countries including places like Japan, Sweden, Argentina, Iceland and more, Hoichoi has also announced Carrier Billing. It is an affordable way to consume content in the form of sache pricing and to buy a weekly or monthly subscription by paying with their mobile balance. This will be soon available for users in Bangladesh and Middle East. There’s also, subscription bundling, specifically for customers in India with JioFibre and Bangladesh with its top telecommunication network. 

  • India to reach 66 million SVoD users in 2025, report says

    India to reach 66 million SVoD users in 2025, report says

    KOLKATA: The rapid surge of OTT consumption in India is not anymore limited to free usage. A recent report has underlined that the subscription-based model is holding a potential future. India will reach 66 million paid subscribers in 2025, analyst firm Digital TV Research estimates.

    While the Indian market is estimated to triple its subscriber base in 2019, the entire APAC region will also see a substantial increase. The region will have 467 million SVoD subscriptions by 2025, up from 267 million in 2019.

    China will remain the largest contributor at 2025 too with 279 million subscribers. Japan will add 18 million subscribers to reach 40 million. Among other markets, South Korea will exceed 25 million and Australia will surpass the 18 million mark slightly.

    “Although China dominates the region, there will be plenty of growth elsewhere. Netflix will have 44.4 million subscribers by 2025; closely followed by Disney+ [including Hotstar] with 43.6 million,” Digital TV Research principal analyst Simon Murray said.

    This is not the only report which is indicating a huge subscriber growth in the next decade. To capture the opportunity, all the international players are ramping up their investment in premium content while local players are also rising to prominence on the back of consumer insights.

  • Where Mike Hopkins is taking Amazon Prime Video

    Where Mike Hopkins is taking Amazon Prime Video

    Amazon Prime Video and Amazon Studios SVP Mike Hopkins is a 30-year vet old in streaming veteran, having overseen the developed of products such as  BTN2GO and Fox Now as head of Fox distribution and later led Hulu on a rapid growth path as its CEO. He spent a short stint at Sony Pictures Television Networks as its chairman before being lured away by Jeff Bezos to lead Prime Video just before the pandemic hit the world.

    Hopkins is quite charged up about the opportunity that lies ahead with Prime Video. Speaking at APOS he said that Amazon has 150 million plus Prime members globally and Prime Video is a key driver of the service.

    Hopkins expressed that growth for Prime Video lies primarily in international territories. “Before I arrived the company had made some really smart investments in serving customers around the world,” he said. “And we intend to double down on that investment over the next couple of years. We will continue to invest in local and global content and that is very critical,”

    Most of the investments are going towards creating originals in 15 of the 200 markets Prime Video is available outside the US. “People in many countries have an affinity to US content,” Hopkins added. “But increasingly customers also want to see stories about them their culture and issues written and produced by people in their countries and played out by actors who look like and speak like them. Our teams have been building a home for talent and attracting the top creators all over the world.”

    The content acquisition teams, Hopkins revealed are also  making smart bets and doubling down on investments in acquiring SVOD content and TVOD catalogues. This apart, Hopkins, stated that Amazon’ sports team has also been inventing and reinventing spots, taking bets in properties and that is going to increase going forward.

    Hopkins went on to add that the second big opportunity for Amazon Prime Video lies in improving customer experience. “We have probably the most complicated business model of the SVoD players, so that makes the customer experience more important for us,” he expressed.

    He revealed that members can look forward to improvements in how they can navigate and use the service over the next year or two. “Customers can rent and buy movies and TV shows and they can also subscribe to  TV channels in many markets,” he highlighted. “Making it easier for them to understand what’s what and how they can get to the content is important and we will prioritise this along with content investments.”

    He explained that he sees Prime Video offering a variety of content to its users, right from the SVOD content to TVOD to channels. “We want to offer them a one-stop-shop for their entertainment needs and (adding) channels is going to be a major focus for us.”

    Hopkins stated the pandemic has not impacted its pipeline of content going forward. “We have about 40 shows in various stages of production,” he said. “We have a very deep library, we have licensed content. We have a lot of originals. We are going to launch the second season of The Voice and several other shows. But what we will see is a slowdown in terms of premieres in the first half of next year. The thinning of these shows will be more than made up by the TVOD content in movies and the channels members can subscribe to.”

    He pointed out that Amazon Prime Video had gone in early into India as an SVOD service  and the way forward is becoming be super aggressive in the market from an originals. “We will have more than a dozen originals in each of the markets we are investing in by next year or so” he revealed. “And India is one of our priority markets.”

  • SVOD sees 82% growth in urban India

    SVOD sees 82% growth in urban India

    KOLKATA: Contrary to popular belief that Indians don’t pay for content, Kantar’s ICUBE 2019 report has found that SVOD has seen a significant surge of 82 per cent in India over the last one year. Moreover, smaller towns have driven growth. 

    While total online video users count rose to 294 million in December 2019, online video usership in urban India grew by 25 per cent over the last one year compared to 11 per cent active internet user growth.  Notably, the growth of online video users in urban India is highest among 45 years and above age group. In addition to that, the proportion of this age group watching online video is higher among smaller cities than metros and large cities.

    Along with the surge in the number of users, the engagement of users has also gone up as 65 per cent of online video watchers watch video online daily. On-demand video content watchers are on the rise in urban India. Thanks to affordable internet and a wide range of curated content, on-demand video has seen significant growth over the last year. 

    While SVOD content has witnessed a significant surge over the last one year with users growing to the tune of 82 per cent in urban India over the last one year, AVOD has also marked growth in users by 29 per cent. The growth of social media video users has been slower compared to AVOD or SVOD growth rate. Although there is an increase in the number of social media video viewers by 18 per cent, the proportion of video users accessing social media video has dropped over the last year.

    The growth of SVOD is driven by smaller towns (less than five lakh population). SVOD users have witnessed a significant demographic change over the last one year. 37 per cent of SVOD users now belong to small towns compared to 10 per cent of 2018. SVOD users are more mature as the majority of them are already using both social media and AVOD content. 99 per cent of the SVOD users watch either AVOD or social media videos. 

    The report says that while SVOD has witnessed a huge surge in the last one year, AVOD will continue to be the most-watched video platform for foreseeable future due to its short format videos in comparison to long format videos of SVOD. It has also added that people watch AVOD content more frequently than SVOD content. But video watched on AVOD platforms is shorter than that of SVOD content. The majority of the AVOD content has a duration of lower than 10 minutes whereas the majority of the SVOD content has a duration of 15 minutes to up to one hour.

    Music and movies have emerged as the two most-watched online video content in urban India. YouTube dominates on-demand video usage across genre, from music videos to news, except live sports, which is dominated by Disney+ Hotstar. 

    Kantar Insights Division executive vice president  Biswapriya Bhattacharjee said, "The one line verdict on digital entertainment for the year is that of uninterrupted growth. There is good news, for both platforms and marketers.  The digital medium is way younger than its offline counter parts but we already see a very discerning audience base. The concept of specialisation is already in place and the platform allows the content creators to bring out their creative best on this platform.”

  • ZEE5 launches ‘ZEE5 CLUB’ at Rs 365/year

    ZEE5 launches ‘ZEE5 CLUB’ at Rs 365/year

    KOLKATA: ZEE5 today announced the launch of ‘ZEE5 Club’, a unique proposition for every Indian at Rs 65/year. This is in line with its commitment to democratise access to bespoke content for diverse Indian audiences across genres, languages and a spectrum of devices.

    ZEE5 Club, a complete OTT television entertainment pack is set to delight the consumers with exclusive access to most popular shows before telecast on TV,  apart from select ZEE5 and Alt Balaji shows, – 1000+ blockbuster movies, ZEE Zindagishows and over 90+ Live TV channels. With ZEE5 Club, subscribers will be able to enjoy-engaging entertainment content without any intrusive ads and across devices.

    Speaking about this new offering, ZEE5 India SVOD senior VP and head Rahul Maroli said, “We are a customer obsessed OTT platform and the launch of ZEE5 Club is a result of the feedback we received from our consumers. Furthermore, democratising access for all Indians to their favourite entertainment content, at a value price, was brewing as an idea for the longest time. With a strong consumer value proposition, ZEE5 Club will help us to board every Indian and provide them with a hyper-personalised and a seamless content viewing experience all at Rs 365/year.”

    The launch of ZEE5 Club would enablemillions of Indianstosample their favourite TV shows and OTT exclusives at their convenience at an affordable price. The Club Pack has been created keeping in mind the platform’s diverse user behaviour, regional preferences and viewership patterns. 

    Some of Zee’s popular TV shows like KumumBhagya and KundaliBhagya in Hindi, Sembaruthi in Tamil, JotheJotheyaliin Kannada and MazyaNavryachiBayko in Marathi and many more would be now available on ZEE5 Clubbefore telecast on Television, making anytime a new prime time for consumers to catch up on their favourite shows.

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