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Emerging trends for OTT Content

By Divya Dixit Business Strategy and Growth Advisor

OTT, the mainstream form of entertainment globally now, has caught India’s fancy to the extent that India is at present home to one of its fastest growing consumer bases in the world. At present, reports estimate that India has around 424 million OTT users, with over 119 million of them being active paid OTT subscriptions across over 49 million paying (SVOD) users. India is also home to 150 million households with TVs, which means on an average India has about 600 million TV viewers at present.

The growth of OTT subscribers in India as per the audience sizing report released by Ormax was 20% in 2021; which is self-explanatory that OTT platforms need unique content on priority, content that engages their mind, is fresh, tailored to the diverse diaspora needs now present on internet and helps customer retention overall.

This has of course led to innovative thinking and tactics on part of OTT platforms and some of them are recounted here:

Localisation… A game that now even Apple tv wishes to participate in and Netflix and Amazon started a year and half ago with vigour. As regional internet penetration in India grows at 50% over time, the importance of local flavour to ensure content that is engaging and drives loyalty is becoming apparent. Also, quite evident that the major OTT players have recognized the potential that regional audiences hold in order to keep a strong presence in India. This trend is only to grow in the near future, as smaller regional players launch and grow across India right from aha, hoichoi, chaupaal, oho gujarati and stage.

All of a sudden it has now become a consumer’s choice market on OTT with various flavours to pick and choose from with Content heads and creators across platforms focusing on picking scripts and scenarios that reflect local subjects and realities.

I & I approach… Content will run in two parallel tracks of Individual and Inclusive approaches. There will be a sharper consumer segment tailor made approach where users will have an intimate algorithm catering to their exact needs and individual interests on content; thereby ensuring that each user feel important and unique, paving way to a more loyal consumer base for the platforms.

With Connected TV sales on the rise, almost 90% of tv sales last year were smart TVs, Family inclusive content has come to the forefront on digital. Content that is seen in living rooms across the country and likewise the laughs and emotions shared with family. With Covid onset, living rooms in the country became theatres and that has somehow continued with people opting it in for convenience and economics. This has given a new track to the platforms for creating a larger pipeline on family genres like Comedy, family dramas, suspense thriller and romance. Also there shall be a rise of content catering to children, devotional spaces, and special channels for education and senior citizen entertainment, all in regional languages or dubbed to fit audiences in remote places.

Immersive & Interactive Content…In the quest for higher viewer engagement, OTT platforms are now working on series/ movies/content products that allow the user to select storylines and decide the plot for the story as it goes forward. While the caveat for the platform is that it’s an expensive proposition to create as every hook can have 2 outcomes at least and therefore higher cost of production, it’s a punt some of them are willing to gamble with for a more engaged base.

And then we can talk about gamification of shows that we have seen on LockUpp by ALTBalaji that created a metaverse game, an alternate reality with the show characters or even immersive video experience that was created for the first time by an Indian OTT platform on their show Ragini MMS. Hotstar has done this for IPL and Sony for KBC and these innovations shall continue for larger audience engagement, conversations amongst media, audience and industry and of course additional revenue.

Content Co Production…An approach rarely understood under the garb of threat of competition, it’s an extremely smart approach for ROI savvy platforms to scale up their library exponentially with economies of budget.ALTBalai set the pace when they did the same initially with Zee5 and then with MX Player.

Last but not the least Each piece of Content now has to justify creation or acquisition via monetisation planned approach as platforms become more and more ROI savvy.


About Divya Dixit

Divya has 20+ years of experience in business growth and brand building across industries — digital, broadcast, telecom, and music. With an impeccable record of launching brands in the sector of broadcast, telecom, music, and OTT;  rejuvenation of brands, consumer lifetime value journeys, creating revenue opportunities, product designing, and designing sales currencies through consumer insights across industries, she has helped create sustainable businesses. Along with ALTBalaji, Divya has also been in leadership positions at organizations of the likes of  ZEE5, Sony, UTV, Tata Docomo, Barista, to name a few. Currently she oversees business growth for a metaverse and gaming platform, a music b2b platform, regional ott platform as well as a blockchain based movies platform.

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