Detailed analysis: The future of OTT platforms in India and awards.
In the COVID-19 lockdown, The OTT industry saw a huge spike. People literally consumed a large amount of content and there was a big demand for more and more fresh content. The bigger players of this Media & Entertainment arena are Netflix, Amazon Prime, ZEE5, Disney+ Hotstar, ALT Balaji, SonyLIV, Voot, Eros Now, TVF (Total Viral Fever) and Mubi. We also witnessed rise of many new OTT platforms like MX Player, BigFlix, JioCinema, ShemarooMe, Airtel Xstream, Arre, Hungama Play and many more.
The benefit is to the end user or a consumer. Now, he is out of the old cable war. Because of very flexible and economical subscription models of OTT platforms, now the consumer spends money only for the content, he/she is interested in. People also subscribe and unsubscribe as per the content. As an example, a huge chunk of people subscribe Disney+ Hotstar only during IPL series.
Future of OTT platforms in India:
Let’s dig deep into the OTT industry.
Hanish Bhatia who is a senior analyst (devices and ecosystem), Counterpoint, put forward the example of Radhika Apte who has also performed in Ghoul, the Netflix original. He said that in the case of Ghoul, it had been decided at the very last moment that it will be a Netflix Original and be released on a digital platform. Netflix had significantly given a much higher bid for the licensing rights of Ghoul. It was thus decided later that it will not be released on any other platform except for Netflix. It would be a Netflix Exclusive or an original. According to Shrenik Gandhi, it is the growth and the immensely popular competition in the wide and open space of OTT that is resulting in better, unique and creative content. In the beginning, there were 8 players in the OTT space in 2015 and now that number has increased to 32. ALT Balaji has around 100 shows in production.
The OTT market is currently standing at $0.5 billion. It has also been estimated by the Boston Consulting Group that the OTT industry in India will grow up to $5 billion by 2023.
The factors for this rapid growth include rising affluence, increase in penetration of data into rural markets and adoption across demographic segments including women and the older generation. Although the OTT industry is growing vast day-by-day, the TV and film industry is not facing threats. A recent Elara Capital Report on media and entertainment industry has concluded or stated that the exhibition segment is not expected to have a negative impact due to digital media as the occupancy rate is already quite low-25 percent for pan India multiplex chains. Also, the screen density in India is much lower as and when compared to US and China. The exhibition segment will enjoy healthy growth till then.
Bhatia has also explained, “In India, OTT is definitely growing. But the audience base for watching the movies which are put forth in the mainstream is definitely quite humongous and broad as compared to OTT as they have limited viewers.” Bhatia added,” if the content depicted is not reaching a larger and wider audience, I am not sure if the same can be considered to be sent for an award. However, the market is growing day-by-day, so you never know.” For Gandhi, the comparison is basically between OTT and Theatres is the essential concept of private theatres and the public ones. For instance, if you look upon at the cinema industry, they try their best to give you experience while at the theatre, since the past 1-2 years. Now when you consider watching a movie like Bahubali, you wouldn’t watch it on your mobile phone but rather on a big screen which will give you an enhanced experience. Gandhi also believes that people prefer a private theatre to avoid being judged. There’s always a fear among the people of being judged. They feel free to watch content online than in theatres, as it is more engaging.
Can we expect OTT Awards?
Does anyone wonder if Radhika Apte gets nominated for the best actor (female) category at the 64th Filmfare Awards; but, not for Andhadhun or Pad man, but for Netflix original’s Lust Stories.
What if Pankaj Tripathi actually wins the National Award for his role in Mirzapur which streamed on Amazon Prime?
How surprising, right? This has all been possible and has shown open gates since Netflix’s Roma came out and it made big at the 91st Academy Awards. The Alfonso Cuarón film has bagged awards in the Best Director Category, Best Cinematography Category, and Best Foreign Languages Category. The film was like a golden spoon and a game-changer to the film industry, even though it wasn’t received very well by many, especially exhibitors. The film also faced censure for entering Oscars. This happened not only internationally but also here, in India. This happened because filmmakers in India are hopeful that something like that might happen here as well anytime soon.
Talking about the same to Money control, Shrenik Gandhi, Chief Executive Officer, and Co-Founder, White Rivers Media, said, “This will give birth to a new generation of Cinematographers, Directors who were kind of apprehensive with the power of digital media. They get a ray of hope. It is but obvious that every director in the industry has been creative in some or the other way. The kind of quantity of supply side of video content has exploded along with the demand.” He is quite confident that this year or by next year, all the categories across mainstream Awards will be Over-the-Top (OTT) based categories. There will be categories for the same basically. Even the mainstream actors are featuring in the OTT space so that there will be no reason why there’ll be no category for them.
Gandhi believes that, while the three major platforms, television, cinema and OTTs continue co-existing, OTTs are on its way to aggressively pursue new audience. As online platforms like Netflix and Prime are ready to take risks and produce content in the market, there is a demand for creative content hence. Thus, OTTs do have a chance to see themselves in the competition of categories of awards, or else, it will be a missed opportunity without a category of the same.