Need For An All In One OTT Subscription Model?
We are living in a digital world. Everything seems to be on our fingertip. Be it essentials or entertainment we can just tap out our needs.
TV and cinema have entertained us for a very long time and still continues to do so but we live in an evolving world so, when India saw the smartphone revolution, it clearly meant smartphones would be used for almost everything which is a reality now. And hence, smartphones also changed the way we consume content.
Initially, torrents helped us watch films and then came an extremely strong competitor of TV and Cinema ie OTT — Over the top media services. A streaming media service that offered content directly to viewers via the Internet. It bypasses cable, broadcast, and satellite television platforms, the companies that traditionally act as a controller or distributor of such content and gives both the content creators and the audience better liberty in making and watching content.
Some of the prominent OTT players are Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ Hotstar, TVF etc.
The business grew like a wildfire resulting in a tsunami of OTT players in the market, some stayed and some perished either due to lack of financial stability or because they made mediocre content. The global OTT market size is projected to reach $332.52 billion by 2025, growing at a CAGR (Compound annual growth rate) of 16.7% from 2018 to 2025.
India’s video streaming industry is all set to grow at a CAGR of 21.82 per cent. It will potentially reach ₹11,977 crores by 2023. A report suggests that the OTT video industry in India will record the highest growth rate among all segments and drive evolution over the next four years in the overall media and entertainment industry. And now the COVID 19 pandemic will accelerate the growth even further.
Currently, we have 40 OTT providers in India and according to KPMG research, the average time spent by an Indian subscriber on such apps is around 20–50 minutes.
With the predictable surge in the OTT industry, and 40 players already fighting in the market. the post corona competition is going to be tougher. And that calls for healthy competition or let’s say a regulation like the TV industry and I think it’s time for the OTT players to come up with a collective subscription /All in one subscription package just like yesteryear’s cable television.
This can be extremely helpful for the audience and it will also curb the piracy substantially. Because, honestly, people don’t really want to pay for 40 OTT players and neither is it feasible for most of the audience to do so. But they definitely want to watch some shows from the platform they aren’t subscribed to; for which they still head to torrents and apps like popcorn time etc. The torrent services are still very much active if you know how to bypass them which is fairly easy.
The subscriptions can be based on the lines of how DTH service providers like Tata Sky or Videocon D2H works. Three to four packages like silver, gold, platinum and OTT players divided amongst them with a monthly and annual charge. This will also help regional TV shows and digital feature films reach more audience resulting in a boosted viewership.
In India Disney+Hotstar has the highest market share of 45.88 per cent as of March 2019, news website (Indiantelevision.com) Times Internet-led MX Player with 41.4% reach market share is placed second behind Hotstar. Hotstar’s investment in cricket streaming rights has helped it garner tremendous market share”. Reliance Jio’s OTT service app Jio TV has increased its reach by mobile installs gradually since last year and now has 34.08% reach market share. International players Amazon Prime Video and Netflix to have increased their reach market share significantly with 17.06% and 10.37%.
With the recent Reliance’s Facebook deal and the KKR — Jio deal. Reliance soon will be an extremely dominating player in the Indian OTT space. I hope they provide good quality content.
Hence, I strongly feel it’s about time the OTT players think about such a combined OTT subscription plan that will be beneficial for them in the long run and then focus on making great content.
Thoughts?
