Top of the league

Manpriya Singh

Who would have thought Angrezi Medium’s alternative to theatrical release would be an OTT platform? As it is, it’s de rigeur for a traditional television channel to have their online streaming counterpart. Last heard, the good old Doordarshan is currently working on pleasing the nineties’ kid among the millennials with its online streaming services, which will soon join in the likes of Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hotstar Premium…the list that now comprises 40 providers of over-the-top media services in India.

We already knew the OTT platforms were set to grow the moment Rs 100 crore became not the big ticket Bollywood club or the box-office collections but the budget of Season 2 of a series, which can truly be the poster series of the Indian outings of all the global streaming giants — Sacred Games.

Rising graph

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, during his visit to the country last year, while remaining tight-lipped about the actual number of subscribers, said something that clearly quantifies the reach of these platforms. “Given the consumer base, the next 100 million subscribers for us is coming from India,” he was popularly quoted as saying. And that is why, he also said, “That we will spend 400 million on Indian content for the next two years.”

Although, as per latest FICCI’S report on media and entertainment, MX Player, launched in February 2019, currently has 280 million monthly active users globally and 175 million in India.

Tier II cities in focus

Let alone the numbers, the content centered around Tier II cities itself speaks louder than the numbers.

Jamtara—Sabka Number Aayega, Taj Mahal 1989, Mirzapur, Gullak, Rangbaaz, Laakhon Mein Ek — content-providers are digging up smaller towns and investing bigger budgets around the bickering families, street cronies and small-time goons, or rural kids with urban dreams. Along with the new content making its way into the notifications every other day, it’s the actors that are thankful for the platform that has brought in a new lease of life, with several new faces becoming a household name.

Shares Maanvi Gagroo, who was seen in Four More Shots Please, Made in Heaven apart from several others, “I think the reason why OTT platforms are a hit among viewers in rural India is manifold. Primarily, it’s the convenience of it all. Everybody, has a phone and consuming content on the mobile is at the least, most convenient. One doesn’t have to fight over who gets to watch television when. It’s also the most democratic medium; for every TikTok video coming from Tier II and Tier III cities, there are a million YouTube videos being consumed.” She adds, “Thirdly, I feel, Internet is the only place catering to the youth, it speaks the language they are speaking, deals with issues they are dealing with, the stories are much more current, hence relevant.’ Now who can discount that?

According to research by Broadband India Forum, “As of April 2019, as much as whopping 65 per cent of video consumption is coming from rural India that has only 40 per cent Internet connectivity,” the president of the forum TV Ramachandran was quoted as saying. Now, that’s a complete departure from the common perception (well, hitherto common perception) that online audience is concentrated around the urban clusters, primarily the metros.

Great going

In one of its reports PriceWaterhouseCoopers states how India’s OTT market is set to triple by 2023 and reach to the tune of Rs 11,976 crores. That explains the race ahead to capture a large base stationed in Tier II and Tier III cities. “India, in both theory and practice, is nothing but a cash cow with a lot of untapped potential for the OTT providers. The streaming players anyway work on the model of low pricing, large market and growing subscriber base,” says an executive from a recently launched platform targeting kids and edutainment, adding, “Ultimately, all the streaming platforms are eyeing numbers and reach similar to the tune of mobile phones.”

Niche content or good content, people will ultimately find both time and money to pay for that. Quickly reminding us of someone who has seen Bollywood from another era, Tinnu Anand says, “Ultimately, entertainment and all the tangents related to it, will come down to one little gadget in our pockets, which is our mobile phones. And such will be the impact of this that they will not just influence but even dictate the content of all the other mediums of entertainment.” And that explains not just the reach and potential, but even the power of OTT.

manpriya@tribunemail.com