OTT growth to ride on regional content, may pip TV in movie premier biz

Rising digital penetration will see an increase in time spent on digital platforms through mobile devices, says Deloitte report

With the explosion of over-the-top (OTT) players, both domestic and international, in India over the past three years, Deloitte’s Technology, Media, Telecom (TMT) Predictions 2018 report foresees a further boom of original content on OTT, with a sharpened focus on regional content.

The report further explains that OTT player’s focus would be driving towards expanding their regional content library in order to increase its market share. It is expected that the vernacular users will be more than 2.5 times of English internet user base by 2021. This increase can be credited to the improvement in mobile devices technology and internet connectivity, which has provided the viewers with the option of accessing digital media content on the go.

As a result, the medium may overtake TV as the preferred platform for movie premieres. As digital penetration increases, there will be an increase in the amount of time spent on digital platforms through mobile devices. Thus, this will soon be a preferred platform for advertising.

A by-product of this trend will be increased traction for subscription services. While advertising-led models will continue to operate, OTT platforms will explore newer subscription models which will lead to increased number of subscriptions. Increasing data and broadband speeds, the report predicts, along with growth in the number of devices that provide access to ad-free content and fragmentation of content is expected to lead to a willingness among consumers to pay for content.

Another sector that is poised to see growth is sports media. Deloitte predicts that the sports media eco-system will continue to attract global investments. When it comes to broadcasters, the focus will intensify on the rural markets and as a result, regional sports and leagues will emerge. Some of the celebrities/corporate houses which made huge investments in the initial stage to own teams will now start to look for disinvestment options. Data analytics will increasingly play a significant role in managing all aspects of sports business, especially fan engagement and viewership on digital platforms.

Governance-related matters will continue to hog the limelight in Indian Sports and matters like legalising betting will be discussed more than before.

CONTENT EXPLOSION

* ALT Balaji (Balaji Telefilms): Has 11 original shows. Launched the first regional Tamil show “Maya Thirrai” in May, also releasing soon are shows in 5 other languages

* Voot  (Viacom18): Has 7 original shows in Hindi and English. Active subscribers pegged at about 22 million spread across 1,500 cities, plans to offer content in Kannada, Marathi and Tamil

* SonyLiv (Sony Pictures Network): Runs a Marathi and Gujarati web series, plans to air regional short films soon

* Amazon Prime: Likely to invest around $300 million in the Indian market for acquiring rights of Bollywood films and also producing original content. It has a 5-year deal with Salman Khan Ventures, which gives it exclusive digital rights to stream films of the actor before their television premiere.

* Netflix: Netflix has several originals, Hindi film actor Saif Ali Khan to appear in its upcoming original series “Sacred Games” based on author Vikram Chandra’s novel

* Eros Group: Plans to sell its entire content library of films and music for around $1 billion to Apple, deal includes its digital OTT platform Eros Now, which has the rights to over 10,000 films

* Z5 (Zee TV): Zee is integrating all its digital content on one platform “Z5”.