Regional languages will play big on OTT platform in India, says expert

The race between Amazon Prime, Netflix & Hotstar hinges on differentiation

While deciding on the next language to add content to their OTT platform in India, Amazon Prime Video India took a long hard look at culture, popularity, story-telling and how well a cultural setting was accepted in most parts of India, before deciding on selecting Punjabi. Vijay Subramaniam, Director, Content for Amazon, says that the northern belt has been seeing a rising phenomenon of not just music but also stars like Diljit Dosanjh and Jassie Gill, which made their choice easy.
 
For Amazon, its a way of life to start with the customer and go backwards. But given the evolving tastes of customers, which are key for entertainment and content, Subramaniam says that he wants to distribute Amazon Prime membership across India. Hence, the American tech giant also features Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, Kannada, and Bengali across their interface. However, Amazon isn't alone.
 

Just a couple weeks ago, Star TV's Hotstar announced that it partnered with 17 prominent cinematic storytellers of India that included Shekhar Kapur, Kabir Khan, and Tigmanshu Dhulia, with a view to  provide content across genres and formats in seven languages for viewers.
 
Also, ALT Balaji is set to foray into Bhojpuri originals, Zee Studios Originals will produce premium original content for all digital platforms, and Netflix has announced 17 new originals for the Asian market and Rs 5 bn and Rs 6 bn have been set aside annually for Indian content, according to industry reports.

 
What's driving it all? Girish Menon, head of media and entertainment for KPMG India, says that the research points to around 500 million OTT-platform users within the next three years of which at least 90 per cent will be non-English speaking, and at least half will be non-Hindi speaking.
 
Currently, there are an estimated 521 million Hindi language speakers and about 500 million Indian language speakers in India, according to a 2018 report by KPMPG on digital trends shaping India.
 

In contrast, the number of English speakers stands at just 125 million. Further, the Internet adoption rate of Indian-language users is higher than English-speaking users. This mandates organisations to build full-stack solutions for supporting regional languages on their platforms, the report says.
 
Indian language Internet-user base increased at a CAGR of 41 per cent between 2011 and 2016 to reach 234 million at the end of 2016. This growth led to Indian language Internet users surpassing the English Internet users, which were 175 million in 2016.
 
On the other hand, India has always had a proliferation of OTT players because unlike the West, broadcasters went into OTT directly and quicker. That includes Sony, Star, and Colors; they launched their respective OTT platform four or five years ago. Media reports indicate the number of OTT players has grown from 9 in 2012 to 32 in 2018. That's also a reason why most see consolidation happening in the next few years with around  half-a-dozen players making the cut." Differentiation will be the key," Menon adds.
 
"It means that players will need a diversified strategy across segments of content," says Myleeta Aga, General Manager, BBC Studios for India and South-East Asia, which distributes and sells British content to Amazon, Netflix and Reliance Jio. "Also, the players should be willing to dig their heels in and stay until the volumes kick in and go past the tipping point."
 
The ARPUs (average revenue per user) are basically subscription and ad revenue, which is not always transparent and it makes the business even more challenging. BBC has an OTT player which carries content across all its channels and could come to India in the future.
 
Aga adds that viewers want convenience and content to be available anytime but also at low prices. "That means ARPU growth is challenged as multiple players in the space compete for customer loyalty," she says.
 
What does this mean for the consumer? Many more choices at a competitive price; but  then enduring loyalty will ultimately depend on ease of use and search. The tricky part is that consumers may get overwhelmed with something like a dozen movie apps on their phonesnlall or computers. That's something every player will have to figure out how to transcend.