Voot follows money on the OTT, but can it match the giants in the game?

Viacom 18 bets on reality shows and regional content as it switches over to a paid viewership model

Viacom18’s video streaming platform Voot is slowly building a subscriber base and a robust partner ecosystem as it moves from free to paid viewership on its platform. To that end it says, the team has worked to improve the quality and production values of its shows while expanding the multi-lingual reach of its content library. However, the challenge will be to match the fare from Amazon Prime and Hotstar as also stand up to the urban pull of Netflix.

Voot’s transition from an advertising-based video on demand (AVoD) to a subscription-based video on demand (SvoD) platform will happen by March 2020.  It ended 2019 with 100 million monthly active users (MAUs) and over 100 billion minutes of watch-time on its platform. 

MAUs are a universally upheld data point that various OTT platforms use to convey the extent of their reach and while none give out an official figure, most claim a much higher number of viewers than 100 million a month. Akash Banerji, business head–VOOT, AVoD says that MAU is a myth. “If 100 users come online on one platform, 90 per cent of them un-install the app from the phone or, do not even open the app. What is important is the engagement or average time spent. If that is not growing or stable, the number becomes a vanity metric,” he says. 

Voot is banking on the huge potential for growth that the over the top (OTT) category shows in India. Overall there are 300-315 million odd video viewers across SVoD and AvoD platforms in India, slated to touch 500 million by the end of 2020. Of these, around 10-15 million are unique paid subscribers who drive 20-30 million subscriptions (one subscriber may have multiple subscriptions). It is estimated that by the end of 2020, there would be 20-25 million unique paid subscribers driving 40-50 million subscriptions. 

At Voot, Banerji says they have been focussing on time spent and frequency of visits on the platform. The daily active user (DAU) versus the MAU ratio, which essentially means if 100 people come on the app every month, how many of them come every day is the Holy Grail and, he adds, “We have a 36 per cent DAU-MAU ratio at present which is the best among AVoD platforms.” he says. 

Analysts believe Voot has played its cards smartly. “It is a network backed OTT platform and hence has access to the network content. It started off with some original shows, however, they were quick to realise that the focal point should be to ensure consumer stickiness without burning cash. Content acquisition is an expensive business and to compete with the Netflix and Amazon Prime  is not easy,” says a Mumbai-based analyst 

Voot has thus chosen to focus on its portfolio of regional content and reality television shows. “The strategy may ensure that Voot becomes a profitable OTT platform in a year’s time as it has not been burning cash,” the analyst notes.

“Close to 60 per cent of new users come on the back of reality shows, but 70 per cent of our consumption happens on the back of non-reality content,” Banerji says. Big Boss’s latest season, for example, has already had one billion views (in Hindi alone), the season began in October 2019. 

Voot is also betting on regional content. Last year it launched Voot Telugu while Colours (a Viacom18 property) does not yet have a Telugu channel. Regional content contributes close to 25 per cent of Voot’s total consumption at present and more than 60 per cent of its audience comes from tier II and III cities. Around 23 per cent of monetisation is coming from regional, Banerji says.