There’s been a proliferation of OTT (over-the-top) industry for a few years now- leading by global leaders like Netflix & Amazon to homegrown game changers like Hotstar from Star India, Viacom18’s Voot, Zee’s Ditto just to name a few. There have been a significant number of online viewers for events like IPL, ISL, regular shows, etc. which clearly shows interest converging to OTT market among about 400 million Indian online users.
Moreover, Digital India initiative from India government’s in 2015 has transmitted a strong positive signal to the OTT and Video on Demand (VOD) service providers. But, the following backdrops were already in place to fuel the growth-
1. Smartphone & Internet Users – Stats show, by 2020 there will be more than 500 million smartphone users with 40% hike in broadband usage which clearly tells that mobiles with big screens and improved audio/video quality will boost the time spent online.
2. Improvement in Internet Services – Indian telecom giants have started coming out with quality & cost effective 4G services lately and making significant growth in the number of online users. Studies show that high-speed internet with reasonably cost smartphones can drastically fuel this number and this is apparently happening around us.
3. Content Strategy – As per reports collected over the years, it indicate that around 62% of YouTube users in India prefer to watch short and snackable content and the average length of time spent on video viewing in India is below 20 minutes. These stats have inspired top digital content producers such as Star, Ping, Eros, etc. to come up with short and occupying content strategy which is driving the growth of online content visualization in India and making us stay online for longer than ever.
4. Digital India Initiative – In India, we have realized that digitization has transformed our television viewing experience for ever. We have gained advanced access to better audio/video quality with our smartphones with larger screens and that’s literally helping #VOD gain popularity in Indian online users.
The future of OTT or VOD seems pretty promising in India. Leading companies with VOD services are framing their content and business strategies keeping Indian consumers in mind. The industry is already flooded with millions of subscribers and the OTT players have already made the competition tough.