Till the beginning of 2020 or until March 2020, most businesses were buzzing and every one was very optimistic to end on a good note. But the unprecedented pandemic wave crippled and disrupted the entire industry like any other industry. However, the pandemic opened a new window for the entertainment business. With people staying indoors the need for keeping oneself entertained boosted the business of DTH and the OTT platform. Over the top (OTT) streaming platforms redefined the way Indian audience consumed content.
Trends in OTT:
Binge-watching became a popular trend among the millennials and Gen-Z. And it witnessed increased viewership’s, new subscribers and newer audiences were flocking towards on-the-go content, much differently, be it music, video and podcast consumption. All in all, OTT gave a new shape to the entertainment world and DTH also added new subscribers. Players in the OTT business found while there was opportunity but there were also several challenges that they had to face to generate fresh content keep the momentum going.
OTT Market:
The OTT video market, which already was in the upswing in the pre-COVID-19 times, saw a steep growth in the COVID-19 and lockdown period. With cinema halls shut and fresh content drying up on television as shootings remained cancelled, OTT became the primary source of entertainment and content consumption. Redseer, one of the largest management consulting companies in India, takes a look at the growth in the Indian OTT video market during 2020 in its latest study. According to the report, OTT video consumption in the country saw a growth of 13% in 2020.
Sports Steaming and Movie high viewership:
Sports streaming saw the highest consumption in 2020. September onwards, with the IPL 2020 being held in the UAE, sports streaming saw growth. In September 2020, OTT consumption grew to touch 228 billion minutes, which further rose to 231 billion minutes in October 2020 when the streaming of IPL began. Apart from cricket, the other factors that kept OTT consumption high in the September 2020-January 2021 period was that the new movies released in the theatres didn’t perform well. Moreover, the free StreamFest by Netflix also led to growth of consumption. There has also been a steady growth of Originals. Besides, more releases in the pipeline for January-February-March 2021 period.
Conclusion:
It seems the OTT viewing is here to stay as the cinema halls have still not opened to its full capacity. The OTT consumption growth during the lockdown, though it saw a spike it was still below the September-December period. The growth was primarily due to new movie premieres on OTT and release of new Web series. To woo the viewers the platforms are throwing interesting offers for people to subscribe to their OTT channel.
