From alternate to mainstream – the year when OTT firmed its Indian roots

A lot has been said about how streaming platforms became the unwitting beneficiaries of the pandemic. And it has been a great and happening year for the Indian OTT ecosystem, with the masses finding streaming as one of their primary sources of entertainment. For many, OTT has been a means of escapism from the monotony of lockdown.

The year saw the solidification of the streaming ecosystem. A multitude of reasons contributed to that. For one, the economy showed signs of recovery as it came out of the second wave of the pandemic. Cheap data plans with increased connectivity, increased penetration of smartphones and digital payment systems, and an entertainment-hungry middle-class, especially the youngsters ensured a fertile ground for streamers, foreign and homegrown, to flourish.

In 2021, we came to terms with the fact that OTT is not going to supplant theatres; both will co-exist, complementing each other in multiple ways. Streamers came in handy when the industry needed them the most. With theatres shut due to the extended lockdown, the only option left for producers was to take the digital route. Even the most incorrigible ones, who detested the very idea of digital release of movies, had to give in. And we saw made-for-theatre movies, starring mainstream stars from Amitabh Bachchan to Akshay Kumar to Ajay Devgn to Taapsee Pannu to Kartik Aaryan to Mohan Lal, getting released on OTT platforms.

The industry dynamics have started changing. Digital premieres are a reality, though some skirmishes among the stakeholders regarding the release window need to be ironed out. Hybrid release (simultaneous release of movies on theatres and OTT platforms) is another reality that the industry is coming to terms with.

The regional story

This year saw Indians adopting a language-agnostic approach in content consumption. Content matters more than language as evidenced by the increasing popularity of foreign-language content (like ‘Squid Games’) to Indian-language web series. Amazon Prime Video, for example, attests that more than 50% of viewership for its regional content, including Telugu, Kannada, and Tamil, comes from outside of their home states. Similarly, Netflix witnessed a whopping 400% spike in Korean content viewing. A foreign-language piece of content no longer scares the viewers away, thanks to subtitles. This cross-pollination is one of the remarkable outcomes of this OTT revolution. Also, stories from the hinterland that resonate with the masses did well. Examples include ‘Aranyak’, ‘Kota Factory’, ‘Tabbar’, and ‘Bandish Bandits’. In fact, ‘Aranyak’ remained among the Top 10 shows on Netflix in nine countries.

Homegrown streamers led tremendous uptake for the regional fare. ZEE5, for example, saw almost 50 per cent viewership coming from regional-language content in Bengali, Telugu, Tamil, Marathi, and Kannada.

New kids on the block

During the year, regional OTT platform Planet Marathi OTT, exclusively for Marathi content, was launched. The year also saw the entry of a global streamer into India. NBC Universal-owned Hayu, the SVOD platform known for all-reality TV content, seeks to target niche audiences with its American reality television series. Hayu offers over 8,000 episodes of top reality TV content.

Earlier this year, Lionsgate launched Lionsgate Play, its streaming service, in the Indian market. The streamer recently released its first Hindi-language original dramedy series, ‘Hiccups & Hookups’ with Lara Dutta and Prateik Babbar in the lead. The platform, which witnessed a steady rise in customer acquisition from across the country, plans to premiere close to 60 titles by March 2022. Overall, Indian streaming platforms released almost 400 originals this year.

A bright future

The Indian OTT market will increase by 45% by 2023, as per the KBMG analysis. The country is poised to become the second-largest OTT market in the world after the US. The Indian OTT audience number has been pegged at 35.32 crore, with a penetration of 25.3%. One in four Indians consumes OTT content at least once a month.

Revenue from streaming platforms is likely to grow from the current $1.9 billion in 2021 to almost $4.5 billion by 2026, as per experts at the Media Partners Asia’s APOS India conference. The Indian video market will grow to $18.2 billion over the next five years. The analysts believe that the advertising video-on-demand (AVOD) segment will be the biggest revenue earner than the SVOD category. The AVOD will grow exponentially to reach $2.4 billion in 2026.

The SVOD segment, with 102 million SVOD subscribers and pegged at $0.8 billion as of 2021, is slated to reach $2.1 billion in 2026, with more than 200 million direct SVOD subscriptions.

Disney+ Hotstar, with 43 million subscribers, commands 29% of the overall viewership of the Indian OTT market. While Amazon Prime Video has 17 million subscribers, Netflix has five million subscribers. In FY21, Netflix had a topline of Rs 1526.36 crore, as against Rs 923.33 crore in the previous year.

While Netflix concentrated on its Originals, for which it is popular for, Disney+ Hotstar and Amazon released a couple of movies that were intended for theatrical releases.

Despite being a mobile-first country, there has been increasing adoption of smart TVs in India during the year. The connected TV market registered a whopping 65% YoY growth during the second quarter of 2021, with Xiomi, Samsung, Sony, and LG dominating the market during the second quarter of 2021.

Indeed the competition is growing. Netflix, meanwhile, slashed its prices across its subscription plans. According to analysts, it was a clever move in a price-conscious market like India.

Art-house and Indie

Great storytellers and Indie filmmakers, minus any storied pedigree to boot or the backing of big production houses, were hitherto forced to fend for themselves with little avenues to showcase their works. They never found a place in the traditional film distribution system. It is here that OTT brought a whiff of fresh air. Independent films with unorthodox themes, untouched by the usual trappings of mainstream films, were released digitally. Amazon Prime initially rejected the ‘Great Indian Kitchen’, a small-budget Malayalam movie without a stellar star cast. Later, the film was released on a new OTT platform, called Neestream. The content was so outstanding that people who watched the pirated versions of the movie started sending money to the director/ producer out of repentance. Filmmaker Don Palathara, known for his art-house films, showcased his films on MUBI. Such films would have remained within the confines of film festival circuits in the pre-OTT era.

‘Gatham’, a small-budget Telugu Indie movie shot in the US, is another classic case. Such a film would not have seen the light of the day in olden theatre-only days. It was released directly on Amazon Prime Video. Such independent, small-budget commercial movies are ideally suited for digital platforms. The dynamics in this regard need to evolve to encompass filmmakers of various categories and genres. Still, the future seems bright.

Overall, it has been a year of a lot of action as far as the Indian OTT ecosystem is concerned. It indeed paints a rosy picture as we bid adieu to 2021.