MX Player has seen 40% surge in consumption since Janta Curfew: Mansi Shrivastav

OTT streaming content can be categorised into two buckets – original content and acquisitions. The conversation in the streaming sphere has mostly been about original content, although on most OTT platforms acquired content makes up the bulk of the content offering (up to 90 per cent).

On OTT platforms, acquisition partnerships can be broadly categorised as broadcast partnerships, cross platform partnerships (other OTT players), and content partnerships. Investments into these partnerships is an ongoing process as OTTs have to refresh their content on a month-on-month basis.

Acquiring a content piece for a platform isn’t as simple as going for the blockbuster content. The content must build affinity to the platform and fit the users’ tastes in terms of culture, genre, interest and freshness. Content has to be a mix of long tail to ensure snackable viewing, along with a heady mix of exclusives that fit the brand positioning.

The annual ‘State of Mobile 2020’ report released by App Annie states that mobile has consistently emerged the go to entertainment device for consumption of video streaming content. The report found that globally, consumers spent 50 per cent more sessions in Entertainment apps in 2019 than in 2017. India has been leading this growth with 80 per cent more time spent on entertainment apps compared to 2017 (on Android phones). 

In 2019, MX Player stood on top as the top OTT platform in terms of YoY growth in time spent on the app consuming video content. The technology platform beat Hotstar, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Jio TV, all of whom have a stronger background in entertainment.

Barring originals, MX Player’s library boasts of 160,000-170,000 hours of content that is refreshed weekly. Their main offering consists of web shows, catch-up TV and movie content across 10 languages. However, they also have short form, long tail and gaming to offer users.

An unlike some of their competitors, the platform does not have the luxury of deep pockets to make Softbank like decisions in their content acquisition play. Mansi Shrivastav, Head of Acquisitions and Partnerships at MX Player, is responsible for building their library of acquired content.

Between data analyses, viewing content, negotiating the partnership, and maintaining a robust pipeline, she and her team have brought MX Player to be the 7th highest video streaming app globally in terms of times spent (App Annie). Every content strategy is informed by the user and in an exclusive conversation with Adgully, Shrivastav sheds light on MX Player’s acquisition strategy in detail.

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What is the challenge of acquiring content for a platform whose proposition to the user is ‘Everytainment’ or Entertainment for Everybody?

Currently, we have about 160,000 to 170,000 hours of content. We are constantly adding more content and the endeavour is to have a high refresh rate every week.

We cater to a very diverse audience so our offering is not limited to web shows, but also includes live TV, shows, short form, animation and language content (regional languages and international content).

Each category needs to be refreshed over a time period and so the pipeline has to be constantly robust, because there isn’t a uniform offering. For example, in language content each has to have a customised focus to cater to the regional viewers.

We are adding 5-10 pieces of content on a monthly basis across genres and categories – dubbed, catalogued, new shows, etc. We are also adding films in 10 languages and linear TV channels.

The acquisition of new content is happening after looking at the availability of content and the shelf life of existing content. Our decision to acquire a new piece of content depends on what needs to refreshed at different points in time.

What is your acquisition strategy? What informs your choices in terms of the content that you go after?

For us and anybody else, every piece of content that is picked up is informed by the consumer. MX Player is a free platform available to audiences in Tier 1, 2 and 3 cities and towns, so our strategy is keeping those audiences in mind. It is not just about getting great content, but about getting great content for the right consumer and that fit is what we are constantly looking for.

The endeavour is to ensure that you are not alienating the viewer with your content, but building affinity to the platform. Luckily for us, MX Player has had a steady base of viewers on the platform over the last 2 years and we have a certain idea as to what content is working and what is not working.

There’s a two-fold strategy that informs our content choices. One is by looking at data driven metrics and observing what consumers are already watching. We observed that Turkish content dubbed into Hindi performed really well. An example, a show called ‘Our Story’ was successful, so we’ve invested more in Turkish content.

That, however, won’t work if we are trying out new genres like Korean or Chinese shows. In that case, it isn’t data but recognition of the content itself that informs our decision. The story has to fit our decision-making matrix as to whether the audience will like it or not.

Web shows account for 40 per cent of the consumption on the platform. The rest is coming from TV shows and movies. We’ve entered into important partnerships with Sony Pictures Networks India and Viacom18 to that degree. Metrics like BARC data, cast of the content, who is making it and gender-based affinity towards the story all inform our decisions. Since we have a big skew towards a male audience, we do tend to pick stories that appeal to that gender.

There is also a tendency towards basic Return on Investment (RoI), however that is more of a commercial consideration and not viewership driven. A composition of these evaluation pieces in the matrix guides us before we decide to move forward with a piece of content.

Looking at data and what the audience is, is important, but there is also an effort to constantly try new things. The idea at MX Player is to never stick to one genre and type of content.

How does your acquisition strategy complement your original content strategy?

We try to marry the two content buckets by activating certain categories.

With original content, the focus is to ensure a fantastic top of the line product and creating a brand perception suitable to MX Player. We also look at these shows from a monetisation aspect.

When it comes to acquired content, one has to consider a combination of various kinds of content. There is long tail content that is available on other platforms like broadcast and in diverse genres like news, music, popular shows like award shows, music shows, and short form content (short films) that helps the overall category.

When we launched ‘Queen’, it activated the regional market for us in a big way. This was followed by the partnership with Sun NXT, which aligned well with the launch of ‘Queen’. This way, the users who came to the platform to watch ‘Queen’ remained on the platform by watching Sun NXT content.

What sort of investments are required to maintain such a diverse library of content? Since the launch have your investments escalated to match the demand in the industry?

I won’t be able to share absolutes, but almost 50 pr cent of our overall budgets at MX Player are dedicated to acquisitions.

We are keeping up with the market growth and meeting the requirements of our own content pipeline. Though I would say that we are not escalating budgets disproportionately. The cost of acquisition of content and licensing fees are going up YoY. When it comes to negotiations, we are frugal but are making adequate investments to meet the requirement of the content. Whether or not money is going into one pocket or another, we never compromise on the quality of content. In our 3rd year of operations, our content investments have seen a steady growth.

Is content exclusivity an important parameter when you negotiate with your partners?

There’s a lot of perception around exclusivity of content being a great idea, but it is not as if only exclusive content delivers. MX Player is a massive platform with a captive audience, a lot of whom are mobile first, as far as screens are concerned. In our experience, good exclusive content has delivered for us. There are shows from the stable of SonyLIVand VOOT, which have proven that.

From a movie’s perspective, we have a catalogue of 1,300 movies and they work even as non-exclusives.

Exclusivity does matter and it is an important part of our strategy. We target exclusivity as far as web shows are concerned, which make up for a bulk of our content consumption. So, content pieces like ‘Bhaukaal’, ‘Hello Mini’, and ‘Immature’ are all licensed shows, which are also MX Player exclusives.

We are not just offering web shows on our platform, but also building that category (marketing promotions) and so, we definitely look for exclusivity in that category from the point of view of perception, viewership and monetisation.

From your international content library, what have been some of the pieces that have stood out?

‘Shanaya Chronicles’, Korean shows such as ‘Rich Man, Poor Woman’; ‘Something About 1 Percent’; ‘The King in Love’; a Spanish show called ‘I’m Alive’, have been our recent additions to international content. ‘Shanaya Chronicles’ and the Korean dramas have been well received. Usually, it is the same kinds of audiences that consume these shows irrespective of the genre.

Over the coming weeks, we are adding 25 new language titles to our library. We’re adding an English show called ‘Utopia Falls’; Korean dramas like ‘Doctor John’ and ‘Where Stars Land’ soon. We’ve recently closed a deal with the producers of ‘Fatmagul’, which is a popular show that has received international attention.

MX Player has 180 partnerships that are constantly being refreshed. Our partnerships include Konnect Digital, Freemantle, SVF, Tencent, Televisa, and Calinos Entertainment. On the basis of availability of content and if it matches our requirements, we keep updating our library with their content.

COVID-19 has resulted in higher OTT viewership. Have you observed any consumption trends that stand out?

In the current environment, everyone is seeing a surge as entertainment is the one avenue that is safe and available to everybody.

Being a free platform with a strong mobile presence, we have seen a 40 per cent surge in consumption on the platform since PM Modi declared the Janta Curfew. We’ve also seen a 7X jump in engagement since the announcement.

The bulk of consumption has been across our expected genres like web shows, TV shows and movies. Other categories like news are also seeing a spike in consumption. However, other categories remain largely unchanged.

With the ongoing crisis, are you facing a challenge in refreshing your content library?

Acquisitions are planned at least 3-4 months in advance, so I’m not worried about it from a pipeline perspective. If the situation persists till May (shoots being stalled), then we will have to find innovative ways of tackling this problem. Right now, there is no fresh content being made in the entertainment industry.

Hopefully, that situation doesn’t arise. There is still time for us to be concerned, because our acquired pipeline is planned well in advance.

Read More: OTT is going to be a content game: Gautam Talwar, MX Player

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