OTT to drive content consumption in tandem with TV in 2017: Saurabh Yagnik

Saurabh Yagnik, Executive Vice-President and Business Head, English Entertainment Cluster, Sony Pictures Networks India, gives his take on the kind of a media landscape he envisages in 2017. 

2017 promises to be another exciting year for the television industry. 2016 saw the first full year of the rollout of the new measurement system under BARC. This was transformational for the broadcast industry. Such transformations usually come with their own set of challenges. The English category in particular has been experiencing some headwinds under the new measurement system. We are hoping that the concerns of the genre will get addressed by BARC in the 2017 and the measurement system will reflect the true potential of the category going forward. 

2016 has seen the launch of OTT services and 2017 will witness a scale-up of this platform as a means of content consumption. We believe that OTT will help drive content consumption in tandem with television. 

Consumption of Hollywood movies is growing in India and this can be seen in the consistent, strong box office collection. Most studios have a very strong line-up for 2017, which will be good for the category. There has been substantial growth in social media conversation on Hollywood and other English content. We expect the trend to continue in a big way in 2017. English entertainment category will also see the momentum of consumption as interest in international content grows. 

Another area to watch is the impact of the new regulatory framework on distribution of channels. The year ahead will also see the impact of Phase 3 and Phase 4 of digitisation, so in all, 2017 will be a positive year for the category.