Viacom18’s Gourav Rakshit’s 4 principles to take OTT from good to great

“OTT is at the cusp of becoming a mainstream disruptor of the media & entertainment industry in India,” said Gourav Rakshit, COO, Viacom18 Digital Ventures, while delivering the opening Keynote Address at Adgully’s SCREENXX 2021 Summit & Awards, held yesterday (October 7, 2021).

He further said that while the ad-supported free VOD consumption engine is well underway, the subscription revenue is just getting started. While there are some OTT players who think that the industry is already there – people should be willing to pay, “the truth is that they represent only a microcosm of the Indian society that is now willing to pay for digital content,” Rakshit added.

While people access paid services through bundles, data plans, but reaching into wallets to pay for digital media service is not happening on a wide scale. “Outside a subscriber for cricket, which is this country’s most secular religion, direct subscriber volumes are in the millions. That’s certainly not very impressive,” Rakshit said.

So, what does that mean for us as an industry? Rakshit remarked, “It’s clear that we will grow exponentially for the next few years as consumer paying habits catches up with the platforms’ ability to deserve it. And I say deserve it, because I do think it is a journey for all of us to deserve that consumers’ money.”

He went on to outline four principles, which are used at Voot to set course for a brand new tomorrow. “While it’s tempting to think that content is what we place at the centre of this industry – and it does finds its way into everything we do and think – but at the centre is always the user,” he added.

“The first principle,” Rakshit said, “is somewhat counter-intuitive bracing principle, which is set course wisely in line with your appetite and life stage. It’s very tempting to try and do more. There’s a bunch of OTT services out there and more to come, and it is a great opportunity, but it’s really important to know your own mission. It is very easy to get swayed by what’s cool and sexy, especially in the microcosm we inhabit. We start to lose focus on our true mission.”

At Voot, these past few years have been critical to make the transition from a bootstrapped service to a good business and brand. It would have been very tempting to play directly for greatness, but candidly it would bely the understanding of where we are and what it takes to be truely great. “This journey has forced us to focus on the things that we decided mattered the most. And it actually forced us to turn a blind eye to many of the tenets that are really important for greatness, but it would have thrown our organisation completely off course,” he added.

On what steps Voot took, Rakshit said that they reduced focus on large expensive content properties which typically suck up disproportionate attention across all the teams in a system. And that was in favour of building even more compelling, more engaging platform and service. “It’s an extremely difficult choice, especially coming from the microcosm that we all belong to. We are all exposed to what we think of as great, even though they have journeys of their own. But the journey to good isn’t a walk in the park either and it is not a compromise victory. It’s what we set out to achieve,” Rakshit further said.

“Our markers of success are actually what keep us going. We do now have the highest levels of engagement in the industry – we have the best unit economics in the industry, brand strength has tripled vis-a-vis competition, we managed to launch two subscription services – Voot Select and Voot Kids, all born into lockdown, and very focussed on specific audiences. These are all incredibly valuable assets for the journey ahead – our journey from good to great,” he added.

The second principle that Rakshit spoke about was obsessing about tomorrow’s user. “It’s a tempting and very common occurrence in terms of focus on the user, but I think it is especially hard to focus on tomorrow’s user,” he remarked, adding, “The articulation of our second principle is inspired by our recent foray into streaming football on Voot – play the ball into the space where the user will be, not where the user is. We do need to obsess about what it is telling us – what do they want? What will they want? Are they able to unscramble this complex maze we set out of them which is the sum and substance of all our intentions? For example, in the content space shouldn’t we explore whether users are really happy when we leave a web series unfinished at a critical hook point and only give resolution in season 2?”

Watch the complete address below: