There was an era when neighbours in a village who didn’t have a telly gathered in a home who had one, with a dish connection. It was the time when watching Mahabharat, Ramayan, Malgudi Days, was a collective experience. Today, every home, and every person has a personal OTT subscription and that’s the impact of content-driven market and advertising! What changed? How did we end up living in the same home, yet in different rooms plugged into our own world? Answer: Our taste and preferences in data consumption did.
OTT & Chill
Over the years, people became more and more private, and quite choosy. When technology pampered the world with options, we as customers, didn’t leave anything to chance. We took all that we could and OTT was one such platform that didn’t cease to amaze us. One of the reasons they are called “Over-The-Top” is also because they dodged all the middlemen like media distribution channels, telecom networks and digital TV vendors/suppliers. However, the only way to connect with OTT was through connecting through a device.
These days, every major media channel is coming up with its own OTT platform to beat Netflix & Amazon Prime. Be it for HBO Max, Zee5, SONY Liv, or Hotstar, the competition is cutthroat. The war is ON!
Streaming Wars – The Number Game
The streaming services in India picked up momentum by leveraging on the juggernaut of TV consumers. Within the period of just 4 months from March to July last year in 2020, the OTT subscriber base crossed 29 million. Guess why? If you said “LOCKDOWN” out loud, you can go ahead and bang some plates!
Furthermore, research has predicted that these numbers will spike significantly making India the world’s second-biggest online video content consumer after China. OTT platforms won’t just be a place where you get to binge-watch your favourite movie or web-series anymore. This is where the marketers and advertisers want to be to craft and create engaging, unique content.
Another study demonstrates that the streaming war would intensify in India with more competitors and new platforms offering attractive data packs. The biggies better watch out for them.
After-effects of OTT on the advertising industry
It is quite evident that we’ve moved on from watching daily soaps on TV to watching them on our laptops and smartphones. The difference is, we don’t call them daily soaps anymore – we call it binge-watch.
Based on the PwC’s Global Entertainment and Media Outlook 2019–2023 report, the OTT market in India is projected to grow at 21.8% CAGR from `4,464 crore in 2018 to `11,976 crore in 2023.
The streaming platforms are a blessing in disguise for regional brands as the ads can be targeted and customized based on the individual data consumption pattern. That’s why the Spotify algorithm is so good at suggesting music based on the ones you’ve recently heard. OTT platforms provide that flexibility to modify creatives in regional languages and help advertisers allocate budgets according to the ad performance.
At 3 Dots Design Pvt. Ltd., we believe that streaming wars may or may not end, but their battles are certainly fueling up our efforts to reach out to consumers in a better way. Being one of the top digital agencies in Pune, our team of efficient and experienced digital experts ensures that we get to the core of the consumer needs and address the challenges they’ve been facing. While our range of 360-degree advertising services encompass all that the consumers are looking for, our portfolio speaks for itself in creative ways more than one. Visit www.3dotsdesign.in to find out all that we do.