The Future of Regional OTTs in Digital Era in India

The regional OTT platforms came up with an alternative model to the theatrical and television screening with weekly new releases and native content such as Aha; Telugu regional OTT has launched 'Every Friday new release with the title of the program as 'Aha Puram' and Talk shows with Regional Super Stars and Web Series with nativity themes. Regional streaming platforms lead the entertainment industry worldwide with the highest subscriptions from regional language audiences. During the COVID 19 pandemics, regional OTTs have registered a rapid growth rate in India. Desi streaming platforms such as Jio cinema, Sonyliv, Zee5, and others have competed with global services like Amazon Prime, Netflix, and Hotstar. This technological swiftness and audience behavior have boosted the regional OTT industry's growth to cater to the restricted audience's needs with the nativity infotainment flavor. Regional OTT platforms such as Aha, Add times, Hoichoi, and Dollywood Play, emerged as leading regional OTT streaming platforms. The media and entertainment industry report shows that OTT has a 7-9% market share. However, by 2030, its market share is predicted to extend to 22%-25%. In this context, this research study aims to study the future of the regional OTT movie business in the digital era by reviewing the secondary quantitative data adopted by the content analysis methodology.

Over-the-top services(OTT) deliver the content to the audience through the internet without cable or satellite television connections. The COVID 19 pandemic has changed our way of watching films; now, OTT platforms are our new mini cinema halls to watch movies. The recent developments in internet connections have significantly impacted our Traditional media like television and Print because the OTT platforms came into existence. With these OTT platforms, you can access your content anytime, anywhere. The growth of digital devices is creating a massive demand for these OTT platforms across the globe. During this pandemic, the usage of OTT platforms by the audience is very high because theatres are being shut down in India. In 2020, India's paid subscriptions exceeded 50 million for the first time (FICCI, 2021). There isn't any regulatory frame in India that controls streaming content material for OTT platforms.

For this reason, there is a massive demand for original OTT content in India. Global video streaming platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime, YouTube, Hot star, VOOT, ZEE5, Alt Balaji, etc., are making huge profits in India. According to the new  India Online Video & Broadband Distribution 2021 report published by Media Partners Asia (MPA), India's OTT platform generated US $ 1.5 billion in revenue during the pandemic. India has over 60 OTT platforms, and out of these top platforms, Amazon, YouTube, Hotstar, and Netflix accounted for a combined 85% share of revenue in 2020. The percentage of regional language usage on OTT platforms will cross 50% of the total revenue by 2025 (FICCI, 2021). There is no limit to the digital presence these days to find digital devices, even in small villages in India. The consumption of regional language content through OTT is very high. During the pandemic, the consumption of regional OTT gained a lot of subscribers. Until 2018, there were two to three pure-play regional OTT services. There are over 15, with many more slated to launch in 2021(Sohini Mitter, 2021). Last year, the regional OTT platforms expanded into Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana. Some of the popular regional platforms are Addatimes (Bengali), Aha (Telugu), DollywoodPlay (Hindi), Hoichoi (Bengali), Koode (Malayalam), Neestream (Malayalam), Oho Gujarati, Olly Plus (Odia), Planet Marathi OTT (Marathi), Reel Drama (Assamese), Sun NXT (Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Bengali), Talkies (Tulu, Kannada).

According to Google reports for 2020, 90 percent of people prefer searching in their language. It has impacted the selection and decision of the people for everything, including OTT viewing. ""The pandemic has accelerated the expansion of OTT at an unprecedented rate because people are spending longer and thus trying to seek out content to enjoy (Abhishek Sharma, 2021). According to the FICCI-PwC report, the share of regional language usage in OTT platforms will cross 50% of the total time spent by 2025, reducing past Hindi to 45%.

Use the link to read full Research Paper: 

https://www.cmr.edu.in/icodim2024/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/ICOMDA-Proceedings-Book1-ISBN-978-93-94757-02-8.pdf