Direction (1-7): Read the passage given below carefully and answer the questions. |
India has an insatiable appetite for data, especially on the go, with the proliferation of Over-The-Top (OTT) services. As millennials are increasingly ditching television for online content, the trend is only going to go up. Mobile connections in India, touted as one of the 10 largest video streaming markets globally this year, are expected to touch 850 million by 2022. This is music to the ears of OTT service providers such as Amazon Prime Video, for the scenario presents a huge growth opportunity. |
Within three years of its launch in the country, the American video streaming giant, with its large collection of exclusive movies, originals, Indian stand-up specials, etc., has become one of the leading players. Apart from English, it has local content in nine Indian languages. And it is priming for a win. In 2019, Amazon Studios, which produces and distributes films and TV series for Amazon, announced the commissioning of more than 20 new series globally; seven are from India. |
You have been in the industry for quite some time. What has driven the OTT space over the years? |
OTT content is driven by four key factors. One, 96% of homes in India have one TV. The ubiquitous mobile phone, which can stream and is available at very affordable price points, coupled with cheap data became the baseline for this growth to happen. The second part came from our demographics. India is a young country and younger people are more draw to on-demand content. |
The third factor is that a large amount of content in India was available in front of the paywa which was free and ad-supported. And the fourth one is high-quality premium content and movies coming so quickly. |
India is a very price-sensitive market Was that ever a challenge? |
To say that Indians don't pay for content is not correct. We are a very value-conscious society, which means we want to derive value out of what we pay. So there's a difference between cost-conscious and value-conscious. Indians have paid for cable TV all their lives, they have paid for cinema, and they are paying for good-quality premium content now. |
In your experience, how have viewing patterns changed over the years? |
Multiplexes have created a commercially viable option to offer great content to a segmented audience. I think streaming is doing exactly that for television. It allows us to create content like Made in Heaven, Mirzapur, Family Man, Breathe, Four More Shots Please!, and Inside Edgeall for differently segmented audiences but large enough in their own right. |
Is streaming movies on OTT impacting cinema? |
I look at it in two ways: What does the cinema give? It gives a window to watch a movie on the day of its release and it gives a fantastic experience in a theatre. It's an outing. The whole package is cinema. It's not just the content. As film-crazy as we are as a country, for the 1,900 movies we make [annually], we have just 9,000 screens. But we believe we have a role to play and an opportunity to serve the customers who may not always be able to go to every film in a cinema hall. We offer those films to customers in the language of their choice as early as possible. Mobile continues to be a leading device for streaming in the country and possibly will remain so for a period of time because that's the easiest entry point to get a screen. India is generally mobile-first, which doesn't mean it's mobile-only. We have also partnered with DTH players like Dish TV, Airtel, and Tata Sky to expand our customer base. If you are buying a device, we want to make sure that our content can come to you in the easiest manner possible. The choice of access is yours. We want to be available to you wherever you want to go. |
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