Tirupati: OTT platforms enjoy increased patronage

Tirupati: While the coronavirus-induced lockdown has swayed the fortunes of various sectors, either for good or bad, it has certainly turned the tables for the entertainment industry.

In this context, Over The Top (OTT) platforms seem to have emerged as a game-changer in the field.

People desperate for entertainment, in absence of TV serials and cinema theatres, have found the much-needed solace in OTT platforms, with many of them showcasing an increased patronage in the past couple of months. Studies reveal that majority of the digital customers globally are the youth who spend more than 300 minutes online per day compared to 126 minutes by their elders.

Undoubtedly, several big players in the field have embraced the transition towards OTT. With the Covid-19 resultant lockdown, the cinema industry is also contemplating moving towards the new platform and already started releasing a few movies on it and several OTT players are approaching the producers to release more movies on their platforms.

Though TV serials attract majority of the viewers, prolonged lockdown has stopped the shootings. Youth could not find much content on TVs and they were attracted to OTTs which offered innumerable web series in different languages and wide range of content.

Even TV serials are being streamed on OTT. All these have resulted in the reduced usage of cable or direct to home connections.

A techie and a regular subscriber of Netflix B Sandeep has said that there is always an added advantage of OTTs that the content can be watched any time and at any place if smart phone or tab is in the hands along with affordable subscription rates. Even smart TVs are also available to make family members watch the content together.

Netflix has gained 15.7 million subscriptions in the first three months of the year taking the total subscribers to 182.8 million worldwide to become one of the world's largest entertainment services. The subscriber base of Amazon Prime, Disney Hotstar is also pointing upwards making several other companies like Zee5, Sun Next, Aaha and others to join the wave.

Another techie MVS Subramanyam commented, "When thousands of movies and other web series are available at a much affordable price and with a great quality, where is the need to go for another modes of entertainment."

Even the producers are looking at these platforms with an eye on the digital rights revenue along with satellite rights. It has to be seen whether OTT will become a threat to big screen in future as the later has its own advantages. Who will emerge the winner in this changing digital landscape is a million-dollar question now?