New Delhi: Content material studios and producers for tv and streaming platforms, who’ve struggled with tight budgets with few new titles being greenlit over the previous few years, are seeing some hope from the Disney-Reliance merger. Many see the mixed entity as being good for brand new leisure launches regardless of an elevated deal with sports activities. Nevertheless, additionally they have reservations concerning the merger, saying it’ll cut back the variety of patrons within the business and will result in monopolistic behaviour.
Siddharth Anand Kumar, senior vp of movies and occasions at Saregama India, which owns boutique studio Yoodlee Movies, stated, “Mergers and acquisitions are a part of the cycle of any enterprise and as soon as concluded, there’s normal bullishness when it comes to commissioning of initiatives. It results in wholesome competitors amongst content material creators and is normally excellent news for the market.”
Some media business specialists stated the merged entity would enable for improvements and new launches to drive profitability. Whereas sports activities experience is a given, since each the satellite tv for pc and digital rights to the Indian Premier League (IPL) are actually below one umbrella, sports activities can be seasonal, they identified, necessitating a stream of normal leisure content material.
Navin Kathuria, government vice-president for built-in media at media company MudraMax, stated the merger would enable the 2 corporations to supply a big bouquet of content material throughout genres, together with leisure, sports activities, motion pictures, internet sequence, regional and youngsters. “The benefit will probably shift in direction of the platforms slightly than content material creators or producers. With such numerous viewers, content material producers will need their content material on this platform to be uncovered to the widest potential viewers. Whereas the funds or pricing technique for content material could endure minor changes, the main target will undoubtedly shift in direction of the merged entity offering superior content material,” Kathuria added.
That stated, business specialists had been fast to stress that the times of frenzied spending within the OTT house had been over and that tv continued to face challenges. Based on the Ficci EY report 2024, the TV section shrunk 1.8% in 2023, with promoting volumes dipping by 2.6% and pay TV houses down by two million. There shall be fewer marquee exhibits going ahead, and the economics must make sense for all, not simply these catering to the city viewers that indicators up for English and foreign-language content material, they stated.
Others identified that consolidation was not essentially good for innovation. The brand new entity’s dominance throughout varied points of broadcasting, together with income, content material, channel choices and distribution platforms, would pose a big problem for different linear gamers, Kathuria stated. Linear TV is already below stress from streaming companies, and the merged entity will probably exacerbate these struggles, making it tough for some to take care of their market share and even survive.
“Extra platforms available on the market means extra patrons. It’s probably that creators who provide content material shall be in for a more durable time if the dominant participant stays safe and avoids something new,” stated Partho Dasgupta, managing associate at Thoth Advisors and former CEO of BARC India.
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Revealed: 20 Mar 2024, 02:26 PM IST
Supply: Live Mint