With subscriptions hitting a plateau and huge, overseas OTT platforms controlling budgets, smaller streaming companies that target particular regional languages or a sure style could also be due to their smaller scale. Platforms like aha video, Planet Marathi, OM TV and others say they haven’t needed to lower budgets since they began cautiously and have benefited from catering to region-specific audiences. Their hyperlocal content material and sluggish begin have given them time to guage the market and so they imagine catering to a selected area of interest has its personal benefits. Many wish to scale up and search funding.
“Being a homegrown participant has distinct benefits. Our proximity to shoppers permits us to have a greater understanding of their expectations. Though rising content material acquisition prices could pose a problem, we leverage our flexibility to make strategic bets that allow us to make sensible purchases whereas protecting a detailed eye on acquisition prices,” mentioned Rakesh C.Okay., head – SVoD and enterprise technique of aha, an OTT platform that primarily provides content material in Telugu and Tamil. The corporate can be experimenting with content material codecs that assist it faucet newer viewers classes whereas collaborations with hyperlocal companions are instrumental in increasing attain, C.Okay. added.
Akshay Bardapurkar, founding father of OTT platform Planet Marathi mentioned as a substitute of decreasing output, smaller gamers like them are attempting to be fully certain of what they put out. “Sarcastically, the most expensive reveals will not be the largest successes. It’s the small ones, extra rooted in native sensibilities that work,” he identified.
In a manner, smaller gamers don’t compete with worldwide giants on the subject of content material choices, Rajat Agrawal, director of Extremely Media and Leisure Group that owns Marathi OTT Extremely Jhakaas, mentioned. “To battle rising costs and competitors, they should undertake tiered pricing fashions, providing totally different subscription plans with various ranges of content material entry and options. Chunk-sized subscription plans work higher. They could undertake a extra focused advertising and marketing technique, specializing in digital promoting and natural development by way of social media, influencer collaborations, and word-of-mouth promotion, moderately than costly conventional advertising and marketing campaigns,” Agrawal mentioned.
That mentioned, smaller, homegrown OTT platforms face distinctive challenges in an setting the place even overseas rivals are controlling prices, mentioned Keerthi R Kumar, enterprise head, south, at digital promoting company FoxyMoron mentioned.
“One of many key challenges is competing with the huge assets and in depth content material libraries of bigger gamers. To battle competitors and rising costs, smaller gamers usually deal with differentiating themselves by providing area of interest content material that cater to particular viewers segments or by offering localized and regional content material that resonate with their goal market. Moreover, smaller gamers typically prioritize fostering robust relationships with content material creators and investing in unique content material that stand out from the choices of their opponents. This can assist them construct a loyal following and set up a novel model identification out there. Collaboration with different smaller gamers and deal with area or language particular content material is a doable outlet as effectively to remain forward of the curve,” Kumar mentioned.
The strategy of homegrown gamers has been totally different, mentioned Nitin Jai Shukla, founder and managing director of OM TV, an app for religious content material.
As a result of they didn’t begin by working at ranges the place manufacturing values or infrastructure prices had been large, they’ve at all times been cautious. “India is a various nation and you’ll cater to a number of niches when it comes to language or demography even when manufacturing values will not be excessive,” Shukla mentioned including that the corporate can be in talks with aggregators and a Marathi language OTT platform to collaborate on content material so as to strengthen its play.
Equally, this June, BookMyShow Stream had partnered with MUBI, a platform identified for worldwide content material to deliver world cinema titles to the TVoD (transaction video-on-demand) platform. Whereas larger gamers will proceed getting help from their dad or mum corporations, smaller OTTs who’ve already bridged the hole on a vernacular degree, should keep their momentum of regularly evolving and producing newer content material, mentioned Shivani Kamdar, affiliate inventive director at digital company SoCheers. “There are two issues these homegrown manufacturers have already recognized and gotten proper. One, to undertake short-form movies, which provides to the benefit of hyperlocalising the content material. And two, endorsing newer expertise that not solely drive newer audiences but additionally come low-cost,” Kamdar mentioned.
Supply: Live Mint