INDIAN OTT PLATFORMS REPORT 2019 New Regional Flavours, more Entertaining Content INDIAN TRENDS 2018-19 Relevant Statistics & Insights from an Indian Perspective. Prologue Digital technology has steered the third industrial revolution and influenced human civilization as a whole. A number of industries such as Media, Telecom, Retail and Technology have witnessed unprecedented disruptions and continue to evolve their existing infrastructure to meet the challenge. The telecom explosion in India has percolated to every corner of the country resulting in easy access to data, with Over-The-Top (OTT) media services changing how people watch television. The Digital Media revolution has globalized the world with 50% of the world’s population going online and around two-thirds possessing a mobile phone. Social media has penetrated into our day-to-day life with nearly three billion people accessing it in some form. India has the world’s second highest number of internet users after China and is fully digitally connected with the world. There is a constant engagement and formation of like-minded digital communities. Limited and focused content is the key for engaging with the audience, thereby tapping into the opportunities present, leading to volumes of content creation and bigger budgets. MICA, The School of Ideas, is a premier Management Institute that integrates Marketing, Branding, Design, Digital, Innovation and Creative Communication. MICA offers specializations in Digital Communication Management as well as Media & Entertainment Management as a part of its Two Year Post Graduate Diploma in Management. In addition to this, MICA offers an online Post-Graduate Certificate Programme in Digital Marketing and Communication. These programmes provide a holistic understanding of the digital environment with insights into digital companies and platforms, and their strategies and innovations. This has enabled MICA to remain at the forefront in addressing the needs of a complex, ever-changing global market and consumer environment, and in preparing future leaders for a digitally enabled world. The Over-The-Top (OTT) Report developed by MICA, is thus an endeavour in this direction. The report encompasses in-depth research and analysis from an Indian perspective and is one of its kind. Happy reading! Dr. Shailendra Raj Mehta President and Director, MICA, The School of Ideas. Dean’s Message The global trends in Media and Entertainment (ME) sector are rooted in digital transformations - new technology, tools and platforms, increasingly driven by locally and globally diverse consumer preferences. There is a great creative and business opportunity for local language specific and culture appropriate content innovations, and expanded usage of digitally enabled platforms relevant for diverse audience connect in various parts of the world. Media and Entertainment companies are developing and integrating digital strategies, especially content based story telling in order to connect better with digitally-enabled consumers to create meaningful experiences and long-term relationship. MICA has been one of the first academic institutes to: recognise the global disruption; promise of the digital revolution; and power of leveraging the associated transformation. We have incorporated and mainstreamed the digital transformation and ME sector management learning in the school curriculum, as well as develop a business management specialisation in this area. In addition to business management, strategic marketing, brand management, marketing analytics, corporate and culture communication subjects, the institute now offers a specialization in Digital Communication Management as part of its two year Post Graduate Diploma in Management/Communications Programs (PGDM and PGDM-C). Another shorter online Post Graduate Certificate Programme in Digital Marketing and Communication is also offered regularly. We are also developing deep relationships and partnerships with Media and Entertainment Industry leaders for short-term courses, executive learning programs, knowledge co-creation and cutting edge analytical research. These programs provide all participants a holistic understanding of the digital environment, and they learn about digital companies and platforms, strategies, marketing, communication, innovations - in order to gain a thorough grounding of consumer insight mining and engagement - critical in learning the most effective ways of connecting industry and consumers worldwide. MICA’s Media and Entertainment Management Specialisation is responsive to the industry that is particularly impacted by the digital disruption and offers an increasingly attractive career path for the next generation creative and analytical managers and leaders. Through such creative and collaborative initiatives, MICA as an institute continues to remain at the forefront in addressing the needs of a complex, ever-changing global market and consumer environment, and prepares our future leaders for the digitally enabled world. Preeti Shroff, PhD Dean - MICA, The School of Ideas. Foreword Media and Entertainment industry has seen a big push over the last few years due to the growth of digital consumption. Digital domain has been growing at a fast pace. Consumption habits and patterns are transforming over years. Factors like easy access to internet, cheap smart phones, additional screens, affordable data plans, and higher bandwidth availability have been responsible for such transformation. India has become a competitive market for average bandwidth availability per user. The cost of accessing content has also drastically fallen in the last couple of years. Over the Top (OTT) platforms have redefined their purpose and need for the consumers over the years. The growing popularity of on demand content have given a push to language content creators with more prolific and relatable content. We at MICA found the need to study the trends of OTT content and consumption, and hence this report. While OTT players are thriving to achieve their best, there was a need to understand the dynamics of each platform from consumption, content, cost, revenue, and connections point of view. The report has illustrations, interviews, insights, graphs, trends, data points, and analysis of OTT platforms. India has a variety of OTT players operational. We have received very encouraging feedback from the readers of the report last year. In addition, to the content of last year we have added newer platforms, and news apps as well. This will help the reader look at the different category in a more holistic way. This report is a step towards making an exploration in the space of OTT platforms. Technological developments will continue to enhance the consumption experience. The growing demand of content will further enable the content strategy teams to identify relatable local content on these global platforms. This report gives you a comprehensive understanding of who consumes what, on which platform, how and most importantly why. Happy reading! Dr. Darshan Ashwin Trivedi, Editor Indian OTT Platforms Report and Adjunct Faculty, MICA, The School of Ideas. Preface It has been almost a year since we released the first volume of the INDIAN OTT PLATFORMS REPORT. The overwhelming response that we have received on the first volume from the media fraternity, the entertainment industry, and especially the leaders of various OTT platforms is the motivation behind the second edition of this report. With this edition, we continue our in-depth efforts in mapping, analyzing, and decluttering the enfolding story of the Indian OTT industry. While the continuing meteoric growth of the Indian OTT industry is almost mirroring the steady expansion of the global industry, it is peculiar in many ways. As we predicted in the first volume, all major players have turned their focus towards acquiring and dishing out more and more regional content. This trend is likely to continue in the coming years, as the players look to make their regional offerings full spread to include news, movies, devotional, business, kids, etc. categories. Another trend that's likely to intensify in the coming year is the innovative use of interactivity coupled with live content. Sports, news, and reality shows already enjoy a sizable share of the Indian audience. And the OTT platforms are smartly integrating interactivity and marketing them aggressively to lure the TV audience to the platforms. Apart from analyzing the exciting trends within the OTT industry, this report also explores a few other players like The Times of India, Flipboard, In Shorts etc. Players who don't strictly fall in the OTT category and yet they compete for the same audience and often with overlapping content. However, they are positioning themselves as a boutique offering catering to a targeted audience. These are exciting times for both the content creators and consumers. I hope you enjoy reading the report as much as we have enjoyed putting it together. Chirag Dagli Director - Communication Crafts Message From CMES We are delighted to introduce the second edition of MICA’s OTT report- an initiative of the Centre for Media and Enter- tainment Studies (CMES). CMES - an initiative of MICA, aims at bridging the gap between Academia and the Media & Entertainment indus- tries through research-based solutions for enduring contemporary issues and problems. While focusing on academic research related to the Media and Entertainment sector, the Centre is also focusing on grooming talents with industry orientation, at its