Premium| Listen to this article |
NEW DELHI: As Indians take to online entertainment in a big way, a bunch of newer over-the-top (OTT) streaming platforms have emerged to cater to niche or target groups. While DIY TV is a service targeted at kids, EORTV is looking to tell only LGBTQ stories. BabaPlay, a new platform, is centred on the Ambedkar ideology. Media experts said these services realise they cannot compete with large platforms such as Netflix or Amazon Prime Video so they pick small target groups to meet special interests.
“It is a proven system on television where there have always been specific genres like sports, kids or regional language channels," said Sanjiv Jaiswal, founder of Baba Play, also a writer and director known for films like Fareb, Anwar, Pranaam and Shudra- The Rising.
Even Hindi cinema has been known for targeting audiences with specific themes like horror which the Ramsay brothers adopted in the 1980s, Jaiswal said. The platform that launched this December and plans to host short videos, besides web series, films and audio narratives on its platform, has streamed a show Ambedkar The Legend, based on events in the life of B.R Ambedkar with Marathi and Hindi film actor Vikram Gokhale playing the lead role. It is now ready with a thriller Quota which tells the story of a first-year Dalit student who faces discrimination at the hands of an upper caste student. “If a platform tries to please all segments, it will end up not satisfying anybody. Specific, targeted programming is the only way out," he added.
Deepak Pandey, chief executive officer, EORTV Media Pvt Ltd, said focus on one theme, in this case the LGBT community, can still translate into varied genres like drama, thriller or horror that his platform is eyeing.
EORTV plans to put out two new shows every month, as metro audiences take to its content. Even DIY TV, a subscription video-on-demand platform owned by DIY.org, a transmedia company in the learning space for kids, said it is trying to understand the customer to segment its content for children across age groups. Tripti Ahuja, co-founder and chief operating officer, said it is planning to introduce one show a week on the platform. Currently they include live-action, animation, fiction and non-fiction programmes in English such as The Outsiders Club, Junk Rescue, Pets in Paradise, among others.
“There is an audience for everything and somebody needs to capture those eyeballs. Not all platforms are meant for wide reach but even a niche audience base can be huge in India and give these services good bargaining power to eventually consolidate," said Mehul Gupta, co-founder and CEO at SoCheers, an independent digital agency.
Already India has services targeting specific segments: ALTBalaji looks at a predominantly small-town, Hindi-speaking audience in the heartland while NBC Universal-owned reality shows specialist hayu targets the 18-54 age group with a skew towards women, said Gupta. "Bigger sharks will acquire the smaller players in time but this is a period that everyone should be looking at just user acquisition," he added.
“India is a very diverse market with culture, ethnicities and languages unlike any other. This population is increasingly getting connected to the Internet through cheap devices that are possibly reaching where even television couldn’t. Every business has to define its niche because there can’t be a single language of telling stories," said Aneesh Dev, founder-director of WAMINDIA (Wide Angle Media Pvt Ltd), a content distribution company that has launched Dollywood Play, that premieres south Indian films dubbed in Hindi and targets tier-two and tier-three cities. “If the niche is strong, it will keep the audience hooked," said Dev who expects the future to be one dominated by super-aggregators that can offer bundled bouquets.
The SVoD (subscription video-on-demand) market in India is set to grow 51% to reach 90-100 million users by 2022 on the back of cheaper data plans and increasing internet penetration and touch $13-15 billion by 2030, according to a report by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Boston Consulting Group. Data consumption has risen by 40-50 times since 2014 and the share of digital in total video watch time has quadrupled, as has the number of OTT platforms.
Never miss a story! Stay connected and informed with Mint. Download our App Now!!