Market exists for both OTT and Linear Television
Abhishek Yadav
Sales Leader | E-commerce Strategist | Driving Revenue for Top Brands on Amazon| ISB MBA | Disney | Star Tv | Tata Sky | ESPN
Having spent over a decade in Media and as a consumer, I saw the evolution of entertainment from Cable Tv (Analogue) - to Digital - Launch of DTH - Launch of HD - Launch of OTT (Amazon Prime, Netflix, ZEE5, Disney+Hotstar) and with it the phenomenon of cord-cutting cropped up i.e., customers letting go of their Linear Television connections and making OTT their only source of entertainment.
But has it really happened, the data suggests otherwise -
The total subscriber base of Indian Television Industry has increased from 183 million in 2017 to 197 million.
It is equally true that #ott has seen subscriber surge up to 80% amid lockdown which could be attributed to the fact other entertainment options such as cinema halls and malls were shut.
But the key reason for linear television to exist parallelly with upcoming technologies and not fade away to cord-cutting in India:-
1. Cost of television subscription remains one of the lowest globally wherein ott platforms emerged as cheap alternatives of $ 100 cable subscriptions and offering their services around $ 10. However, cable still is around $ 5-6
2. The market is highly untapped and there are many homes in Tier 3 and Tier 4 towns where consumers are buying both the first television set and multi tv sets.
3. Entertainment is an ever-evolving ecosystem — from theatre to theatre plus satellite TV and now theatre plus satellite TV plus OTT.
Both will, co-exist together and increase the pie, there are currently only 197 million television connections including 2nd and 3rd Tv sets out of 298 million homes only 30-35 million #ott connections expected by 2021* some overlapping might happen but in a large market like India all serious television and ott com
*https://www.ibef.org/download/Media-and-Entertainment-June-2020.pdf
Chief Manager, GT MX
4 年It is similar to upgrading from feature phone to Smartphone however it definitely does not mean Feature phone market is diminishing. The digital content shift is happening primarily in growing and near metropolitan areas where the young nuclear families are on the rise. The age group, education level, data connectivity and new millennials are finding digital content more meaningful than the linear television. The market has shifted and we need to watch out for new markets and penetrate further.. Over the period of time, I see a downward trend for satellite television viewing.