The Rise of OTTs

Trailer: The Rise of OTTs

I finished watching the remaining 2 episodes of El Chapo Season 2 and Altered Carbon on Netflix recently. While El Chapo entertained me with the fascinating tale of the Mexican drug-lord, Altered Carbon exposed me to the possible technological future where human consciousness could be backed up and even transferred to other sleeves, hence fulfilling what most always dream of – immortality.

The last decade has seen a lot of changes in the entertainment space. People who were content with a 700 Mb DVDRIP of the latest movie, have now upgraded to BRRIPs in either 1080p or 4k depending on the storage space in their portable hard drives. The Movie industry in India too is progressing with premium large formats like IMAX and 4DX managing to carve a niche among the movie cinema/theatre goers. However with players like Jio opening up the data war between mobile network providers, entertainment seekers are opting convenience over quality/experience.

So where does that leave our beloved idiot box or television? The days of twisting the antenna rod to get the right reception have become history. These Terrestrial users (currently only 1%) have slowly shifted to other options such as DD Free Dish (13%), other paid DTH providers (31%), Digital Cable (44%) and Analog Cable (10%) as per BARC (July 2018). In simple words, you watch what is being shown on the respective TV channels at that point of time. But the scene is rapidly changing with intelligent TVs foraying into this sector which sets up the future for the hero of this story, OTT.

OTTs or “Over The Top” services are content providers which distribute media over the internet. Most of them have free as well as paid options. While these have the advantage of being used over devices such as Smartphones, laptops and tablets; the entry of smart TVs into this space is literally bringing in the concept of a “home multiplex”. Just like a multiplex comprises of different theatres within the same complex, a home-multiplex consists of multiple screens within the same home.

The following chapters (or episodes in this case) aims at giving a perspective of how the above services are soon going to change the face of India through the lens of my own journey which started in the Summer of ‘17.

Episode 1: The Big Shift

We had just moved into a fully furnished flat in March 2017, not very far from my new office in Lower Parel. The house had everything barring a few appliances and hence getting a brand new big TV was top of the “must-have” list. After some research and word of mouth from my cousin, I settled for a 55” 4K Television set by VU which offered one of the most value for money products in 2017. The TV remote had customized buttons for YouTube and Netflix, which instantly made me try the 1 month free subscription that Netflix offered. In fact we didn’t have a “regular TV set top box” for a few months and I must admit, I personally didn’t miss much considering the time I spent in office and the limited time I had at home for TV viewing. During this period, I learnt that the VU TV ran on the Opera OS, which meant I couldn’t install regular apps like Hotstar, Sony LIV etc. on the TV. It was during this time that I came to know that the new Google Chromecast Ultra (which was released around November 2016 in USA) was available on ebay. This could stream in 4K quality as well, which made it the perfect buy for my 4K TV. The product reached my home in a few days and I could now cast programs on Hotstar from my mobile to TV. My photos saved on Google Photos (having unlimited storage space) could also be cast directly from my iPhone to my TV using the Chromecast. Things were going well, until I realized that videos from Amazon Prime couldn’t be cast from the mobile app via Chromecast due to a conflict between Google and Amazon. My tech savvy cousin advised me to use a laptop and cast videos on Amazon Prime from Chrome browser and this worked like a charm. This too started becoming inconvenient as the laptop was placed 3 metres away from the couch and I had to drag my lazy bum all the way there when the video needed to be paused or changed.

The constant nagging of my wife, who wanted to lead a normal life, forced me to get an Airtel Digital TV box which had an inbuilt 4K Google Chromecast, rendering the one I had already bought useless. But the new Airtel Digital TV device had a cool remote with voice recognition features. To explain this to my 4 year old daughter, I pressed the voice button on the remote and said “Kung Fu Panda”. In a few seconds, a few channels popped on the screen, where the movie was playing. I clicked on one of the options (obviously on an HD channel) thus relinquishing total control of the TV till the movie was over. The Airtel box, being an android device, allowed me to install TV apps using my Google account. For the sake of viewing the programs, I was already watching on my Mobile, on a bigger screen ,I even tried side-loading (installing an APK file on an android device) a few apps on Airtel android device but unfortunately the ones those mattered didn’t work. Hotstar at that point of time, didn’t even have an official Android TV app!

Episode 2: The Netflix Invasion

A few months passed, during which I had become a loyal Netflix follower. There were months when I had upgraded my existing Netflix plan of ?650 (standard) to the ?800 (premium) one just to watch the new season of Narcos or Marvel series like Daredevil and Defenders in 4K. Conversations on one of my cousin’s group on Whatsapp revolved around ranking the different Marvel series. Although my choices were mainly restricted to sci-fi/thriller genres like Black Mirror, Stranger Things, Touch, Ozark, Star Trek-Discovery, Dark, Lost in Space etc., I occasionally did probe into other genres to satisfy my entertainment needs. Titles like 13 Reasons Why, Atypical, The End of the F***ing World, You Me & Her etc. were shocking and amusing at times and they opened my mind to first world problems which in some way have already started impacting Indians as well. There were a few highly rated titles such as Mindhunter, Riverdale etc. which entered my watch list but failed to go the whole way. Language wasn’t an obstacle due to the availability of subtitles on Netflix. A Russian series called Sniffer sneaked into our family entertainment time as well. In fact its theme music (Years and Seconds by BrainStorm) was so catchy that I didn’t mind paying ?18 on the iTunes store to buy the ringtone. But if there was one Netflix title that we enjoyed watching together as a family, it was “Somebody Feed Phil”. Before your next international trip, I would highly recommend watching the respective episodes of this series. In fact, we have added a few places/countries in our bucket list thanks to the 2 seasons of SFP.

It’s not only me and my wife who share my Netflix account. My daughter has a profile too (with a Kids setting) and we do allow her to watch her favorite programs almost everyday. Weekends are the time when she is allowed to play some games on the iPad. My recent mistake of installing Netflix on the iPad reduced her play time on the tablet as well. Nowadays, after getting bored of playing a few games, she switches to Netflix and watches one of her favourite shows, Peppa Pig. But it doesn’t end here. I share my account with my 2 sisters, one of whom used to stay in Czech Republic. Once in a while I face problems watching something on Netflix as my current subscription (standard) does not allow me to simultaneously use more than 2 screens.

Come November 2017, and the iPhone X was the hottest buzzing topic on earth. This snazzy smartphone costed ?1.02 Lakhs but I figured this was the only luxurious thing a middle class person like me could ever afford in a city like Mumbai, without having to become a slave of the bank, paying humongous EMIs for the rest of your life. The portrait photos taken on this phone was a big hit especially while attending my cousin’s wedding in the same month. The revolutionary notch on my new phone didn’t interfere with my regular viewing time. Thanks to the option of downloading select series/movies on the mobile, I was entertained while traveling and dining out alone.

Around the same time Hotstar had also released its app for Android TV and I could finally watch programmes on the big screen/my personal 55” theatre.

Episode 3: Attack of the Clowns

I am not sure if it is FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) or the greed to be on top of the technological chain, but the Amazon Fire Stick managed to enter our lives in January 2018. This had a separate remote of its own thus increasing the total number of remotes in our house to 3 (the earlier 2 being the TV remote and the Airtel digital TV box remote).

Since Amazon bundled different products into the Amazon Prime product (like faster delivery, access to Prime Videos and later on Amazon Music), buying the introductory annual package for ?499 after the 1 month free trial in April 2017 was a no-brainer.

The Baahubali craze was on during this time and Amazon Prime was quick to latch on to this by releasing Baahubali: The Lost Legends, an animated series based on stories that happened before the plot of the original mega blockbuster movies. The only catch here was that die-hard fans (like me and my daughter) had to wait every week for the new episode to be released.

“Inside Edge”, an Amazon original, released in July 2017 had me hooked for a week. This fast paced cricketing drama was the perfect blend of fact and fiction for every cricket lover. But interestingly, this was the show that set up the war among international players to curate locally customized content. Prime Video soon became the “go to OTT” for catching up on the movies I had missed watching in theatres.

It’s August 2018 now and I have already bought annual subscriptions to 3 more OTTs. Karenjit Kaur, The untold tale of Sunny Leone enticed me to get Zee5 and the lack of time to watch one of my favorite reality shows, Indian Idol, tempted me to get Sony LIV. Only recently I realised that my sister’s Hotstar account (which I was using so far) had already expired in May, 2018. My usage on this app had peaked during IPL this year where I had collected a few Dominos coupons after participating in the “Watch N’ Play” contest. I remember being pissed off when all the coupons I had collected over a period of 2 months literally vanished as soon as the IPL got over. Nobody takes back a gift. I wonder what the Hotstar folks were thinking! Anyways, I bought the annual membership for Hotstar for ?999 considering the fact that I am still stuck at Season 5 of “Game of Thrones” and have lots to catch up.

Earlier, while adding different apps on the Fire Stick, I thought of checking out the Jio Cinema app too, which is exclusive to those who have a Jio SIM/connection. I used my wife’s number to log in and was surprised to find the latest Tomb Raider poster in the Movies section. “Well, this was a movie I had missed watching out in the theatre and none of the other players had bought the rights too. What a splendid move by Reliance to heat up the competition.” I thought. But this excitement was short-lived when I clicked on the link only to find a library of ancient movies such as Lucknow Central (which I had already watched on Amazon Prime) and Bajrangi Bhaijaan. “Seriously! How can these clowns promote something and not have the movie in their library? Is it even legal?” The only good thing that happened to me via Jio Cinema was “Mukkabaaz”. Haven’t seen it yet? Watch it!

All this while, our beloved original OTT, YouTube was already playing a significant part in my entertainment life. The huge library of 4K videos here ensured that I could show off the 4k resolution capabilities of my TV every time someone came home. This is still the first option for me every time I want to watch the latest music videos or catch up with the most trending challenges on the internet.

“The Sinner” in me is now looking forward 2 the series called “Baahubali: Before the Beginning” on Netflix and recent movies like “Satyameva Jayate” and “Karwaan” to arrive on Prime.

As I finish writing this story/article (couldn’t figure out a genre for this), I can only hope that the quality of content, these OTTs have to offer, exceeds the standards set up by “The Sacred Games” in the days to come. As for the vast majority of those who are satisfied waiting for daily soaps on their Television, it’s time to get ready for the big shift.

P.S. Ghoul, the latest offering from Netflix, was a good effort in presenting a supernatural story in a dystopian setting. The only problem being, dystopian India doesn’t seem much different than what it is now. People would naturally compare this with “The Sacred Games”, and might feel that Ghoul is less polished and appears like a low budget flick. Others would say “Aise roles ke liye, Radhika Apt hai”!