OTT Opportunities and Challenges During COVID-19

The outbreak of COVID-19 has been rightly described as the public health emergency of international concern by the World Health Organization in March 2020. It has disrupted lives worldwide. Although most businesses have been severely affected by the outbreak, it has also created several opportunities and challenges for the media and the OTT service industry. With most people homebound searching for various means of entertainment online, the OTT providers are churning strategies to keep them bounded to their platform. This post analyzes various opportunities and OTT challenges that are driving the media industry.

The Increased Demand for Fresh Content

With world governments imposing strict lockdowns to curb human movement, most people are working from home and dependent on the Internet for work, entertainment, and connecting with family and friends. The demand for fresh content is all-time high. All leading and emerging OTT providers like Amazon Prime, Netflix, Eros, Alt Balaji, Disney + Hotstar are focusing on promoting fresh content and their originals to attract viewers attention. They are partnering with third-party media houses, as well as content aggregators’ to maintain the supply of content. It is widely known that movie releases in all languages have been delayed. Capitalizing on the opportunity, the OTT providers are partnering with leading media houses for securing releases. Gulabo Sitabo on Amazon Prime; Chintu ka Birthday on ZEE5; Mrs Serial Killer -Netflix are a few popular Hindi movies that were exclusively released on OTT platforms during the lockdown.

In addition to this, these OTT providers are also focusing on building a library of content in several languages. They know this will help them attract more audience from different language regions. This can be easily understood from the volume of regional language movies that were released through these platforms during the COVID-19 lockdown.  

The Requirement for Affordable Content

Having said that most people love going online to keep themselves engaged doesn’t mean they are ready to pay huge monthly subscriptions that these OTT providers demand. Keeping the costs affordable is indeed one of the key OTT challenges that most OTT providers have been facing. A survey conducted by Ovum, which is a leading media research firm based in the UK, suggest that about 60% of Indian audience find it difficult to pay the subscription of Rs 300. However, 69% of participants suggested that they find pay-per-use model more affordable than regular monthly subscriptions. This drives OTT platforms to identify ways to offer affordable content to customers. Personalized ads have been introduced to reduce the costs of content delivery. Almost 70% of respondents have confirmed that they were ready to view these ads at the cost of data loss if the content is offered at affordable costs. 

Old Content is Back in Demand 

Like the new content, the demand for old content and old channels have increased. The best example is Ramayana, which was released in India, after a gap of 30 years. According to various studies, the current viewership of Ramayana has crossed 170 million and still going ahead strong. This number is much ahead of some new programs released.

Increasing Importance of Content Recommendations

According to Remi Beaudouin, Chief Strategy Officer, ATEME, the importance of content recommendations has increased in the last few months. As now more people are homebound, there is a need for quality content and improved user-experience. So, OTT providers are challenged to invest in technologies that boost user-experience . Many OTT platforms have invested in analytics and other intelligent systems because it is now important to send recommendations that suit customers likes and dislikes. Although most of these OTT providers offer a huge library of content, viewers rarely watch all of them because they do not find them easily. Thus, it is now important to provide recommendations, including impressive trailers and synopses that attract attention. 

High Technological Investments Required in Future

According to Udhay Sodhi, Senior Partner, Kurate Digital Consulting, OTT providers have bigger challenges to answer than TV broadcasters who have already hit a rough patch. Today, most people consume content through their mobiles or other connected devices. Thus, the content needs to be optimized for excellent visual experience across various devices. Also, they may not watch it at a stretch and may watch it at different intervals. So, they need to be offered an option of viewing content from where did they stop viewing the last time. All these demands high technology investments. The demand for higher technological investments will continue in future, too. Else, the OTT industry will hit a rough patch like the TV medium. 

COVID-19 and its challenges may soon end, but the demand for OTT content will continue to grow in future due to the convenience and benefits that it offers. So, it is important for OTT players to invest in strategies and technologies that help them grow and retain customers in the long run. To keep it going, they need to partner with agencies that help them capitalize on the trend while helping them optimize the value of their investments. RGB Broadcasting is one of the leading broadcast system integrators and consultants in India. The company has helped several OTT providers to overcome their OTT challenges, as well as boost their viewer base and revenues during and before COVID-19.