Not a soft Friday question for a change. Here’s Dr Bhaskar Das in the February 17 edition of Das ka Dum. Read on…
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Q. In the US, FAST (or free ad-supported streaming TV) is gaining traction, and generating 50% of total OTT viewership and 29% of total ad views. Do you think that’s the way to go in India as well?
A. FAST is a relatively new concept in India and I understand it is being offered by only a few platforms in india. All of us realise that the Indian audience (not the super elites perhaps) has an appetite for free alternatives. But that’s the story of the audience side (the demand side). But for making the proposition attractive for the advertisers, it can’t be business as usual. In this case it can’t be placing advertising in a linear GEC or any other genre, for that matter. There has to be a value proposition for the advertisers. For instance, if data for viewing habits are generated and used for advertisers which can enable them to create engaging advertisements back to the audience. This, in turn, can improve effective Reach and Frequency to create better ROI for the advertisers.
Since we are on the subject, it may be relevant to share my thoughts on the possible scenario that might emerge so far monetisation models of OTT platforms are concerned. I think we are going to witness an evolution of streaming space for some time, till a clear picture emerges. At this stage, all players users are experimenting various monetisation models where lines between SVOD, AVOD and perhaps now FAST are getting blurred. This would fragment audiences further as freemium models do work as majority of consumers prefer it. Indian audience love ‘Ketna deta hai’ (an ad tagline of a leading brand used some time back) mentality, which is essentially a fetish for value exchange, but the content has to be of high quality at the same time.
So if FAST has to gain ground on the supply side that is an attractive proposition for advertisers, quality of advertisements has to go up. But it presupposes that there has to be proper content environment that allows better targeting and measurement capabilities. Quality content, platform usability and content discovery are some of the key variables that can drive audiences to streaming over watching traditional/linear TV. With increasing adoption of Smart TV home screens , discovery and content recommendations would get a fillip, I guess. In short, India would see a hybrid format of monetisation due to multiple stratification of economic strata and content preferences of diverse age cohorts. I, for instance, wouldn’t prefer FAST. My preference would always be SVOD, as of now. What about you?