MxMIndia

Tag: Over-the-top

  • IAMAI has expressed its gratitude to TRAI for upholding the association’s longstanding position that digital services are not similar to conventional telecom services or even comparable to them in terms of regulating them

    TRAI’s OTT recommendations uphold vision of Digital India: IAMAI

    By A Correspondent

     

    The OTT regulation recommendations by TRAI is a progressive judgment that upholds the Digital India vision of the government and will help achieve the vision of the National Digital Communication Policy (NDCP) as envisaged by the Ministry of Telecommunications, states the Internet and Mobile Association of India [IAMAI] while welcoming the recommendations by the Telecom Regulatory authority of India (TRAI) suggesting no regulatory intervention on digital services based on data services by telecom operators, referred to as Over The Top (OTT) services.

     

    Notes a statement: “IAMAI expresses gratitude to TRAI for upholding the Association’s longstanding position that digital services are not similar to conventional telecom services or even comparable to them in terms of regulating them. TRAI has also acknowledged the fact that the argument for economic loss does not hold given digital services lead to added revenues for telecom services in terms of data consumption. The decision to allow market forces to deal with the economic aspects of the popularity of OTT services is a landmark decision that augurs well for the fast-emerging digital services sector in India.

     

    TRAI has also satisfactorily addressed the concerns of security and privacy by giving due recognition to the ongoing developments and has categorically refuted any need for regulatory intervention in this regard. IAMAI had highlighted in its submission that the various new regulatory provisions like Personal Data Protection Bill adequately address all such concerns and hence no further interventions were required.

     

    On the overall issue of Regulation of OTT services, TRAI recognizes the various global development taking place and suggests putting matters on hold till more clarity emerges. IAMAI reiterates that the digital services under consideration are suitably regulated by the Information Technology Act or the forthcoming Data Protection framework or cybersecurity provisions being discussed. The sector is as well-regulated as any telecom service and any future needs can be adequately addressed without stifling its development.

     

    IAMAI expresses optimism that the Indian digital sector will respond positively to these recommendations that allows the sector to evolve unfettered.

     

     

  • The Over-the-Top (OTT) content market in India is at an inflection point in India, underscores a Boston Consulting Group report

    $5 billion opportunity calling

     

    By A Correspondent

     

    Over-the-top (OTT) content market in India is at an inflection point in India, as per the latest report by The Boston Consulting Group titled ‘Entertainment Goes Online’.

     

    The report pegs the Indian OTT market to reach $5bn in size by 2023. This growth is being driven by rising affluence, increase in penetration of data into rural markets and adoption across demographic segments including women and older generations.

    The ‘Entertainment Goes Online’ report is based on a consumer survey that seeks to understand consumers’ motivations in adopting OTT content over other conventional modes of content delivery. Survey results showed that there is a room for many types of OTT models such as SVOD (subscription-based platforms), AVOD (advertising-based platforms) and TVOD (transaction-based platforms) to succeed in the market.

     

    Said Kanchan Samtani, Partner & Director, The Boston Consulting Group: “Majority of India has a single TV per household. Affordable data has created an alternate medium where consumers, for the first time, can tap into content basis individual preference at a time and space convenient for them. Whilst the current market operates with a largely advertising paid content paradigm, consumers are not averse to paying for convenient content access that OTT unlocks.” Affluence and wide variety of content being developed for OTT market including diversity in genres and language gives OTT market a favorable edge over it traditional counterparts.

     

    The study identified three archetypes of customers in the Indian market, 1) traditionalists – who primarily consume on other than OTT platforms, 2) OTT Experimenter – who has significant consumption on both conventional and OTT platforms 3) Early Adopter – whose primary consumption occurs on OTT platforms. While early adopters are still a more urban phenomenon, going forward it will be more equally distributed.

     

    As many as 48% of India’s internet users (~650 million by 2023) are expected to be from rural areas. With development of regional content by various players, the rural market is poised to become a significantly large opportunity for players. OTT is riding the wave of increased data consumption and internet access in rural India, has opened a new distribution channel that is viable for regional and niche content.

    Indian content including music, Bollywood content and cricket have large following in the Indian diaspora also. OTT Players with Indian content have potential to tap into this market too. “While the NRI content market is huge and demonstrates willingness to pay, it is not only dominated by cricket – Bollywood music and films are very significant. With their large content libraries, Indian OTT players are sitting on a metaphorical gold mine to serve this increasingly important customer base”, said Gaurav Jindal, Principal, The Boston Consulting Group.

     

    “One of the key insights of our consumer work was that, while OTTs rely on top-notch hero content to attract consumers to the platform, the stickiness of these consumers is not very high unless accompanied by ways in which they engage more deeply with the platform and is associated with strong marketing efforts,” added  Samtani when discussing the subscriber acquisition and retention strategy of various OTT platforms.

     

    While Indian OTT players have taken many steps to capture the market, there is a lot that needs to be done before, Indian OTT market achieves the same penetration and maturity as its western counterparts.

     

    The report mentions Top 6 priority focus areas to drive the agenda for OTT players which can be read here.