OTT PLATFORMS

Over-the-top (OTT) content providers are growing exponentially as more people switch to online channels for entertainment.According to research sources, around 50 million households across the world, today have OTT video, which they consume in the same time-of-day pattern as traditional TV viewers.The concept of home entertainment has evolved so quickly in the Indian context that it’s hard to catch a breath. In just ten years, digitisation has taken over the entire market.

Here are a few OTT platforms of famous video streaming providers thriving amongst the viewers:

Disney+ Hotstar:

Disney-owned OTT platform Hotstar currently dominates the Indian market, thanks to its live sports programming and exclusive access to global super-hit shows like Game of Thrones. While its unique selling point remains the Indian Premier League (IPL), Hotstar along with Disney brings premium product, Disney+, to India.

Netflix:

Video streaming giant Netflix entered India in 2016. After its launch Netflix announced an original Indian series – Sacred Games. Since then, Netflix has ventured and grown into newer shows and formats in India in order to increase subscriptions ranging from cheaper internet plans, original shows, reality TV series, films and more. Though Netflix being quite a highly paid service, Netflix currently offers the mobile-only subscription plan priced at Rs 199 per month.

Amazon Prime:

The global tech giant’s video streaming arm has also looked to produce more Indian originals and get more regional language content on board. During his visit in January 2020, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos announced doubling Amazon Prime Video’s investment in India.

SonyLIV:

Following Disney-backed Hotstar’s footsteps, Sony also launched its OTT service in 2013 and moved forward into the streaming market. While it has been slow to grow, last year, the platform crossed over a 100 million downloads of its app across Google Play Store. SonyLIV has banked on live sports and exclusive rights to many global football tournaments to achieve the growth in India.

Apple TV+:

Launched in November 2019, Apple made a slow start, with the one-episode-per-week approach. Apple TV+ features shows such as The Morning Show, Dickinson, See, For All Mankind and The Elephant Queen and is directly competing against international players such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Hotstar. However, it does not have the same wide catalogue as its main rivals. Apple TV+ also lacks original Indian content which is an ever-growing aspect of the current OTT space in India.

Zee5:

Launched in 2018, Zee5 is home to over 100 thousand hours of on-demand content and more than 80 live TV channels. The platform offers features like multi-language support, search, live TV and more.

MX Player:

Backed by Times Internet, MX Player ventured into original content in February 2019 with five original web series. After being named as the most popular video streaming app in India, MX has recently added in-app gaming features on its video streaming platform. MX Player currently lets users stream its premium content for free across its platform, and it also lets users play multimedia content from their smartphones.

Mubi:

One of the new entrants, London-based Mubi entered India in November 2019. The OTT platform follows a movie hall type approach, where the movies are online for limited days. Mubi previews 30 movies and each day replaces one with a new addition.

CuriosityStream:

CuriosityStream is a media company and video-on-demand streaming service devoted to documentaries, launched in 2015 by the founder of the Discovery Channel. While it’s initial growth was slower than anticipated, by 2020 it had more than 13 million subscribers worldwide, from both direct-to-consumer subscriptions and bundled deals with partners. CuriosityStream features content from the producers such as the BBC and NHK, and has also produced a number of original documentaries and series such as Miniverse, Stephen Hawking’s Favourite Places, David Attenborough’s Light on Earth and Deep Time History.

Apart from the above mentioned OTT service providers quite a few more are available like, HULU, Spuul, EROS Now, TVF Play, Big Flix, JIO TV, Vodafone Play and Airtel Xstream.