Rise of OTT Platforms - In context to Covid-19Posted by Skafte Broussard on April 30th, 2021 OTT platforms industry has become one of the major growing industries in India right now, especially in this pandemic situation. Most of the experts feel that the producers are showing more interest to release their movies on the OTT platforms as people might avoid going to The Cinemas because of the potential to engage with a huge crowd in this pandemic situation. So, this has become a threat to the Cinemas and has become the major rise potentially to the OTT platforms. Because of this huge demand for OTT platforms now among the users, most of the film industry producers are also getting into web series to be released on these platforms. As we can all agree on the same that web series has been on a rise for a few years in India. Mirzapur, The Family Man, Permanent Roommates, Sacred Games are few of the most successful web series that have been released in OTT platforms in the past and had a huge demand. Users are preferring to watch movies online & also web series on these OTT platforms at the comfort of their homes with their well-equipped surround home theatre systems or even on different streaming devices like Smart Phones, Tablets, VR headsets, etc., and also the OTT platforms are much cost-effective solution when compared to Cable TV Service Providers and The Cinema Theatres. So, let’s just have a view of how these OTT platforms have arisen in the context of the Covid-19 and whether these OTT platforms can co-exist with The Cinema Theatres and Cable TV Service providers. The Rise: A long time ago when Doordarshan was the only channel available on TV, there used to be many programs which tight with content and story ranging from comedy, mythology, literature, and many more. These programs used to tie the viewers to the TV and have given them huge entertainment. But, since these private TV channels started, there has been a huge competition among themselves and this has given the existence to long-run TV series and advertisements. Now, these OTT platforms have been launching amazing web series and have been giving nostalgia feeling to the viewers and these OTT platforms through these web series have taken a huge rise in their demand and have been successful in what Doordarshan has achieved when it was the only channel in India. Apart from that, the rising ticket prices of The Cinema Theatres and also those TV series with repetitive or monotonous content has given rise to the OTT platforms in India satisfying almost every type of viewer. Then came the pandemic, where all The Cinema Theatres were closed and there was new content on the TV. This is when the OTT platforms have occupied most of its share in the Entertainment Industry through these different web series and movies. Since the lockdown awareness about the OTT platforms has also been increased and there has been a huge increase in the number of subscribers too. Because of the situation, now many web series and also movies are being released on these OTT platforms, which increased the viewership, and people of higher age groups are also getting subscribed on the OTT platforms. The Impact: Now, as we can say that there has been an increase in demand for the web series and movies streamed on the OTT platforms, can we conclude by saying that The Cinema Theatres and TV will have an alt in their viewership count? Comparing the content provided by the Television and OTT platforms, we can say that up to some extent that they both are inter-dependent, as we can see that few TV series are also available on these OTT platforms even after they have been stopped. And the Television Content writers because of the competition faced by the web series streamed by the OTT platforms are also trying to generate better content, by which we can say that viewership for Television will not decrease because of the OTT platform’s web series anywhere in some years to come. Yes, movie producers are now preferring to release their movies on OTT platforms now, but we can say that they will not be interested to release their movies on the OTT platforms even after The Cinema Theatres open after lockdown as they bring huge revenues to the producers when compared to the OTT platforms. Web series on these OTT platforms have very good content but they can never replace movies. By this, we can conclude by saying that the web series streamed by the OTT platforms and also the movies streamed online can have an impact on the viewership of Television and the present release of movies on the OTT platforms also impact The Cinema Theatres for now but both these factors will not be able to decline the viewership of Television and The Cinema Theatres. ott platformLike it? Share it! |