How Streaming Wars changed the Indian Film Market

Discussing infiltration of Foreign Media, Rise of Regional Contents, Declining Piracy, and other trends.

We’ve always been faced with different choices when it comes to consuming content. As a child, I needed clarification about whether I should watch Hungama or Cartoon Network, which changed to Comedy Central or HBO.

Now I and everybody else find ourselves in the same boat as choosing Netflix, Prime Video, or Hotstar. Streaming has changed the way we consume content in a life-altering way.

The Indian entertainment industry has been affected mainly by entrants like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, disrupting the market. The big battle of brands in the Streaming Industry is called the Streaming Wars, the fight for viewership.

Mobile data traffic is growing as more Indians spend time streaming videos, which is expected to account for 75% of overall mobile traffic by 2024. The OTT market is seeming more and more lucrative for significant players. Let’s discuss how the climate of the situation.

Local Content is Booming💥

In India, roughly 35–40 OTT platforms currently offer paid subscriptions, including regional ones like Hoichoi (Bengali), OHO Gujarati, or even Aha (Telugu). Brands are committed to developing standout small-town stories and local-language content, which has been key to their growth.

Asked about the biggest draw for the Indian audience within Netflix’s vast repertoire, Shergill said, “If you look at Netflix’s top 10, you will see local content featuring in it consistently.”

“Some of the best filmmakers will tell you that the more local you go, the more universal you will get,” said Paatal Lok writer Hardik Mehta in an interview recently.

Opportunities for Indian Talent😎

Head of Amazon Studios, Jennifer Salke, says that Amazon has worked towards being a home for local talents.

“This is about making sure we’re thinking about customers, who are incredibly diverse across India. How do we reach the talent that speaks to that diverse audience?” says Salke.

Almost 70 percent of the new titles across Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu that will roll out over the next two years feature new Talent.

Executives know Talent is key to building new franchises and hit television series — and those hit TV shows or massive franchises attract new Talent.

Understanding what Talent is needed and how to best employ those actors in exhibitions that travel around the world is the difference between building a streaming service that continues to grow and entertain hundreds of millions of subscribers worldwide and those that can’t keep up with demand trends.

It’s a super exciting time to see how Indian content is gaining momentum worldwide.

The Fall of Bollywood😵

The industry is facing its biggest-ever crisis as the competition heats up in the streaming war. The South Asian giant churning almost 2,000 films each year is called ‘Out-of-touch’ these days.

The Bollywood market had taken a serious hit by streaming’s rise, which started before the pandemic but took off when millions of Indians were indoors. Times have been so hard that INOX and PVR, two of India’s biggest multiplex operators, announced their merger in March to “create scale.”

Subscribers were meanwhile exposed to local and global streaming content, including southern Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, and Kannada-language films that already had legions of devoted local fans.

“Regional cinema was not traveling beyond its borders. But now suddenly everyone was watching Malayalam cinema or Maharashtrian cinema, and then you realize that some filmmakers are telling more interesting stories,” Film critic Raja Sen said.

Penetration of Global Media🌎

The Indian market has shown rapidly growing acceptance of foreign films, especially Hollywood, helped by OTT services, higher penetration of theatres, a better experience for fans at the movies, and the ability to dub the film in local languages. Release-before-the-US has emerged as a critical selling point for Hollywood studios and distributors in India over the last few years.

“Indian audiences have a hunger to watch films before anyone else. It’s a matter of prestige,” says Sony Pictures India’s former Managing Director, Kercy Daruwala.

The number of Indians watching Korean dramas has surged by 370 percent, according to a recent Netflix study done in India. BTS is India’s fourth most streamed boy band, according to Spotify’s 2020 data. The craze of newer content is penetrating the Indian audience, and families are getting exposure to various foreign shows.

Better Box Office collection by Hollywood💰

Bollywood is getting jostled by Hollywood. That the Indian moviegoer increasingly opts for a spectacle Hollywood film in a theatre today is evident from recent successes that such films have registered.

With audience interest picking up swiftly, exhibitors across India have added the number of screens showing these films- either in English, with subtitles, or in dubbed Hindi and regional versions.

Their strongest appeal is positive word-of-mouth publicity from viewers.

Hollywood movies- be they around superheroes or fantasy adventures- are spectacles that people don’t mind paying multiple high prices for. And Bollywood honestly has miles to go in the VFX department.

Our Adipurush seems insufferable when you know you have Avatar: The Way of Water that will blow your mind with its extravagance and narrative.

Decline in Piracy☠️

Piracy is almost always a service problem and not a pricing problem. If a product is available in staggered intervals, completely unavailable, or at a particularly onerous price differential, the impetus to pirate is far greater.

When everything is easily available one click away, it is a far more exciting market and far better for the producer and the consumer.

In short, access to paid content via streaming or a la carte services is slowly whittling away the impetus to pirate. There is an increase in shared premium accounts. Even old shows have been made available on paid streaming platforms and made a profit.

Rise of Low-profile cult Films🚀

Post the COVID-19 lockdown, the audience has started accepting movies with open hearts, especially small movies, irrespective of budget and actors.

Audiences for long besotted with superstars and established directors have begun to give a thumbs up to newbie actors and young filmmakers brimming with refreshing ideas and themes.

In 2022, we have seen many small-budget movies that swept away the box office numbers in their own way amid the biggies trying to make space and win.

While big-budget and anticipated movies have done wonders, going by their budget and other factors, small movies made a mark, although not with 100 crores club but definitely in the hearts of audiences. OTT platforms have become a boon to small movies as they play a crucial role in reaching the masses and making it a win.

Exchange between various cultures via Media🤝🏽

Very few institutions left in the world can traverse across continents as Media. Japanese anime is the best example. Their films have started releasing in Indian theatres; on Netflix, Studio Ghibli films are developing a more extensive Indian fan base.

Even when people don’t get the audible dialogues, they manage to get entertained using English subtitles. Some diehard fans even learn Japanese in the process.

This trend is producing a form of viewers called ‘weebs.’

It is common to find BTS or Korean show fangirls in cities these days. The same follows for other European films.

The War⚔️

The battle for subscribers and advertisers is flourishing as local players whose audiences are on traditional TV decline to launch their own OTT models. The ongoing service and content fragmentation inevitably call for a new industry reshaping.

For OTT, content is paramount, followed by user experience and brand. Nearly 70% of the 40+ media executives declare data to be business critical for survival.

If the content is king, data is now the ace.

Brands are pushing into India’s smaller cities and towns, where it gets all aggressive. While subscription prices may decrease, the content cost will only increase due to the streaming wars. The shift towards large-scale content in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, and other languages is the next ample opportunity in the medium term.

About 80 percent of viewership on OTT is mobile-led. Making players push mobile viewership, price cuts, invest heavily in new content, and revisit their content strategy.

Final Thoughts🤔

The media and entertainment industry has entered the data age with OTT services. Only Brands that can extend their reach and personalize relevant experiences to a larger audience will have a place at the table.