Star India-owned Hotstar and Viacom 18’s Voot both have penetration into local and Western content and both monetize through advertising. While Hotstar boasts a ‘freemium’ subscription and advertising service, Voot has opted for an entirely ad-based model. This is the reason why the two have dominated the Indian OTT market base leaving Netflix and Amazon Prime much behind.
Although there is an urging growth in the OTT segment in India, thanks to the improved average internet speed; the major challenge in OTT market is the average price for cable and satellite subscriptions that limit subscription revenues for the OTT players.
However, advertising has become a complete game changer. Pocket Aces, Digital entertainment start-up has raised $3 million in December 2016 through FilterCopy, its mixed media offering platform ranked top on Facebook with more than 71 million views in the new-age entertainment category.
Dushyant Kohli, Head of Growth, nexGtv, an OTT platform quoted, “The growth of OTT platforms and the overall digital content market is however driven by a mix of advertising and subscription revenue. In order to attract more advertisers and rake in higher profits, it is imperative for OTT players to differentiate content, which will offer advertisers a unique branding and marketing opportunity.”
