MUMBAI: With more than 30 OTT players in the Indian market, consolidation talks are just around the corner. At an event held by Promax, experts discussed several other pressing issues during a panel discussion named ‘OTT: To infinity and Beyond’ moderated by Big Synergy CEO Rajiv Bakshi. Amazon Prime Video director and head, content Vijay Subramaniam, Eros digital COO Ali Hussein, ZEE5 programming head Aparna Acharekar, MX Player chief content officer Gautam Talwar, Shemaroo Entertainment COO digital Zubin Dubash took part in the panel.

The moderator kickstarted the panel questioning the ability of mobile devices to hold 30 apps when most can’t keep more than three. Amazon’s Subramaniam said that this is just the start of a journey and that he is excited for all the players. Moreover, he reminded that the players are not looking at “one India but multiple India”.

Shemaroo’s Dubash spoke of organic traffic from consumers for preferred content. He gave the example of their classic Bollywood pack which has seen a high uptake. However, he also reminded the need for understanding consumers properly. He highlighted how Shemaroo has made a huge bulk of Gujarati content available while the market has been a low-supply one in terms of content.

Eros Now’s Hussein noted that it’s important to identify the kind of content consumers will be willing to pay for. He mentioned how their movie catalogue enables them to build a subscription-based business. According to him, movies tend to become one of the largest draw patterns or consumption patterns in terms of OTT viewership and user stickiness.

Amazon’s Subramaniam also added that it is equally important to realise need gaps. “We recognised that cinematic TV had a huge need gap. There was hunger for that kind of content but there was no place for customers to access it. And if we look at the success we had right from Inside Edge which is our very first show to Four More Shots Please, Made in Heaven, we have committed to cinematic conversion and finite fiction. What we have learnt here is that it’s a craft that takes time, you can’t rush it, and you can’t expect to be doing it just because there is innate demand from customers,” he commented.

ZEE5’s Acharekar strongly agreed to the importance of telling an authentic story which is true to its roots. All the experts also said that content travels fast nowadays, even in regional languages. Although Indian consumers are watching content more in native languages or Hindi, English content has a higher uptake on OTT compared to TV, especially due to direct distribution.

“People watch content 24/7 on OTT that fact does not go away. But we do see more people in the evening, post 7 pm. Moring 10 am to12 pm we see good pick; the weekend is best. When TV has to worry about long holidays that the numbers will drop, OTT sees great consumption then. It even picks up post 11 pm as after 9-9.30 pm many consumers start watching something new,” Acharekar revealed when asked about primetime for OTT.

The challenge now is to create a talent pool. “We all want to create premium content but the talent pipeline is not that big. That’s the challenge we all face. There is an ecosystem for TV, films, advertising to create content but none yet for the different OTT platforms that exist. We are all trying to figure this out and create this ecosystem together in the next 3-4 years,” MX Player’s Talwar said.