OTT is the New Normal for Entertainment among Millennials

 

The Covid-19 pandemic has posed innumerable challenges to the world community and thrown lives out of gear across all the continents. Besides threatening our survival, the global health crisis also put a question mark on our capabilities to fight natural calamities. Affected by the Corona virus, lakhs of people died, while hundreds of thousands of people suffered physical, mental and financial hardships during the prolonged pandemic period. Extended lockdowns and movement restrictions became the norms of the day making a large section of the people ideal for months sitting at home doing nothing except being hooked to media, over-eating and less of physical exercises. The millennials and children also suffered a lot in terms of their studies, interactions, entertainment and sporting activities. The banning of several Chinese entertainment and gaming apps like TikTok by the authorities over the border tussle with China also added to their wilderness. In such a scenario, Over-the-Top (OTT) streaming service came to their rescue. Since the OTT requires only internet connection to view programmes even on the go bypassing cable, television and satellite channels, viewers found it not only convenient, but cost effective also with more freedom of choice. The OTT offered them easy to use, operate and entertain. Not only that, it also enabled them to watch variety of entertainment and engaging programmes on the go anytime, anywhere.

 

Since the closure of theatres forced movie makers to explore other media for releasing their films, the OTT became their preferred choice by default.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         During the global crisis, the release of mega Bollywood movies, including of Amitabh Bachchan’s Gulabo Sitabo and many other programmes on the OTT made it a house-hold name. Telecast of serials and series of sensational and spicy programmes also helped it not only attract viewers, but also engage them longer to the new media. In the rat race, the OTT managed to increase its market share to 11 percent in India. On the way, India became the fastest growing OTT market in the world. And it is predicted to become the world’s sixth largest OTT user market by 2024 (livemint.com).  According to Media and Entertainment Outlook 2020 by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), the OTT video along with Internet advertising, video games and e-sports, music, radio and podcasts will be among the top revenue generators in the next four years. Sensing big opportunities out of the pandemic, the OTT online service providers such as Netflix, Amazon, Disney+ Hotstar, Jio TV, Voot among others made huge investment in the sector to ensure faster growth. They went all-out to develop original stories and fresh contents supplemented by crime thrillers and eye-catching titles to not only engage their existing consumers, but also to add more footfalls, thus generating more revenues and ensuring sustained growth. With the health crisis forcing people to change their lifestyle and entertainment behaviour, the new platform managed to expand its subscription base. Since India’s over 50 percent population consists of people below the age of 25 years and more than 65 percent population is less than 35 years, the millennial young India helped in the OTT’s faster growth. With cheaper mobile and data becoming essential component of spends, OTT’s subscription and engagement model worked wonders to gain tractions. It further cashed on to the Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket season streaming the matches live from the UAE. It propelled them to reach and access a wider audience across the cricketing world. Since India is still having only about 40% internet connectivity and its average age being 29 years, the OTT became the New Normal darling of the millennial for their entertainment needs.