Do you still watch television? Or, are you always slouching on your couch, binge-watching shows on Netflix?
Well, you might be in for a surprise.
In India, over 40 crore people are streaming videos as compared to 89 crore TV viewers. In the U.S (the most penetrated market for Netflix) the average viewing time is lower by 10% of television viewing time.
But, are these two forms of entertainment really mutually exclusive?
It might look like people have limited time and any seller who wants to take a slice of it are pitted against each other.
But, what if one platform helps the other grow? What if, instead of getting a larger share of the pie, they increase the size of the pie itself?
Maybe that's exactly what is really happening.
If people miss out on their TV shows, they catch up on them via OTT. Almost 50% of the viewership on OTT belongs to this category. Thus, the biggest shows on TV end up being the biggest shows on OTT.
The TV broadcasters know their game.
Out of the top 10 OTT platforms in India, 7 are backed by broadcasters, such as Zee, Voot and Hotstar.
What are they leveraging? Experience.
TV channels have been in the game longer and can assess changing consumer patterns better. They are preparing for the future while sitting on a large chunk of revenue provided by TV.
But, by 2024, India is likely to emerge as the world’s sixth-largest OTT streaming market. It is expected to grow at a CAGR of 28.6% over the next four years to generate revenue worth US$ 2.9 billion.
Change is the only constant. In this war between two mediums, which one do you think will win? TV or OTT? And why? Let’s brainstorm!
Both could coexist. Though, pure-play TV channels may lose out on their "trend-catching" advantage, once the OTT players have enough user data to start predicting trends.