Regional OTT platforms eye bigger share of pie

Vijay C Roy

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 5

As the consumption of local content is gaining momentum, many regional over-the-top (OTT) platforms are eyeing a bigger share of content pie. Last year saw the emergence of at least seven OTT regional players, offering content in languages such as Punjabi, Odia, Marathi, Bengali and Telugu.

Considering the popularity of regional OTT platforms, especially during the pandemic, Chandigarh-based Pitaara TV is planning to launch its OTT platform soon.

“We will launch our OTT platform in Punjabi, Haryanvi and Bhojpuri soon. The pandemic has propelled the plan which was in the offing for the past three years,” said Sandeep Bansal, director, Pitaara TV.

“Though over a dozen players are providing Punjabi content through their OTT platforms, we will be the second to concentrate purely on Punjabi content,” he said.

In February this year, Catrack Entertainment launched ‘Heeroz Punjabi OTT’ to cater to the Punjabi audience. It is believed to be the first one to introduce pure Punjabi content on the OTT platform.

Bansal said his platform would have an advantage in Haryanvi and Bhojpuri language as there is hardly any full-fledged player in this segment.

Oho Gujarati (Gujarati), Hoichoi (Bengali), Sun NXT (Malayalam), Aha (Telugu) are some of the regional OTT platforms which have gained popularity besides big players such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Zee5 and Disney Hotstar. Overall, there are around 40 OTT platforms in India.

With increased consumption, it is believed the regional OTT subscription is likely to cross 30 million by the end of 2030 from 5 million currently.

Overall, India’s video OTT market is expected to touch $12.5 billion by 2030 from $1.5 billion at present, according to a report by RBSA Advisers. It said the next wave of growth in the OTT landscape will come from tier II, III and IV cities and Indian language speaking population.