Hotstar: Winning the Indian Streaming War? |
|
|
|
|
| <<Previous Page |
EXCERPTS |
|
In 2014, STAR’s subsidiary Novi Digital Entertainment Limited (Novi) won the mobile and Internet streaming rights for IPL for a three-year period. After achieving a high viewership in India through Starsports.com, STAR observed that in November 2015, more than 78% of Indian internet users were using their mobiles for their entertainment needs and the average spending on mobile internet was Rs. 235 per month.
The company also realized that apart from YouTube there were not many platforms available in India that offered consumers high-quality and curated content. Mohan said, “We realized that mobile can be the second or third screen (apart from the TV) in the house. The moment you get drama, sports, and news on phones, people will adopt it. We saw that we could fundamentally unleash our capabilities by making the content available on small screens.” |
| |
 |
| or |
 |
| or |
PayPal (11 USD)
|
|
|
| |
| Most analysts agreed that the audience for OTT was quite different from a general TV audience, and companies had to keep that fact in mind before designing content for it. It was observed that OTT audiences demanded unique and original content rather than the run-of-the-mill programming.
|
|
| In late 2015, Hotstar began its international expansion by entering the US, UK, Canada, South Africa, Germany, Malaysia, and Singapore markets among others. It also added Chromecast and Apple TV support, so that viewers could cast the programs onto their large TV screens and enjoy a better viewing experience... |
|
| In January 2017, Hotstar signed a deal with Disney India (Disney) , which enabled it to get access to a wide range of content. This included films made under four different studios – Marvel, Pixar, Lucas film, and Disney, apart from television content from ABC Studios (Refer to Exhibit IV for Details of these Studios)... |
|
| Hotstar had to contend with rising competition from a slew of players in the online streaming space, both international and local. The key competitors were Sony Entertainment Network’s venture, Sony Liv , Netflix, Inc. and Amazon.com’s venture, Amazon Prime Video (Refer to Exhibit V for Details of Key Hotstar competitors)... |
| |
|
| India had to still contend with a range of issues in broadband infrastructure, which were set to create challenges for OTT services such as Hotstar. Very few parts of the country mostly large urban areas, had access to high-speed data at all times. Apart from that, there were issues with regard to payment gateways that needed to be resolved in order to make OTT services more lucrative.. |
| |
|
| Industry observers believed that there was large scope for growth of OTT services in India. As 4G played a critical part in its success, Hotstar expected 5G to broaden its outreach and experience of users... |
| |
|
Exhibit I: Variety of Revenue Models of Over-the-top (OTT).
Exhibit II: Features of Hotstar
Exhibit III: Features of 3D VR (Virtual Reality) Technology.
Exhibit IV: Details of Studios.
Exhibit V: Details of Key Hotstar Competitors.
Exhibit VI: Comparison of Subscription Figures, as of 2017.
Exhibit VII: Nokia MBiT Index 2018.
Exhibit VIII: Financial Status of Novi for the FY 2016-17.
|
|
