Binge watching on rise in India: DAN report

Pandemic pairs perfectly with OTT for binging on digital entertainment

Entertainment

September 20, 2020

/ By / New Delhi

Binge watching on rise in India: DAN report

Average time spent in consuming OTT content in a day by millennials and Gen Z in India is almost twice the global average

Amidst the ongoing global pandemic, OTT platforms have cemented their place by providing on demand digital entertainment in the comfort of one's home. A recent study by the Data Sciences Division that reports a 23 pc rise in binge watching culture.

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India’s on demand digital streaming industry surpassed the national film industry in terms of both viewership and growth. With entertainment gone online coupled with a surge in online gamers, the pandemic has proven to be a fillip to the sector with consumers confined to their homes. Indian OTT viewership base is pegged to triple before the end of 2020.

The Data Sciences Division of Dentsu Agnes Network (DAN) India has unveiled an OTT Insights report, Now Streaming: The Indian Youth OTT Story under its specialist consumer insights wing Dentsu Marketing Cloud (DMC) Insights. The report covers deep findings of OTT content and gaming habits of the Gen Z and Millennial audiences from Urban India.

The findings of the survey show the popularity of the OTT services, especially during the lockdown period citing it as the most popular source of entertainment for the millennials and Gen Z. The report said that binge watching as a culture is on the rise as a result of boredom in isolation. It states that OTT-based entertainment is preferred by the Gen Z even more than the millennials.

In terms of industry fragmentation, the Gen Z population tends to have more subscriptions in general than the millennials, but that is restricted to platforms such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, while millennials possess subscriptions to platforms like Hotstar, Voot and Jio TV.

The report also noticed an unprecedented jump of 23 pc in time spent on OTT platforms. During the countrywide lockdown from mid of March to July, 49 pc of India’s population between ages 17-35 spent approximately 8-9 hours a day binge watching digital content. Seven hours remained the average time spent in consuming OTT video content in a day by millennials and Gen Z in India which is almost twice the global average of four hours.

“While a large chunk of India is a single TV household, affordable data and advancements in mobile technology has been a huge boost to the country’s growing online content and gaming consumer base,” Gautam Mehra, CEO & chief data Officer, DAN-South Asia, told Media India Group.

“This, coupled with the effects of the lockdown has led to the dramatic growth of online video content consumers and gamers with a high increment of audiences coming from a very young segment of the population,” he adds.

The report also says that on average viewers signed on to three new OTT platforms during lockdown. Also, 65 pc of millennials and Gen Z prefer consuming same video content on their smartphones over any other device or platform. This poses a serious challenge to traditional media platforms such as television and also the existing consumption habits like downloading films and shows.

The primary reason for growth of OTT and binge watching culture is the availability of variety of content according to the demand of the consumer and cheap mobile data rates. From content categories such as comedy, sports, news and games to content in diverse languages such as English, Hindi, Punjabi, Telugu and all possible foreign languages is available on OTTs. “With more than 40 OTT players in India, binge-watchers have unlimited choices of content offers which cover any kind of demand one could have, no matter whether they are from urban or rural India,” Mehra adds.

Accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has predicted that India’s online streaming industry will grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 23 pc to become an industry worth USD 75 billion by 2023, making it the highest growth in the Indian media and entertainment industry ever.

“Despite financial setbacks, because of its population, India is the fastest growing entertainment and media market globally and is expected to keep that momentum. Online gaming, internet advertising and binging over OTT content has become a culture in among the young generation,” Mehra sums up.

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