Businesses need to reach audiences wherever they are. The solutions that reach people right on their mobile phones have become a phenomenal success. As a result, space has become somewhat clamored. That is why businesses are busy looking for spaces where competition is limited. Such conditions are available in OTT solutions.
An overview of the OTT market in India
According to the PwC report, the Indian OTT market is going to rank among the top ten in the world in 2022. Other important findings that show the relevance of planning business in OTT are:
a. The rise in mobile internet connections will be doubled by next year, so your business will have an easily addressable audience
b. The portability is the biggest driver for the rise in demand for OTT solutions
c. Video-on-demand services, and switching to at-home entertainment services have risen substantially, due to the prevailing pandemic situation and its aftermath.
So, serving content that touches the audiences’ right chord has become the prime responsibility of OTT providers in India.If your business has something to offer that can be developed into a full-fledged OTT platform, then you surely are qualified to move there.
Since all these facts indicate that businesses can open a promising avenue for themselves by planning strategy for OTT solutions, let’s explore the prime considerations worth paying attention to.
Conceptual strategies suitable for business planning in OTT
Businesses need to mull over a few prime considerations to establish as OTT providers in India, which are:
1. Know the target audience
Businesses can win an audience when they have studied the persona thoroughly. Studying The audience is not limited to demographic details. The users need to be classified based on:
· Time, they spend on OTT platforms
· What kind of OTT providers in India they use the most
· How they respond to ads displayed on OTT platforms
· Type of content most viewed by them
This information helps select the OTT marketing strategy relevant to your business objective.
2. Decide the content genre
This strategy proves more apt when you are in the market exploration stage or are preparing for diversification. Your business will speak to your audience only through content. Thus, you can make sense only when you serve what you are good at, or have the resources to have the best content creators on board to develop a certain style of consumable. Depending upon your money and talent power, you can select from two strategies:
· Generic strategy: Businesses can target wider audiences by adopting generic OTT-business ideas that serve all genres, such as, movies, games, cartoon films, news, etc.
However, it does require a humongous budget, as the competition is from numerous sources and at various scales.
Purchasing media rights poses another challenge while adopting this strategy.
· Niche strategy: Quite opposite to generic strategy is the niche strategy. You have the OTT platform dedicated to a particular niche, say music or sports. So, there is added clarity about the target audience.
It benefits the businesses that do not mind choosing a quality audience over the smaller scoop of profit at the introductory stage.
Important benefits like a loyal audience, low content purchase cost, low competition, and ease of adding special services help businesses survive sustainably by following this strategy.
3. Choose content monetization strategy
The most crucial part of planning business in OTT is deciding the monetization strategy.Customer expectations play a major role when you are starting as one of the OTT providers in India.
At the starting stage, it may be beneficial to AVOD or Advertising video on demand. The main revenue source in this model will be advertisers, and the content will be available for free.
Most specialized niche strategy adopters go for pay per view subscription. Here, every event is available for viewing on payment. Concerts, sports events, and festivals marketers use this strategy.
Other monetization strategies to consider are:
· Subscription model Video-on-Demand
· Live TV subscription
· Transaction V-o-D: Buy each movie separately
It is worth noticing that about 50% OTT providers are working on a subscription V-o-Dmodel, as per OTT and Pay TV Trends report.
4. Choice of End-User Devices
Business in OTT makes sense when you have made yourself available on the devices that are most used.
Of all devices, web streaming is the one with the widest reach. Your content will play on all devices that can access the internet connection.
The second most profitable solution will be a mobile app. It will allow you to offer portability, privacy, and anywhere, anytime access to the audience.
The third most upcoming is Smart TV. It dispenses the need of having additional devices to access OTT content. However, Smart TVs are not as easily available to the people as Set Top Box or Internet is, due to the premium pricing.
To conclude,
The business in OTT requires considering all the conceptual strategies explained above. These allow you to design the content, marketing, and revenue model strategies crucial for a sustainable launch.
