Netflix, Amazon and other video streamers are betting big on India, tantalized by the huge growth potential offered by its more than 1.3 billion people.
On Dec. 14, Netflix slashed prices by up to 60%. Its popular mobile-only plan now costs 149 rupees ($2) per month, down from 199 rupees. A basic subscription that allows a user to watch content on any device has been cut to 199 rupees from 499 rupees. Its most expensive plan, which allows for simultaneous viewing on up to four devices, has been reduced to 649 rupees from 799 rupees, reports Nikkei Asia.
But the reductions might not have gone far enough. The Los Gatos, California-based entertainment giant does not offer annual subscriptions, unlike cheaper rivals Amazon Prime Video and Walt Disney’s Disney+Hotstar, which sell yearly plans for 1,499 rupees to access top services in these platforms that offer access to all content. Amazon subscribers also enjoy faster and free deliveries through the conglomerate’s e-commerce platform, among other benefits.
SonyLIV dangles an even cheaper annual plan in front of India’s highly price-conscious consumers, 999 rupees, while ZEE5 currently sells 12-month packages for 499 rupees.
Analysts say Netflix is trying to reach a wider audience with its price cuts as the premium service’s pace of subscriber growth has been unimpressive.
“Netflix has to up the ante! It was more expensive than Amazon and Disney and is falling behind in the subscription numbers,” Vineeta Dwivedi, head of digital communications at the Mumbai-based S.P. Jain Institute of Management and Research, told Nikkei Asia. “Everyone is acing the content game, but the prices have to be comparable. Ultimately, it’s about the numbers, and India remains a price-sensitive market which offers a huge and growing user base.”
Tapobrati Das Samaddar — founder of Wordloom Creative Ventures, a company that deals with media, education and performing arts — concurs. “No matter how much they loved [the content on Netflix], the general public might have thought twice or thrice before investing into its [basic 499-rupee monthly plan] because other platforms were providing far more affordable options,” she told Nikkei. “Netfllix’s premium pricing was not helping it grow its viewership.”
According to research company Media Partners Asia, Netflix had some 4.6 million subscribers in India in 2020, Amazon Prime 17 million and Disney+Hotstar 26 million. The three providers entered India in either 2015 or 2016 and are now focusing on local content as they chase viewers in every part of the country.
Netflix’s move in India contrasts with the rate hike it imposed on Japan in early 2021. The previous year, Netflix added roughly 2 million subscribers in the East Asian country to bring its total there to over 5 million.
“Netflix’s pricing strategy is something of an enigma,” Dwivedi said, “which creates great interest [among] media watchers around the world. Slashing prices in India while raising [them] elsewhere is a strategic long-term move to capture a larger share of the market.”
Disney+Hotstar leads the pack in India, mostly thanks to its cricket offerings. The platform streams Indian Premier League and other domestic and international matches, a big draw in this cricket-crazy nation.
Amazon Prime Video will start streaming live cricket on Saturday as part of a deal with the New Zealand cricket board. “Cricket is undoubtedly the most loved sport in India,” Gaurav Gandhi, country head of Amazon Prime Video, India, said in a Dec. 20 statement, “and our collaboration with New Zealand Cricket underlines our commitment to give our customers what they want.”
Amazon Prime Video thus will start offering what it hopes will be a trifecta of Indian programming — cricket, Bollywood movies and regional content to suit a multilingual, multicultural nation.
During the CII Big Picture Summit in November, Gandhi spoke about the growth prospects of India’s streamers. “It’s very early days,” he said, “and there is a huge headroom for growth as unique, original content is created.”
Other factors will play a role, Gandhi said, including India’s young demographics and affordable data plans.
Roughly 65% of India’s population is under the age of 35, a segment which the streamers are keen to tap. As for the cheap data plans, they are the result of stiff competition among telcos like Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel that are trying to reach even small cities and towns.
Along with its potential subscriber bonanza, India presents a unique challenge with its multilingual, multicultural population. Amazon Prime Video is trying to meet the challenge by offering movies made in several of the nation’s languages with English subtitles and, in some cases, Filipino and Bahasa Melayu subtitles so that people across the country and in other nations can watch them.
Amazon Prime Video’s local language content currently reaches over 4,000 Indian cities and towns.
Globally, the company said, movies made in Indian languages are being watched in about 170 countries, with international viewers accounting for 15% to 20% of their total audiences.
The platform also offers gripping Indian originals, including “The Family Man,” a spy drama, and “Made in Heaven,” a series set in a marriage bureau.
Netflix is also spending big on local content. In March, it announced that it is taking its “next big leap in India to bring you more than 40 powerful and irresistible stories from all corners of the country.” Among these are the now released relationship drama “Ajeeb Daastaans,” family drama “Sardar ka Grandson,” and mystery-thriller “Aranyak.”
“While Netflix, Disney+Hotstar and Amazon Prime compete in the attention economy, comparing them is nothing short of comparing apples, oranges and watermelons,” Shahan Sud, an investment professional at Indian Angel Network, told Nikkei. “Each has a different niche that they are catering to.”
Notwithstanding the price cut, Sud said, Netflix “is still grossly overpriced and will face difficulty” in scaling itself across India despite some of its rivals gradually increasing their subscription fees after having started with much lower price bands.
The video streaming industry as a whole, however, is set to expand impressively. RBSA Advisors expects India’s video-streaming market to grow to $12.5 billion in 2030 from $1.5 billion in 2021. “With access to better networks, digital connectivity and smartphones, OTT platforms in India have been increasingly attracting subscribers on a concurrent basis,” it said in a July report, pointing out that adoption of digital streamers increased manyfold after the coronavirus pandemic struck at the beginning of 2020.
In India, video-streaming platforms are often referred to as OTT, or over-the-top, services.
“The next 100 million is from India,” Netflix co-CEO Reed Hastings said in 2018 at The Economic Times Global Business Summit, in New Delhi. He was referring to the number of subscribers the streamer hoped to bag in the country in the years to come.
Finding them remains an uphill task.
Source: United News of Bangladesh