Navigating through the growing thicket of video OTT players trying to decide what to watch is vexing the Indian viewership as nearly 70 per cent of them surveyed in an Accenture study reported being frustrated with the viewing experience.
Further detailing the trials of a viewership that is spoilt for choice now, the “Streaming’s Next Act: Aggregators to play a starring role in making consumers happier” report threw up these figures: In addition to the challenge of finding something to watch, consumers in India also think more than 60 per cent of the content they are paying for is not relevant to them. As many as 46 per cent of those surveyed indicate they spend more than six minutes searching for something to watch. A whopping 81 per cent said they wished their profile from one service could easily be shared with another service that may offer them better, more personalised content.
The online survey of 6,000 consumers aged 18 and older across 11 countries (Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, India, Japan, South Africa, Spain, UK and US) was conducted between October and November 2021. It includes 500 respondents from India.
As the content space matures in India, the next step for players to differentiate themselves may be to focus on investing in making their recommendation engines more intelligent to sharpen personalised content suggestions and look into content aggregation, according to the study
“Till now, most Indian OTT platforms have tried to differentiate through content and majority of their investments have gone into flagship titles. With changing viewing patterns, this needs to change and factor in scenarios like shared viewing. For the next phase of growth, these platforms need to focus on improving consumer experience and product features,” said Neeraj Sharma, managing director – Communications, Media and Technology, Accenture in India.
The research found that content aggregators can address this concern by unifying access across streaming services through application software, services and data-sharing agreements. Aggregators can also foster flexibility and personalisation for viewers by serving as a single platform with curated content that enables them to select exactly what they want to watch, it said.
Amazon Prime Video in India has already forayed into content aggregation. In September, it launched its Channels vertical in India by tying up with eight other subscription-based OTT video streaming players whose content can be viewed on its platform.
At the time, its head of Prime Video Channels, Chaitanya Divan, had said a single interface for discovery, streaming and payments is a key need for customers as content choices explode.
India already has more than 40 OTT apps even as newer regional players enter the fray every few months, offering content in a dizzying array of formats, languages and payment models.
