But i am strongly of the opinion that Disney-Star should have a dedicated channel for showcasing meaningful /critically acclaimed hollywood +foreign language movies ... Yes such channels appeal to very niche audience hence viewership base is small but it adds immense richness in the premium channels portfolio of a broadcaster.... And Privé and MN+ doing fab job in this genre so did Sony Le Plex HD until it shutdown and Star Movies Select until it revamped its content strategy to focus more on mainstream hollywood movies...i m soon expecting it to rebrand as a kids movie channel or hybrid English GEC cum Movies Channel as having 2 English Movie Channels for airing mainstream hollywood movies is not a good strategy rather air diverse, well curated content on one channel which shall help attract even OTT/regular audience to the channel apart from bringing more fresh audience to such channels particularly from small towns or rural areas where still OTT + Broadband Internet access is limited or even thru mobile internet if available it suits viewing on mobile itself not the big screen....same goes for English GEC or other such niche genres.
OTT base may be growing and look very big if u compare it to TV universe but remember still largely OTT caters to individual viewing on mobile and in this too Free content leads the count so even if it records 30 million viewers these r individual viewers and Connected TV audience base is still small when we count in how many viewers watch paid OTT content on such screen again it is not a big number while TV holds huge advantage and growth opportunities for multiple reasons plus if u see the Pay TV and DD Free Dish viewer base it stands multiple times more than OTT particularly if deaw big screen consumption comparison and for each TV home we can assume average 3 or 4 people watching the content so just imagine the difference of OTT vs TV viewer base
TV has big advantage over OTT hence both will grow even if Internet availability expands in next few years or both OTT + internet become more affordable as still TV still would still be a lot economical + convenient way to watch content
Youtube already has become biggest online content consumption platform in India and more OTT platforms will adopt freemium business model approach to increase viewer base and revenue both in mass and niche audience segments. OTT ad revenue too will grow , also it offers more personalised experience for brands to reach to viewers at lower cost as one can buy ad slots for showing ads to viewers in certain cities or to segments where they want to market their product thus offering more cost effective & fine tuned option for customizing product spends. This is why one may be watching a match in metropolitan city and seeing a luxury brand ad during cricket match but a viewer from small town maybe seeing a regular product ad or some viewer may be seeing no ad but other viewer from different region or segment would be getting more ads shown during match... Segment /Region/ Demographic/language /liking preference /money spent on OTT all such data is collected by apps for these purposes
