The Next Pivot
After having created a new set of small-screen celebrities in the early years, Hindi streaming platforms have now gravitated towards existing stars. “We have a proprietary tool called Ormax Stream Track, which captures the Buzz, Reach and Appeal of OTT shows/films. This data shows, that series with the top talent in the film industry, are able to break through the clutter. Many of the non-starcast or low production budget shows struggle to build a strong Buzz pre-launch. Post launch, a strong word-of-mouth helps amplify the marketing buck for such shows. Testing shows helps platforms pre-determine the expected word-of-mouth, based on the Ormax Power Rating, and hence plan their marketing investments for the both pre and post-launch stages,” said Grewal.
At the same time, stars also take advantage of streaming to bury their failures. “Everything is a hit on OTT. I know of stars who prefer certain kinds of films to only come on OTT if they think the film is risky. Because if it … doesn’t work, it is a flop against their name. Here, the PR machinery would make it seem like it worked.” said Sharma.
SonyLiv’s Saugata Mukherjee said that by his assessment, the Hindi market for streaming will grow “incrementally” and he doesn’t anticipate this sector to achieve “a huge amount of growth”. Instead, Mukherjee has pivoted to look beyond streaming originals, much like most other streaming platforms. There has been a sudden boom in unscripted television — Temptation Island India and Big Boss on JioCinema, Masterchef India and Shark Tank on SonyLIV, Dance + Pro and Koffee With Karan on Disney+ Hotstar, Fabulous Lives of Bollywood Wives and The Great Indian Kapil Show on Netflix.
It is not just the cheap, tinsel sensationalism of these shows that makes them easier on the slippery attention spans, but they are also cheaper productions. The Ormax 2023 report noted, “Unlike linear television, where non-fiction shows can be at least four to five times more expensive than fiction shows on a per-episode cost comparison, the picture looks quite different on OTT. Some of the bigger fiction shows on OTT can cost upward of ₹2 crore per episode, making non-fiction shows a more cost-effective proposition.”
