Planet Marathi OTT, a Mumbai-based OTT platform dedicated to Marathi language content, raised $5 million funding from private equity firm A&M Capital last fortnight. The investment is expected to fuel the platform’s expansion and content enhancement efforts.
In June, Amazon acquired key assets of MX Player, which claims to have 50,000 hours of content in languages such as Malayalam, Tamil, Bengali, Punjabi, Bhojpuri, and Kannada. With this, Amazon hopes to expand the catalogue of regional content for Prime Video viewers.
The 2024 Telugu movie Guntur Kaaram is already among the top 10 movies on Netflix with 4.9 million views, close on the heels of Hindi movie Amar Singh Chamkila with 5.3 million views.
Get the drift? From Netflix and Disney+ Hotstar to Amazon Prime Video and Aha, every OTT player worth its salt seems to be embracing the vernacular route. There is a notable scarcity of high-quality web series on regional OTTs, which presents a key area of focus for OTT players, says Chandrashekar Mantha, partner, media and entertainment sector leader, Deloitte India.
It’s not very difficult to see why. Regional OTT content volumes exceeded Hindi language content in 2023 as the share of regional language OTT titles increased from 47% in 2021 to 52% in 2023, says FICCI-EY’s 2024 media and entertainment sector report.
What explains the sharp growth in regional content consumption? Krishnan Kutty, head of business and content for TV and digital for South India and Maharashtra, Disney+ Hotstar, attributes this to OTT platforms blurring geographical boundaries through “dubbing and subtitling”. Some of the biggest hits on the platform include Manjummel Boys, Premalu, Aranmanai 4, Siren, and Joe. Kutty says, “We’ve observed that nearly half of the Hindi consumers significantly engage with south Indian content, and there’s a 10-20% increase in the sampling of international content when dubbed in local languages.”
Kutty’s views were endorsed by a recent report by Media Partners Asia which says, “Subtitling and dubbing have broken the language barrier and helped the consumption of regional content become a mega trend on online video platforms in India. Southern films whether direct-to-streaming like Jai Bhim, Sarpatta Parambarai, Jagame Thandhiram, or post theatrical like RRR, Pushpa: The Rise, KGF Chapter 2, and Kantara, have been streamed by audiences across the country, a testimony to how online video has unlocked the potential of India’s diverse story-telling cultures.”
For its part, Amazon’s Prime Video has also seen rapid growth in viewership in the regional space. “We have tried to ensure that language is not considered a barrier to enjoying a great story by investing in content creation, localisation, and customer experience,” says a Prime Video spokesperson. In India the platform offers programmes in 10 languages, the highest in any Prime Video geography. Today, over 60% of the customers on Prime Video stream content in four or more languages and over 50% the viewership of its local language content comes from outside the home states. “We are also giving an unprecedented global showcase to Indian stories and storytellers with our reach in over 240 countries and territories,” he adds.
Do regional OTT players have the wherewithal to stand their ground? Rakesh CK, executive vice-president, SVOD & marketing at Aha, says the platform has what it takes to stay relevant. “We maintain an edge by offering distinct libraries for Telugu and Tamil with our 100% local storefront promise and independent subscription plans. As a user, you have the choice to buy either a Telugu or Tamil subscription on a standalone basis, helping us price the plans competitively. We also deliver fresh content weekly, and our acquisitions have bolstered our content offerings,” he says.
Although regional players focus sharply on local audiences, their content, like that of global giants, is in demand internationally. “While we try to create or acquire more movie-based content for the international market, when it comes to West Bengal and India as a whole, we try to create more original web series as they drive viewership,” shares Soumya Mukherjee, COO, Hoichoi. The popular Bengali-language streaming platform marked its sixth anniversary in 2023 with a 40% increase in direct subscriptions and a 60% rise in individual watch time per subscriber compared to data from over a year ago.