In India, OTT Platforms have been in the limelight for the last 2-3 years and web series, new movies are reaching your mobiles directly.
Since the era of smartphones is such, people have started to prioritize all the content related to entertainment on their mobiles instead of TV, and in such a situation, the era of cable TV is taking over.
This is how Cable TV vs OTT War has started in India. So today know how Cable TV is at a Loss due to OTT Platforms. Now the war is in between Cable TV Vs OTT Platforms.
Cable TV Vs OTT Platforms War: There was a time when people left the Ramayana, Mahabharata on Doordarshan, people had to fight hard to watch the news. The reason was that or TV sets were low or the way for people to get news or entertainment was limited. Time changed, people came up with new options and life today has moved beyond Doordarshan to cable TV and now OTT platform.
There are 5 types of entertainment media in India are Broadcast or Over Air Television, Free to Air, Direct to Home (DTH), cable TV, and OTT (over-the-top) platforms.
India currently has 40 OTT Entertainment providers including Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, G5, Hotstar, Alt Balaji, MX Player, Voot, on which people can watch web series, new movies as well as TV serials.
History:
Doordarshan was the only source of entertainment and news in India till the 1990s, where people used to get news, news related to farmers, things related to family planning, film-songs, and sports.
By the year 1991, TV was installed in more than 70 million homes in India. At the same time, through the Narasimha Rao government of the Center, in an effort to emphasize globalization and give a new dimension to the economy, the paths of India were opened to the world.
After this, there was a revolution in the means of entertainment of the people, and in this way, cable TV started in India in the year 1992. With the advent of cable TV, five new channels started in India, including MTV, Star Plus, Star Movies, BBC, and Prime Sport.
After this, India's first private TV channel Zee TV also started. Later Sun TV started in South India. By the year 2010, more than 500 satellite channels have come to India, through which people use local news,
When the time changed, the needs also changed:
With the change of time and the desire of the Internet to grow and easily watch new movies sitting at home, Indians were not left untouched, and then came the age of OTT platforms.
The talk is about 3-4 years old. OTT means over the top, which if you can understand in easy terms, you can see digital means of entertainment, which you can connect in TV, mobile and tab, even in laptop.
This service is subscription-based, just like cable TV, in which you pay a fixed amount and get the service. It occurs monthly, quarterly, half-yearly, or annually.
In fact, the acceptance of the OTT platform increased among the people, because it did not seem too expensive for them, because earlier they used to pay a fixed amount to other cable operators including Tata Sky, Airtel, DTH.
Let me tell you that India is the second country after China, where people pay money and take subscriptions for entertainment.
Everything will be available in one place:
The biggest reason to shift from cable TV to OTT is that you can watch serials, movies, and web series on OTT platforms, without any advertisement. At the same time, channels seen through cable TV are full of ads.
Also, if you look at the content too, the scope of OTT platforms is quite large. You can also watch South America-based web series Narcos and shoot in China as well as Polo.
At the same time, the Sacred Games made in India, Mirzapur, The Family Man as well as the Ashram. Also, this ad is free.
Even now almost all the major TV channels have knocked on the OTT platform, in such a way you can watch ad-free TV serials and web series as well as new movies on other digital platforms including G5, Alt Balaji, Voot.
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Media streaming device dominated:
Now the point of debate is how the OTT platform has spoiled the game of cable TV, then let me tell you that in every metropolis and small towns, there is a TV in every house.
When there are TV sets, there will also be cable TV. But now, along with cable TV, people will use other media streaming devices including Amazon Fire Stick and Airtel X stream, JioFiber, Roku TV, Apple TV, Google Chromecast, Raspberry PI, NVIDIA Shield TV, Nexus Player, Fire TV Pendant, etc.
Are engaged, on which they are able to see everything easily. However, the internet is necessary to use these devices. As the access to the Internet has become easier and you do not have a shortage of data, the demand for these media streaming devices has increased in the smaller metros.
However, it is necessary to mention one thing that internet access is still limited in small cities, so the acceptance of watching OTT platforms on TV has not been as good as cable TV.
Your choice and thinking have also changed:
Let me tell you that till some time people who used to watch serials or movies on TV with the help of cable TV, now they can watch web series or other content on OTT platform by putting amazon fire stick or other media streaming device in the TV.
Instead of watching the cartoon channel, children go to the Children section of the OTT platform and watch the favorite cartoon serial or movie. In such a situation, there has been a crisis on the existence of cable TV.
Although the scope of the OTT platform has not reached that much in the small towns or villages, in the coming time it will see a lot of expansion. In such a situation, people can easily get subscriptions to Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hotstar for less money.
At present, all the Indian OTT platforms, whether it is Alt Balaji, G5, or others, Their subscription cost is not much. Times Group's MX Player is free for everyone.
The reason for this is that their content is limited in scope, but Netflix and Amazon Prime Video subscriptions are comparatively expensive because their content is world-class.
The cable TV network will have to do something:
In coming years, cable TV will surely face a lot of challenges with the OTT platform, as now TV manufacturers are also focusing on making smart TV and most companies are trying to inbuilt OTT platform.
For this, he is in agreement with Amazon Prime, Hotstar, and Netflix. In such a situation, the existence of cable TV will gradually come under threat.
Suppose, you watch serials of Zee TV or Star Plus or Sony TV, you are also getting all this on G5, Sony Liv, and Hotstar, that too, free of cost, in such a way your focus gradually shifts from cable TV to OTT platform Shifts like In the coming time, all OTT platforms including Netflix, Amazon Prime will reduce their subscription fees and will try to reach the villages along with small towns, so cable TV will have to think.