OTT viewership, subscriptions stabilize

As the curbs on the movement of people are being eased and cinemas have reopened, OTT (over-the-top) streaming platforms are bracing for stabilization in subscriptions and viewership. OTT platforms witnessed 60-70% growth witnessed around May, with their subscriber base reaching 20%.

Netflix is a case in point which reported 2.2 million net additions in Q3 versus 10.1 million globally in Q2. “The state of the pandemic and its impact continues to make projections very uncertain, but as the world hopefully recovers in 2021, we would expect that our growth will revert to levels similar to pre-covid. In turn, paid net adds are likely to be down year-over year in the first half of 2021 as compared to the big spike in paid net adds experienced in the first half of 2020,”

“It was evident that the huge growth witnessed by OTT platforms over the past few months was due to the lockdown. This phase also converted many fence-sitters into subscribers. Now, the streaming services are making sure that these subscribers are retained for the long term through a pool of immersive content,” Nachiket Pantvaidya, CEO, ALTBalaji and group chief operating officer, Balaji Telefilms Ltd commented.