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Before Netflix and its ilk disrupted our TV watching schedule with binge-watching, that time was sacrosanct to millennials. Between 7 and 10:30 pm, we got our daily fix of entertainment, whether it was content meant for kids or saas-bahu sagas or just a movie you wanted to catch. Those days may be over but ironically OTT — the very reason why the habit phased out — is now trying to bring it back, rechristened as TV Plus.
The year 2019 changed the game for the digital platform. With the onset of the pandemic, and all of us confined to our homes, most of us accepted OTT as our entertainment fix, setting in motion the binge-watch culture for most in India. Platforms also started to release entire seasons in one go. Over the next four years, up to 2023, the web space became a force to reckon with in India, bringing in content in abundance.
Today, every OTT platform fashions a library of content where a viewer can spend hours and days watching stories at one go. But as the binge-watching culture became a weekend norm for many, it also led to many digital platforms seeing stagnation in terms of their subscriber base. Given that subscribers are lifeblood of an OTT platform, many of them set in motion a revamp, trying to attract new audiences with diverse strategies. The result was TV Plus or Appointment Viewing concept, which rolled in the country this year.
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What is the TV Plus/Appointment Viewing Concept?
While earlier, all episodes from one season of a series were released together on OTT, TV Plus or Appointment Viewing went back to TV era style of releasing one episode every week, encouraging the viewer to return periodically to catch up with the story. This is very similar to what has existed on TV in the past where special shows had episodes released every week and the audience sincerely watched that story grow on a weekly basis.
To cite a few examples, The Great Indian Kapil Show which began in March, drops a new episode every Saturday. Jennifer Winget-Karan Wahi’s show Raisinghani vs Raisinghani on SonyLIV only drops new episodes three times a week. Divyanka Tripathi Dahiya and Eijaz Khan’s Adrishyam also brings a fresh and short story three days a week. Lootere on Disney Plus Hotstar drops one episode per week. Even Netflix, that introduced the concept of binge-watch has divided seasons of its shows in two parts, with Bridgerton Season 3 being the latest example.
While Indian OTT platforms provide weekly episodes of their reality shows, this concept has now taken the same trend to fictional stories. It also alters the way these stories are produced with no set number of episodes, and viewership often dictating the length of the show.
The Head of Ad Sales Revenue at SonyLIV, Ranjana Mangla says, “OTT is a very generic term that all of us use, but it is divided into two screens, one is mobile and the other one is the larger internet-enabled devices like TV, laptop, etc. OTT is at an all-time high, especially in the last five years. There are variations in the landscape of numbers, so content makers like us need to create content and tap into habit-building behavior.”
SonyLIV was an early adopter to appointment viewing in India. Talking about the same, Ranjana adds, “We are seeing great traction, we recently released Raisinghani vs Raisinghani, and Adrishyam, even some of our TV shows like Shark Tank India and Kaun Banega Crorepati, have started to see a spike because there are close to 35 to 40 million connected to TV households now. These shows are seeing behaviour similar to primetime behavior so of course it is very natural for us to move in that direction and create content like that.”
Sharing his take on the TV plus concept, the writer of Lootere and showrunner for The Trail, Suparn Verma says, “HBO has been doing it for a while now. Earlier, very few shows were weekly, then Netflix came and disrupted it and we got used to binge-watching. Now it’s a mixed bag, there is binge-watch as well as weekly content. Honestly if the content is good then people will complain about why it isn’t in binge-watch concept because they will have to go on for multiple days to view it. With bad content, whether weekly or binge-watch, no one will come to watch it.”
Commenting on the adoption of this long-format content on OTT, Adrishyam actor Eijaz Khan says, “Eventually I think long-format content is here to stay. As a producer when you are investing it makes a little more sense to do it in a long format since returns on investment are a little higher. It is here to stay and I made a conscious decision of being a part of these things as an early bird.”
Did appointment viewing arise due to the TV-watching culture phasing out?
With the stagnating subscribers, is appointment viewing a way to shore up their numbers and bring TV audience to the OTT fold? Adrishyam’s actress Divyank Tripathi Dahiya begs to differ, she says, “I think the audience is already here, we are giving them fresher content which is exclusive to watch on OTT. A lot of my family members love watching TV but now they watch the shows on OTT. So they are already there, just that now we are trying to show them that content that we want to serve them directly on OTT.”
Ranjana opines, “It is still very early to say that TV is phasing out, but the audience is already latching on to the technology. What is important is that we need to start serving them very quickly. Of course, TV audiences are switching, but the larger need is catering to the very large audience that is coming onto the platform.”
Lootere’s writers Vishal Kapoor and Suparn also reveal how bringing the show on Disney Plus Hotstar with this new strategy has helped it. Vishal says, “It’s working beautifully, in our case people are coming by, they are excited to know how the next episode is going forward. As far as you give them a good story or a hook having them interested in the character then they will come back. We have been in the top 5 shows week after week.” Suparn also added, “You have to pack your episode with enough lead and plot so that people keep coming back. You cannot lack in a minute. So the end has to be written in a way that you come back for the next episode. It is working for us, in a way you have to have confidence in your product to drop something week after week and not move them.”
Strategy and money involved with the TV plus concept
With the TV Plus concept being a new ball game on the OTT front, Ranjana explains what are the kind of strategies and money involved. She shares, “Content creation is a little different for binge watch versus appointment viewing content behaviors. But we also want to tap into known TV stars, to serve to the audience who is coming on for appointment viewing. The money and stakes depend on the kind of stars and producers you are working with. The variation is too much, and of course, you produce all kinds of shows, but yes cost dramatically varies when you are doing a show like KBC vs Shark Tank India vs Masterchef vs Raisinghani, all of them have a huge variety of costs attached to them depending on what kind of format you are building.”
Is the subscriber base in India stagnating for many OTT platforms?
Another big question that arises with OTT undergoing such a revamp is if this 2.0 approach to the web space is also to revive the subscriber base that seems to be stagnating in the country. Commenting on this Ranjana said, “It is not like the audience is bored of content, they might feel saturated with the same genre of content being created at different platforms. OTT has gone past that phase of serving a certain type of audience, of course when it comes to a subscription-based model it is very marquee now. Appointment viewing is a very recent phenomenon.”
“There was a time we all saw a huge growth curve, but now the subscriber base is not growing at the same pace. India is a country with 140 crore people so there is no dearth of opportunity. I don’t think the subscription audiences are completely stagnant. It just depends on who you want to be as an OTT platform, and what kind of content you have, which will bring the audience to it,” she adds.
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Ranjana believes that if one makes great content, and tells compelling stories, the audience will keep growing on that platform.
While the era of TV Plus or what Indian OTT Platforms call Appointment Viewing is rather new, it seems to be working, but is it the right shot for the long haul, is something only time can tell.
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