Online video is the hottest space in the media business. In India, content is increasingly consumed on the personal devices such as mobile, tab etc. on OTT platform. The current generation doesn’t have the patience to wait for a news show or movie to air on a linear platform like television channels. According to the Deloitte Report, the Indian OTT video market is currently valued at $109 million and it is expected to grow further. Today an Indian consumer has more choice for content than consumers anywhere in the world.
Failure is the Best Teacher
Like any other media house, even Times group attempted to enter into this space during 2013 with the launch of an OTT service, Box Tv, but failed to find a toehold in this segment and finally shut down its shop in 2016. High customer acquisition cost, technological advancement and lack of control over the cost of acquiring the content were few reasons for this failure even though the online video space was turning red hot.
Why MX Player
MX player is arguably the best video player in the world right now. It’s freely available on play store and works for almost all devices including smartphones running on Android or iOS. Further, it can do everything the default video player app can do. While in India, it ranks among the top 10 apps on Google Play Store, it is also reportedly among the top 20 most-used apps in the above-mentioned countries. South Korea based MX player is among the very few android video player applications that supports multi-core decoding.
In a bid to re-enter in this space once again, The Times Internet Limited has entered into the acquisition of MX payer to realign its services in OTT space. Apart from leveraging MX player’s technological advancement, this move will also help times group to capitalize on its 350 million installed base in India along with its more than 175 million monthly active users and 65 million daily active users.
Today most of the content available on OTT platforms are repurposed from TV and is not really created with large, young audience in mind. Times group is aiming to create premium and unique content for the youth class of India. With this acquisition, it will be able to deliver the world-class streaming experience of high quality, relevant content for Indian audiences and thus will play a vital role in transforming the sector and create new milestones.
The Current State of Industry:
Traditionally, youtube had owned and ruled this space however the drop in data prices has motivated a number of OTT services to enter into this space including even giant telecom players like Vodafone, Jio, Idea, Airtel etc.
Among the overseas players, Netflix and Amazon Prime both launched in India in the first half of 2016. And then there were independent players like Eros Now and AltBalaji which were picking up the pace. With rivals pulling ahead, Times was apparently searching for a move that would sling it over into the race and maybe MX Player, created by J2 Interactive, a South Korea-based Android designer, is the linchpin. Its colossal base could frame the establishment for Times to launch a noteworthy attack on the consistently extending Indian online video market.
The Strategy:
Times' content will become available to the millions of users (a base growing rapidly) of MX Player through an app update. Further, the company will focus on the young Indians who form the core group of heavy consumers of online video, almost entirely on mobile phones. As far as monetization strategy is concerned, the company will most probably adopt the pay route in the long-term but will take the ad-supported route, to begin with.
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