Netflix on Wednesday unveiled a slate of more than 40 India originals that will premiere on the service this year. The bouquet of originals that involves a mix of motion pictures, series across genres and documentaries underlines the more than-the-best (OTT) firm’s try to deepen its attain in the nation. Monika Shergill, vice-president, content at Netflix India claims that the 2021 content slate is almost 3 instances that curated by the platform in earlier years. Shergill says the company’s licensed pipeline is equally robust and “put together, it is a very big and entertaining slate.”
“We are telling stories for the masses. We have completed five years this year and it is a journey of adding more stories to our slate and broadening the stories..reaching out to more and more audiences,” Shergill told FE in an interview.
Netflix that competes with worldwide players Amazon Prime Video, Disney+Hotstar and a clutch of dwelling-grown services like Zee5 and AltBalaji in India has been devising strategies to get more subscribers on to the platform regardless of whether it is by constructing on its nearby library of content or introducing a low-priced mobile-only program. To capitalise on the pandemic-led increase in consumption of video content, the firm also held a two-day free of charge streaming fest to allow viewers to sample the platform’s content. Shergill says: “The stream fest was an initiative to give the experience to a maximum set of new audiences and potential viewers.”
A lot more men and women joined the service final year and experimented with varied content, says Shergill.
“Of course, Indians watch and gravitate to Indian content first. That is where local content has the maximum resonance for our audience but also there was a lot of experimentation with Spanish content, Korean content and even Japanese anime. A lot of our titles coming from Hollywood were seen in Hindi also. There is something for everyone to watch and to be able to programme that more and more, that has been our focus,” Shergill mentioned.
India is projected to overtake South Korea, Germany and Australia to develop into the sixth-biggest OTT industry by 2024, a current PwC report mentioned. Indian OTT content investments are estimated to have currently reached $700 million in 2020. With budgets for originals and nearby acquisitions trending upwards, OTT content expenses are projected to develop at a CAGR of 18% among 2020-25 to attain $1.6 billion, analysts at Media Partners Asia mentioned.
Netflix has lined up releases of the second season of a bunch of its well-known internet series which includes Delhi Crime, Jamtara and Masaba Masaba for viewers in the existing year. Besides, more than 10 motion pictures which includes Kartik Aryan’s Dhamaka, Taapsee Pannu’s Haseen Dillruba, a host of documentaries and comedy specials featuring Kapil Sharma will be offered for streaming.