Coronavirus lockdown: As people stay home, TV and OTT usage sees massive uptick

The COVID-19 pandemic has completely disrupted life as we knew it. Businesses globally are still figuring out the extent of the damage the pandemic will have on the economy and revenue streams, both in the short term and the long term. However, it would seem that the stay at home routine might actually help a clutch of over-the-top (OTT) audio platforms see a rise in their revenues.

According to a report by consulting firm Redseer, OTT audio platforms need to get about 6% of their total users as paid subscribers. It says that the current scenario is expected to lead to a massive spike in usage of these platforms which could also help give a strong one-time boost to subscriber numbers as well.

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According to the report, the ad-based model and the bundled model are the major sources of revenue for OTT audio players. However, there is an increasing focus on a subscription-based model for better monetisation.

Currently, subscription-based users constitute only 1% of the total user base and a major chunk of the revenue is driven by in-app advertisements.

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However, the report suggests that average revenue from subscription/user is almost 80x that of revenue from ads per user. Thus, players are focusing on increasing their subscription user base to achieve profitability.

How are they doing this?

For an increasing percentage of paid subscribers and differentiating from rivals, most players are focusing on originals content. The report also reveals that in India, most users are likely to switch to a paid OTT audio subscription, only if the charges are approximately Rs 25 per month and a large chunk of subscribers (62%) would be willing to make a switch to the paid subscription model.

TV hits back

Another area that has seen an upsurge has been TV content consumption.

A report by BARC and Nielsen that was released last week says that India followed the global trend in showing continued increase in TV programming (43%) and smartphone consumption(13%) last week vis-à-vis the pre-Covid-19 period. This growth was led by movies, that contributed 77% of the growth. It also says that news registered a tremendous growth of 261%, even as people spent more time watching movies on a smartphone.

The survey suggests that people have started to watch television for more than three years in the lockdown period.

Even as the old classics meant that DD National won the top spot among all channels, non-primetime emerged as a huge growth driver for TV (81% growth) with early morning and late-night slots also showing growth.

Moreover, gaming continued to show growth (44%) while categories like virtual education and virtual drives also increased consumption. The data also shows that the number of channels watched per week per viewer has also gone up from 16 to 23.