OTT players will soon do unto multiplexes what multiplexes did to VCR/VCP/VCD players during the early 2000s, according to SBI Research’s assessment.

It forecast OTTs to become a Rs 12,000-crore market by 2023 — a major jump from Rs 2,590 crore in 2018. This rise reflects a compound annual growth of 36 per cent.

The shift to OTTs became particularly intense after the pandemic led to the shutting of cinema halls for a considerable period of time.

According to SBI Research, the over-the-top or OTT market is expected to reach Rs 11,944 crore by 2023, up from Rs 2,590 crore in 2018.

It may be recalled that the VCR/VCP/DVD industry, which boomed in the 1980s, went into sudden oblivion as multiplexes rapidly rose to prominence across India’s urban areas around early 2000s.

So far, OTT has snatched 7-9 per cent of the entertainment industry share and revenue. The industry, which has over 40-odd players offering original content in all languages, is growing fast and consistently.

There currently are more than 45 crore OTT subscribers today in India and this number is expected to touch 50 crore by end-2023, PTI quoted Soumya Kanti Ghosh, SBI’s group chief economic adviser, as saying.

High-speed mobile Internet at affordable prices, doubling of Internet users, increased adoption of digital payments and discounts have combined to fuel OTT industry’s eye-catching growth in India.

OTT’s rise is expected to eat into cinemas’ profits as over 50 per cent of subscribers use OTTs more than 5 hours a month.

Prices on offer in India from global players such as Disney+Hotstar (14 crore subscribers), Amazon Prime Video (6 crore subscribers), Netflix (4 crore), Zee5 (3.7 crore) and Sonyliv (2.5 crore) are 70-90 percent cheaper than in the US.

The OTT space is also seeing number of local and regional players with players like Sonyliv Voot, Zee5, AltBalaji, Hoichoi etc catering to regional demand.

Besides, major movie studios have realised creating streaming series and movies is far more profitable than traditional filmmaking, especially if they build their own streaming platforms.

In the 1980s, an exponential rise in video cassette recorders/players (VCRs/VCPs) challenged the established modes and models of viewing cinemas. But the rise of multiplexes in the early 2000s across the metros and large cities effectively killed the DVD industry and single screens. And the onslaught of OTT platforms is set to do to multiplexes what they had done to DVD markets in the early 2000s, the report notes.

Inputs from PTI