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Media baron Rupert Murdoch said last week he was counting on STAR India to drive the growth of 21st Century Fox, the listed television and film arm of the former's media empire.
The 84-year-old Murdoch's comments come at a time when some of STAR India's big bets seem to be working. One is the digital property Hotstar, which since launch in February this year, has crossed 30 million downloads, prompting the firm to make more investments on the platform. Downloads here imply the number of people who have downloaded the Hotstar app.
"In nine months, there is significant traffic that we've seen coming to Hotstar across drama, movies and sports. This is mainly people between 18 and 35 years, which is also a target group that advertisers are after," said Ajit Mohan, head of digital, Star India. "Apart from content available on television, which can also be seen on Hotstar, we are creating original content for the digital platform. Some of it will come to TV at a later stage," Mohan said.
The reason for STAR's move to plug every content gap in its digital portfolio in India is linked to the impending entry of giants such as Netflix next year. The US-based video-streaming service, considered the largest in its space, has seen a steady rise in its international user base, which currently constitutes nearly 40 per cent of its 69.17-million total user base.
During its recent September quarter results, Netflix said its total user base would touch 74 million by the end of the 2015 calendar year, led by growth in its international user base.
Netflix also announced it was planning to be "nearly global" by the end of 2016. The first step was taken recently with its entry into its first Asian market, Japan. It entered Australia and New Zealand before the Asian entry. Before this, Netflix was largely available in North America and South America and parts of Europe.
The India entry of Netflix is imminent given the growth projections for the music and video streaming market here, according to industry sources. A recent Deloitte report says as data networks improve in India, the contribution of on-demand entertainment services is expected to grow to 74 per cent from the current 47 per cent. Deloitte estimates this will happen by 2020, by which time 4G services are expected to make significant inroads.
A likely data boom on the back of 4G has led rivals such as Viacom18 to step into the video streaming space.
The latter's digital arm launched Voot this week, which will not only compete with Hotstar, but also Multi Screen Media's Sonyliv and a host of other players, including Hooq, a joint venture between Sony Pictures, Warner Bros and Singtel, which entered India in May-June this year.
Monetising challenges
As advertisers slowly but steadily embrace digital advertising in India, Hotstar alone has over 100 advertisers on its platform, Mohan says the firm is working on providing an uncluttered user experience to ensure it can attract maximum eyeballs. He says his technology team is working on this, something that most other players are also expected to focus their attention on.
Experts say this may not be easy as digital advertising--which today is about 10 per cent of India's over Rs 40,000 crore advertising market--is expected to touch 20-25 per cent by 2020. With a subscription model on video-streaming platforms still not having taken off, the fight will be for advertising revenues, experts say.
GROWING MARKET
- Since launch, Hotstar downloads have crossed 30 mn, prompting the firm to up investments on the digital platform
- Growth comes on the back of mobile data and smartphone penetration in India
- Contribution of on-demand entertainment services within mobile data traffic will grow to 74% by 2020 from 47% now, according to Deloitte
- Most players are entering the video-streaming space including Viacom18, which launched its digital platform this week. It competes with SonyLiv and Hotstar
- Netflix is mulling an India launch next year. While Hooq, a JV between Sony Pictures, Warner Bros and Singtel, has entered India this year
