CHENNAI: The race for the internet-routed entertainment market seems to have begun in earnest, with the sector recording a flurry of strategic partnerships and tie-ups between diverse players. An Asia-Pacific market leader in the Over The Top (OTT) services segment, YuppTV, announced two such partnerships on Wednesday — a tie-up with Vodafone India’s Vodafone Play for content sharing and another with broadband service provider Hathway for wider reach.
Wednesday’s deals are part of firms’ attempts to arrive at profitable synergies. According to official statements, Vodafone Play subscribers can now access YuppTV’s 250+ basket of live TV channels and movies, while enabling the OTT provider to reach out to Vodafone’s wide customer base. YuppTV will derive similar benefits from the deal with Hathway, which will offer its customers monthly subscription plans for YuppTV.
“The entertainment consumption landscape has changed, the control has shifted to the consumers who can decide what they want to watch at their convenience on multiple devices. The key to this shift is high-speed broadband and very affordable price point,” Hathway Managing Director Rajan Gupta said in a statement.
According to cloud delivery platform Akamai, average speeds have dramatically improved in the last 18 months — from over 3 Mbps to 6.5 Mbps. And, increasing internet speeds are driving people away from traditional televisions.
“With mobiles becoming the preferred screen for entertainment, the average time spent on smartphones daily is significantly higher than TV,” Avneesh Khosla, Associate Director – Consumer Business, Vodafone India said.
Mobile TV solutions firm Apalya Technologies’ Vamshi Reddy, had also noted earlier that the “massive upsurge in 4G connections… has powered this surge... reflected in a massive 6X leap in data consumption at 1.3 billion GB per month.”
India’s active OTT video subscribers is expected to grow to 105 million by 2020, according to a Media Partner Asia (MPA) report.
Tough competition
Major media groups like Star, Sony Pictures Networks, Zee, Eros and Reliance Entertainment are already present in the market, as are platforms like YuppTV, Hotstar, PressPlay TV, Viu, Netflix, etc.