NEW DELHI: Buoyed by the enthusiastic response to its Over The Top (OTT) platform WAVES, public broadcaster Prasar Bharati is gearing up to roll out a comprehensive, multi-pronged strategy aimed at positioning the platform as a leading player in both domestic and global digital content markets.
Launched in November 2024, WAVES has already made strong early inroads, recording over 3.8 million downloads and 2.3 million registered users in less than a year. Encouraged by this traction, Prasar Bharati is now exploring strategic avenues to accelerate the platform’s growth and reach.
The new strategy will focus on studying global best practices, forging app bundling deals, pursuing app-in-app integrations, and securing content syndication and international partnerships. The agency is specifically aiming to establish operational and financial sustainability within two years by optimising resource utilisation, streamlining content pipelines, and diversifying revenue streams.
According to officials, the agency will engage a team of experts to provide comprehensive strategic, operational, and analytical support across content, technology, marketing, user acquisition, distribution, and revenue domains. The primary objective is to ensure the sustained and scalable growth of WAVES, they added.
The team will evaluate incoming content proposals for OTT worthiness, compliance, and engagement potential. With the help of these experts, Prasar Bharati will identify content gaps by genre, language, and demographic.
“The unit will study and recommend global best practices from top OTT platforms for content curation, genre diversification, and metadata optimisation… It will guide and assist marketing agencies and creative partners in developing a comprehensive promotional strategy spanning mass media, community outreach and digital platforms including influencer partnerships, festive campaigns, and event-led activations,” said the officials.
WAVES currently offers at least 65 channels, including 40 live services featuring news and entertainment networks, movies, TV shows, and games in 10 languages such as Hindi, English, Marathi, Tamil, and Assamese. The content includes classics from Doordarshan and Akashvani archives, along with new programming available on the application.