Few people in India have access to broadband networks – fixed line or mobile – that are robust enough to support sustained online video viewing

That hasn’t stemmed the waves of both optimism and trepidation around the prospect of over-the-top (OTT) video at last week’s Ficci Frames conference in Mumbai, where many sessions where peppered with debates over windowing and digital rights, as well as how relationships and power dynamics might change in a multiscreen world.

There was broad agreement on one point. The journey has just begun, with plenty of work ahead on how companies should collaborate to unlock value in the future.

“As an industry, whether it is Bollywood or television content, we need to evolve some formulas for clever windowing,” said Anuj Gandhi, group CEO of IndiaCast, a content and channel distributor jointly owned by the Network18 and Viacom18 TV networks.

“The West has done it effectively,” Gandhi noted. “I am not sure we have the monetization models in place. It will still take some time.”

Rights rethink

Content monetization models are largely shaped around first-run content and linear channels in India, constraining revenues and testing business models for current OTT video services.

It’s a different picture in more developed markets, where most pay-TV platforms have developed triple-play services.

Digital rights can ensure their content offering stays relevant in the face of competition from large-scale SVOD plays such as Netflix and Amazon.

These have no direct equivalent in India, which is following a different path.

Low subscription rates for pay-TV in India leave little space for online rivals to compete on cost.

At the same time, most OTT viewing is taking place on mobile networks, prompting a new power play between traditional pay-TV providers and mobile operators.

While tech companies around the world have adopted a mobile-first mentality, Srinivasan Gopalan, director and CEO of global voice and data for local telecoms titan Airtel, argued that India is a mobile-only market, rewriting the rules around payments, consumption and advertising.

“I don’t think there is any inevitability around SVOD being the end-game,” Gopalan said.

“A mobile-only market has a few big implications. Customers are happier paying for data than paying for content.”

Gopalan added: “We’ve seen that with our over-the-top plays as well. We get 15 times the response when we bundle it in, versus when we ask them to pay for content.”

Distribution diversifies

Traditional pay-TV platforms also used the stage at Ficci to invite content providers and rights holders to explore new ways of working with them, to tap new revenues from online platforms.

DTH providers such as Dish, Reliance Digital, Tata Sky and Videocon d2h have already started to roll out authenticated TV Everywhere services, while cable MSOs such as Den, Hathway, InCable and Siti Cable have commenced their own push into broadband.

“The asset that aggregators and distributors have is millions of subscribers,” said Paolo Matteo Agostinelli, chief content and business development officer for DTH platform, Tata Sky.

“We handle marketing direct to consumers for a living. We should be considered as one of, if not the main opportunity to accelerate the wave of consumers to digital,” Agostinelli added.

“We are there for this reason. If we don’t do that, then we are going to die.”

Cable and satellite platforms speaking at Ficci all accepted the need to adapt in a changing world.

At the same time however, some executives voiced concerns that providing content for free online will undermine attempts to create new premium windows, on both established as well as new distribution platforms.

Different perceptions of pay

Broadcast major Star India recently unveiled a subscription-free online service, Hotstar, offering a mix of drama, movies and sports. While uptake is encouraging, consumers are still paying to watch, points out Star India’s digital head Ajit Mohan, spending money on a data plan rather than a TV subscription.

Business models around subscription and advertising in India will evolve in tandem with a changing landscape that has little in common with Western markets, he predicted.

“When you look at the cost the consumer pays for accessing the data, what they are watching on an OTT service like Hotstar is probably the most premium pay platform because it is expensive,” Mohan said.

“They are already paying a lot of money in terms of data.”