Prasar Bharati recently invited applications to onboard private satellite TV channels for streaming programmes on the pubcaster’s proposed OTT platform for a period of one year.
Industry experts have earlier shared that many GEC channels may not be game about this broadcasting opportunity with Prasar Bharati as most of them run their own subscription-based OTT platforms like Jio Cinema, Zee5 and Sony Liv, to name a few.
Nevertheless, since news is a category, which is consumed on the go, and has seen an overwhelming response on YouTube, this OTT opportunity may turn out to be gold for them. Other than news, even music and movie categories may benefit, experts suggest.
Rishabh Gulati, Managing Director, NewsX, explained, “Any enterprise that is providing accessibility and ease of use for citizens and is providing multi-channel outreach where it is voluntarily possible for all channels to be available is welcome.”
Given the fact that India is still a cost-sensitive market, the OTT platform needs to be done reasonably as in the case of DD Free Dish, Gulati added.
According to the marketing executive of an English TV news channel, “Maybe the smaller brands would like to be a part of this ecosystem so that they get a wider reach which they are not able to get on their own.”
Cause for concern?
The overall sentiment of the news industry stakeholders towards Prasar Bharati’s OTT stands has rather been cautious about its prospects.
As of now, channels selected for the platform will be operational on a revenue-sharing basis where 65 per cent of the net revenue generated by ad insertions will be owned by the channel, and the remaining 35 per cent by Prasar Bharati.
Senior journalist Bhupendra Chaubey opines there's a scope for negotiation on that front. But he also thinks the devil is in the details. “Now with the broadcast bill also having been withdrawn, we don't know what the government will really come up with,” he further added.
The DAVP rate card will be used to rank all applicant TV channels. Those with the highest rates in their respective categories, according to the DAVP rates card, will be chosen for the OTT platform streaming.
However, the industry is still unaware of the yardsticks that Prasad Bharati's OTT will have, experts shared. For instance, a channel could be taken down from the platform if any content doesn't consistently bring in net positive revenue for 180 days, e4m was told. Moreover, while corporate revenue is shareable, government advertisement revenue is only shareable under specific conditions.
Chaubey further said, “We've seen this in DTH platforms where certain channels were pulled off of DTH platforms if they weren't subscribing to a certain bent of mind.”
Stakeholders even argue that the regulatory system designed to regulate and keep an eye on the satellite television signal distribution channels is being undermined by this new policy. This circumstance calls into question not just the compliance with regulations but also the wider consequences for market justice and uniformity in the application of policy in the media industry.
Gulati too believes that the devil is in the detail because what matters are the parameters but any effort made in the direction of building an Indian platform, which is truly Indian, just like ONDC, is an excellent start.
The Bright Side
On the scope of newer avenues for advertising, the NewsX executive said, “We'll only find out when you have adoption, the number of active monthly users, how many people are actually getting on board, what is the ease of use, all of this matters.”
The content sourcing policy launched by Prasar Bharati stated it will place advertisements on the OTT stream at relevant points. In the event that Prasar Bharati is unable to run the complete advertisement, the remaining time will be used for pubcaster and the relevant streaming channel promos.
At a larger level, this model seems to be going in the right direction for the news industry as of now, especially players who want outreach support but a finer read between the lines is needed.
The source underlined that any smaller network or channel that does not have its in-house capabilities might take this route both from a reach point of view, from a viewership or monetisation point of view. Whoever has their own teams in place, own infra in place, own setup in place might not go for this but again it depends from network to network, channel to channel.
Gulati highlighted, “We do need platforms that are being built in India for Indians, not only telecasters. I am hoping that one day it's not just a streaming possibility, perhaps it grows to be even in the private sector.”
“An Indian version of YouTube can be successful because in the private sector we've seen some entities that have tried to replicate social media haven't done very well. So, I wish the government all the best and if they're providing ease of outreach to the audience, it's always good news for us,” he added.
