Fresh from the thumping success of their recent OTT series ‘Scam 1992‘, Applause Entertainment and its CEO Sameer Nair are gung-ho about the future of streaming, both in India and globally. Streaming, or ‘over the top’ (OTT) entertainment, as it is called, has taken over public conscience, cementing its place in popular culture, today more than ever before. Applause Entertainment is the digital arm of the Aditya Birla Group of Companies.
Sameer Nair was a celebrated participant at the recently concluded 11th U.S – Asia Entertainment Summit organized by Asia Society, the leading global educational organization based in Southern California. Speaking at the event titled “Cinemas to Smartphones: Streaming Wars and the Future of Bollywood and Indian Content”, Sameer Nair waxed eloquent on the OTT scene in India. “People are more drawn to individual experiences, and a collection of that content makes a platform”, he asserted at the event. Sameer Nair presided over the aforementioned event, alongside director Shekhar Kapoor and entertainment lawyer Gowree Gokhale.
The eminent panelists touched upon a diverse range of subjects relating to streaming and OTT. Speaking on the current OTT landscape development in India, and the transition of audiences from TV to OTT, Sameer said, “This period is a lot like the early stages. It is more like the 90s for what it was for television in India with a whole bunch of channels coming up with a number of players and investors.”
About the potential of streaming, he added, “Here we have a potential 500 million of an audience base and the streaming platforms have touched around 20 million, so it is a long way to go. India is a large market connected with smartphones and broadband connectivity, cheapest data in the world, already savvy with television and film, so this is a growth phase where there will be a lot of investment as we essentially move audiences from television to streaming.”
Of course, even as the country transitions from traditional entertainment to new-fangled streaming options, the theatre continues to hold significant value, as per Sameer Nair. Nair put forth a very valid point when he said, “Theatrical revenue is a very important revenue stream as when we draw a comparison between 9000 theatrical screens versus 900 million smartphone screens, we miss talking about the fact that the 900 million smartphone screens are not going to generate the sort of revenue as compared to what the country can potentially generate theatrically. So, taking the theatrical experience off the market translates to a significant economic change and you are also leaving a great chunk of retail revenue on the table. I think streaming platforms can compensate for those 80-100 billion dollars to offset the theatrical revenue loss.”
As the discussion veered towards what the future holds for the Television industry in India, Sameer said, “The linear television industry in India has reached 197 million TV and cable satellite homes. There is about 10-15 million more to go and it is now scraping the bottom of the barrel. As every content platform and every technology creates a content habit, TV was the classic talking to the consumer technology and it told you to watch your favorite shows at specific time slots so you had to reorder your life accordingly. On contrarian grounds, streaming platforms made the content available to you whenever you want it, and that has been one big change in consumer habits.”
He continued, “Also the way TV is going, I think it is going to play out. It is ad and subscriber dependent and it reached its scale. This is a decade where we will be able to see a gradual transitioning out of typical linear television to streaming platforms and then moving on to even more dramatic technological advancements.”
Finally, as no discussion nowadays is complete without mention of Applause Entertainment’s runaway hit show Scam 1992, Sameer Nair was asked what he had to say about the super success of Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story. Nair replied modestly, “People watch programs not channels, and in a way how people watch movies and go to theatres because of the ambiance, similarly now with platforms or with any form of content, people are more drawn to individual experiences and a collection of that content makes a platform.”
Expounding further, he added, “So there are things that can stand out, so that piece of content could succeed. But for that platform to succeed, the offering is much larger and deeper as eventually, they depend on a subscription model or they want their customers to come back again and again. I think that people watch shows and individual content, hence, for platforms to succeed, they need lots of those.”
We couldn’t agree more with Sameer Nair’s insights. With 18 drama series across platforms in 19 months, and most of them hits, the man behind Applause Entertainment’s meteoric rise in India’s OTT scene is the definite entertainment maven.
Scam 1992 is currently streaming on SonyLIV. The India – Asia Entertainment Summit covers entertainment across Asia. The entire event can be viewed on the YouTube channel of Asia Society.