Are OTT Platforms Setting Unrealistic Budgets?

The web-series is clearly the future, considering the time that spectators, across the world, are spending on online viewing daily. But, the fact of the matter is, are the creators making money in comparison to the extravagant budgets they invest in a series? We take a look.

It is believed that Hotstar is putting in Rs 120 crore to produce shows across seven Indian languages in 2019. Zee5 is aggressively planning to release 72 new originals in six languages by March 2020. Eros Now hasn’t been behind, investing $50 million (Rs 356 crore) to produce over 100 originals.

Netflix is contention to come up with nearly five web series in 2019 in addition to 15 digital films by 2020, with their budget for Indian content alone touching over Rs 100 billion. It’s already news that Apple’s budget is around $6 billion on its digital content lineup.

But, where are the returns? Will the digital ad-revenue and subscription prices alone suffice? And, every media platform wants a share of the digital pie. So, everyone ends up eating into each other’s business. Though web-series is the ‘in-thing’ and everybody’s eyes are on it, what’s the point in indulging one’s finances before understanding what you get in return? The consolidation of platforms, as a result, just appears around the corner.