It wouldn’t be wrong to say that this pandemic became a turning point for streaming services globally. It acted as a catalyst to the growth of these platforms which would otherwise have had seen this level of progress in years to come. Moreover, it encouraged a lot others to be more innovative and utilise OTT not just for entertainment but much more like fitness, education, gaming, patriotism and even to reduce stress and get better sleep (Restflix).
2020 will probably go down in history for all the wrong reasons but it is definitely a benchmark year for the OTT services all around the world. It made the filmmakers and actors realise the potential of digital release and its democratic nature. It provided avenue to regional content like never before. It helped some phenomenal actors to make a wonderful comeback (Sushmita Sen, Jimmy Shergill, Abhishek Bachchan and more). Not just that, it gave a stage to actors like Jitendra Kumar, Abhishek Bannerjee, Jaideep Ahlawat, Shweta Tripathi, Mithila Palkar and many more, who are tremendously talented.
OTT platforms have registered windfall growths in the past quarters whether it’s Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, Disney+Hotstar, Zee5, SonyLIV, Voot or any other. Regional vernacular OTTs were born and many are in plans for launch like ‘Planet Marathi OTT’, ‘Regal Talkies’ (Tamil) and more.
With all the pros, the OTTs have faced a few cons too that are natural to come with the fame it has been getting. The theatres are concerned and so are the makers and stars of big budget and state-of-the-art movies. There have been issues regarding censorship of content on OTT platforms. But all these issues easily get overshadowed with the growing success. What happens after things get back to normal is not easy to say but one thing is for sure that these OTTs have proved that they are here to stay and things will have to co-exist.