Binged Yearenders: Top 5 OTT Platforms Of 2020
OTT platforms turned messiah for many of us home bound people, around the world, during lockdown. The kind of rapid growth these streaming services experienced was nothing anyone would have expected and that too so quick. They were smart enough to take advantage of this golden opportunity and rather than just putting out original films and series, they went on to acquire some of the best works out there, that would have otherwise never come to them.
The global platforms obviously were the biggest gainers, making benefit out of their extensive worldwide reach. But that nowhere means that local players were any less. The difference lies only in the type of target audience of these platforms. While global ones like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+Hotstar and Apple TV+ had a better grip among the metropolitan and urban youth; the local ones like ALTBalaji, SonyLIV, Zee5, Voot and MXPlayer were more popular in tier ll and tier lll cities. Apart from these two categories we also saw rise of vernacular platforms like Aha Video and Hoichoi that primarily captured the regional market through their language specific content.
Let’s see which were the top 5 OTT platforms in India that really marked their presence in the Indian market –
5. Voot Select / Aha Video
Voot Select is in a rather nascent stage when compared with the global streaming services in terms of the original series category. Though we cannot deny how successful all its web series have been when it comes to public reviews and ratings. Most of the series on Voot Select are related to mystery, thriller, crime and the likes of it. And we all know how these are the most popular genres in today’s time and that’s the reason people loved the series on this platform. It’s not just about the genre though, the storyline and performances are equally important and that’s what hooked the audience to the shows. The only thing that the platform lacks is movies otherwise Voot Select has an almost 100% strike rate when it comes to episodic shows.
Every original series that came out on the platform this year impressed the audience abundantly and these include first and foremost Arshad Warsi and Barun Sobti starrer mythological-cum-forensic science based series ‘Asur’. Other amazing shows on the platform include legal drama ‘Illegal – Justice, Out Of Order’, lockdown special ‘The Gone Game’, legal thriller drama ‘The Raikar Case’, crime thriller series ‘Marzi – A Game Of Lies’ and more.
Aha Video
Among the regional platforms if we have to pick any one that gained the most prominence this year its definitely going to be the Telugu language streaming service Aha Video founded by Allu Aravind. The platform offers 100% Telugu Web series, movies and kids content. Though there are many other vernacular streaming services coming up, Aha Video successfully stood out with its variety of content. Not only does the platform offers original content, it also provides Telugu dubbed version of other popular regional content.
Some of its original content includes ‘Kotha Poradu’, ‘Masti’s’, ‘Adham’, ‘Bhanumathi & Ramakrishna’, ‘Johaar’, ‘Orey Bujjiga’ and ‘Colour Photo’ among many others. Aha Video also has an exclusive celebrity chat show named ‘Sam Jam’ hosted by the gorgeous south actress Samantha Akkineni.
For the fifth position, we literally couldn’t decide as both the contenders felt equally good to us. And so we got a tie between Voot Select and the Telugu only platform Aha Video.
4. SonyLIV
SonyLIV used to be a platform known majorly for sports streaming but recently the platform has gained a newfound popularity with the streaming of shows and films both global and local. Among the international content on SonyLIV we have some interesting titles like ‘The Commons’, ‘Dark Waters’, ‘Green Book’, ‘1917’, ‘A Confession’, etc. Coming to the Indian content category the first is undoubtedly this year’s best Indian show ‘Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story‘. Other than this we have series like ‘Your Honour’, ‘Avrodh: The Siege Within’, ‘Undekhi’, ‘A Simple Murder’, ‘Shrikant Bashir’ and films like Manoj Bajpayee starrer ‘Bhonsle’, ‘Kadakh’ and ‘Ram Singh Charlie’ among others. The platform has now also ventured into comedy with its latest original show ‘Uncommon Sense With Saloni’.
3. Disney+Hotstar
The second wave of direct-to-ott releases came when Disney+Hotstar announced its acquisition of seven big bollywood titles. Before that the platform created a lot of waves with Sushmita Sen starrer crime-thriller series ‘Arya’ and the Broadway musical ‘Hamilton’ that was recorded and screened on the platform as a film. The platform later shifted its focus on regional content with a few titles like ‘Mookuthi Amman’ and most recently the announcement of a massive slate of titles that consists of various Disney and Marvel projects. Not to forget the finale of ‘Mandalorian’ Season 2 that just stunned everyone who watched it.
Titles to take note of on Disney+Hotstar include ‘Aarya’, ‘Lootcase’, ‘Hostages 2′, Special OPS’, ‘Criminal Justice: Behind Closed Doors’, ‘The Mandalorian’, ‘Mulan’ and ‘Hamilton’ among others.
2. Netflix
This goes without saying that Netflix did outperform others when it comes to bringing world class content to its global audience. Whether it was original or acquired, films or series, Netflix was at the forefront of it all. The massive content library including every genre and every category is Netflix’s biggest strength. But if we talk about Indian content, though the platform acquired quite a number of Hindi titles like Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl, Guilty, Ludo, A Suitable Boy, Raat Akeli Hai and many more, it lacked behind in terms of regional content when compared with other market players.
Some of Netflix’s best titles (global) this year includes ‘The Trial Of Chicago 7’, ‘I’m Thinking Of Ending Things’, ‘The Devil All The Time’ , ‘The Old Guard’, ‘Over The Moon’, ‘The Haunting Of Bly Manor’, ‘The Queen’s Gambit’, ‘Dark’ Season 3, ‘Money Heist’ Season 4 and many more. Among the Indian titles the notable ones are ‘Serious Men’, ‘Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl’, ‘Ludo’, ‘Vir Das: For India’, ‘Raat Akeli Hai’, ‘Bad Boy Billionaires’, ‘Cargo’ etc.
1. Amazon Prime Video
Amazon Prime Video became the pioneer of direct-to-digital release in India by acquiring Amitabh Bachchan and Ayushmann Khurana starrer ‘Gulabo Sitabo’ and going by the content library on Amazon Prime Video, it looks like the platform understands Indian market and its content needs a little better than others. The way it targeted the regional viewers alongside the majority Hindi audience is commendable. In a way, the platform has helped the regional content reach the audience all over the country like never before. Amazon also brought to us some of the finest stories from around the world, both in the series and film format.
Here are some of Amazon Prime Video’s famous titles that came out this year – ‘Troop Zero’, ‘Borat Subsequent Moviefilm’, ‘Uncle Frank’, ‘Chhalaang’, ‘Soorarai Pottru’, ‘The Boys’ Season 2, ‘Paatal Lok’, ‘Mirzapur’ Season 2, ‘Bandish Bandits’, ‘Panchayat’, ‘Pushpavalli’, ‘C U Soon’, ‘Middle Class Melodies’, ‘Gatham’ and many more.
We’re hiring!
We are hiring two full-time junior to mid-level writers with the option to work remotely. You need to work a 5-hour shift and be available to write. Interested candidates should email their sample articles to [email protected]. Applications without a sample article will not be considered.
