OTT platforms are known for their democratic nature and the way they have provided a medium for story-tellers to tell all kinds of stories fearlessly is truly commendable. Though these streaming services believe in creating such opportunities regularly there is one other thing that they do every once in a while.
Wondering what it is? Well, the answer to that is, that these streaming giants, apart from bringing in content from various corners, constantly keep looking for tentpole titles with big stars. Now, you would think so what’s the big deal. But did you ever ponder over the thought that why do OTT platforms need such big budget, star-driven projects when they proudly claim and are also famous for being ‘content-driven’?
And this isn’t just a random thing they do, it’s a well planned out strategy that these streaming services adopt for creating more and more revenue streams. And the pandemic induced lockdown definitely acted as a catalyst for streaming giants like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Disney+Hotstar to add some big bollywood and regional titles to their kitty.
These big titles feature big stars who mostly have a large loyal fans base and these ardent fans don’t miss a chance to watch the movies of their favourite superstar, thus when these movies come to OTTs, they bring along a whole new set of subscribers to the platform. And this is more prominently evident in regional cinema. That’s the reason these platforms have equal focus on mainstream Hindi and vernacular content.
Also, bigger budget movies go out big on promotions too, that means every time the makers and the actors promote their movie it simultaneously leads to promotion of the platform. That leads to a large scale marketing for the streaming services and help increase its popularity among the masses.
The ultimate aim of any streaming service is to have their subscriber base spread among the masses and not just the metropolitan residents. And these star-driven movies are the ones that play a major role in helping them achieve so, as these actors are a well known name among the masses and have a following of millions of fans.
These very reasons make it essential for OTT platforms to go hunting for big titles for their respective streaming services. And more so when one of them does it, it becomes almost compulsory for the others to follow suit in order to stay in the race.