Nachiket Pantvaidya, CEO, ALTBalaji, and Group COO Balaji Telefilms, talks about adopting a completely different strategy compared to its competitors in terms of content creation, partnerships and marketing, growing the audience base of the streaming platform in rural India and the challenges of these difficult times.
Excerpts:
The new target group for AltBalaji seems to be the rural and the semi-rural areas of the country. What has the experience so far been?
We, at ALTBalaji, believe in creating shows that appeal across segments. However, with narratives that are unique or untold, we are currently focusing on ensuring that we dominate the Hindi-speaking markets. 56 per cent of our consumers are from non-metro and tier two and tier three towns and cities. If you also look at the geography and demography of the country, 70 per cent of the content consumed is Hindi. As a platform, it makes sense to focus our efforts in one direction and win over the Hindi-speaking population. Hence, this year we are first going to focus on ensuring that we dominate the Hindi space.
If you could talk about the research taken before deciding to cater to this target group (TG). How different is the requirement from urban and middle India?
Being from the house of Balaji Telefilms, who have been catering to the audience’s ever-changing preferences for over 25 years now, ALTBalaji has an advantage unlike no other of having a deep understanding and familiarity with the viewer’s consumption preferences. With content being our biggest differentiator, we have been catering to all kinds of audiences through our diverse content offerings spanning multiple languages. Moreover, Indian originals have picked up pace in the past few months as audiences are on the lookout for local relatable content and are spending more time online. With content being king, there is a growing acceptance amongst consumers to pay for unique narratives and good story telling which keeps them hooked to their screens.
With the SVOD (subscription video on demand) OTT (over the top) space in non-metros becoming increasingly price-sensitive, we have facilitated growth by keeping our pricing extremely low, at less than a rupee a day (Rs 300 annually). What works best for us is to concentrate on consumer segmentation behaviour, understanding how to retain the customers better and working on on-boarding the new segment that have just been acquainted with the internet.
Since the TG in our country varies vastly, what are the challenges of running a streaming service?
India, as a country, is still adapting to the concept of OTT. The platforms providing streaming services have been facing various challenges including, price points, the lack of common measurement, high-speed internet connection, tech innovation, etc. to name a few. There are challenges in this business for sure.
However, we are the first OTT platform already on the road to profitability and are aiming to break even in 2020-2021. Our direct subscription revenue has grown over 100 per cent as compared to FY19. ALTBalaji is amongst the top five paid apps in the country and our strategy has been different from all our counterparts as far as content creation, partnerships or marketing are concerned. Normally we have stayed ahead of the industry curves and have tried to read the markets early on. This can probably only happen when the organisation is small, sharp, and quick to react.
You collaborated with Zee5 last year by sharing content. How has that helped your business model?
The long-standing association between ZEE and Balaji Telefilms has seen the two media houses collaborating for close to 25 years. With ZEE5's depth and width of the audience and ALTBalaji's insights into concepts and audience analytics, this is a collaboration that is based on leveraging mutual competencies. With an aim to offer audience exclusive content across both OTT platforms, ZEE5 and ALTBalaji today co-create original shows. This association is a collaborative process of co-understanding consumer insights and co-marketing to serve the viewer better—that result in improved monetisation for both streaming platforms.
With television shows resuming shoots and new episodes gradually making a way back to TV screens, has there been an effect on the viewership of AltBalaji?
Our content consumption has witnessed a steady growth throughout and will continue to do so, on its own. The lockdown period has indeed scaled up the game. We have seen deeper engagement on the platform with consumers watching more shows including older library content. Though this growth has been due to a phase right now, we believe this phase has acted as a catalyst in changing the content consumption habits of the audience to some extent while making some of them the avid followers of original content. We are working towards utilising our library; meanwhile our next slate of shows is getting ready for the launch.
Do you think the new set of audience that embraced the digital platforms is going to stick around even when the situation normalises?
As previously mentioned, the surge during the lockdown has been phenomenal. ALTBalaji continues to be a leader in the original Hindi SVOD space and the platform today has 62 shows. From the level of 10,000 average subscribers per day in Q3FY20, we have moved to 12,300 avg. subscribers per day in Q4FY20. These subscribers are coming from the previously untapped markets, rural markets, tier two and tier three towns. ALTBalaji offers a wide range of content across various genres and story lines.
Our content and our pricing make a good deal for people to get their entertainment. As the audience has been exposed to the exclusive content now available on digital, it has opened more avenues for both consumers as well as OTT players. We are confident that having sampled our portfolio of exciting, original web series, viewers will subscribe for more such content.
Is AltBalaji back to production? What does the new normal look like with all the limitations of shooting? If you could talk about the technical challenges, which comes with the new guidelines...
We will get to know about the challenges in depth once we resume the shoot. Ensuring the utmost safety of the crew and cast, we will adhere to all the guidelines and directives laid by the government. This will lead to us adjustments in the show script to cater to the rules, but that is something that we’ll have to do for the greater good. Our shows including Dr Donn, Bebaakee, Mumbhai etc, which are in the pipeline, will resume shooting as soon as the situation normalises.