There have been constant murmurs about the popular OTT Netflix being launched on Indian shores and with the turn of the year, reports suggest that Netflix could announce its India plans at CES 2016 in Las Vegas which will be held this week.
Netflix CEO Reed Hastings will deliver a keynote address on 6 January, as well as plans to speak to Indian tech journalists at the CES 2016. Hastings said company plans to produce a ‘Bollywood show’ and an anime show for non-show for non-US markets. 2015, has been one of the most productive years in the Netflix history with the OTT platform distributing 18 original programs which include both the animation as well as live action programs. This year Netflix is set to debut 13 originals and will spend close to $5 billion on content.
Not only India, Netflix is planning an aggressive spree on its geo reach to lay its foot in 200 countries by the end of 2016.
Currently, the SVOD service has over 69 million subscribers operating in more than 60 countries. It is house to more than 100 million hours of TV shows and movies per day which include original series, documentaries and feature films.
Netflix is entering India at a stage where the OTT space is brimming with competition with the likes of Hotstar, Hooq, Ditto TV, SonyLiv and Eros Now. Most of these services work on the AVOD model which is ad-supported and a smart way to attract new users. On the other hand, Netflix follows a subscription model which is still a very niche market and Hooq is currently on the same model.
Also, with the launch of Reliance Jio’s 4G service a lot of bandwidth issue seems to be ironing out. Bharti led Airtel too already having 4G in the market; these OTT players should not have a problem churning out content as long as it is being consumed on a regular basis.