Netflix Will Spend Rs 3000 Crore For Creating Original Content In India; Reveals Numbers About Viewership

Everyone today is driven by series and this idea of binge-watching. The craze and investment is increasing exponentially for over-the-top content (OTT) platforms, like Netflix and Amazon Prime in India. About 30% OTT users in the country have registered with three or more such platforms.

 Also, almost everyone or at least their accomplices are engaged in the trend of password sharing and freeloading, which means accessing these platforms for their content without actually paying for its services. We recently covered a couple of stories regarding the same issue, informing that Netflix actually knows what’s been going on and more.

With Christmas on its way, we can pretty much apply ‘Netflix & Chill’ to our lives, considering the array of happy movies and series releasing this coming and the following one. Speaking of Netflix, the American media-services provider’s founder and CEO Reed Hastings has announced that the streaming service will spend Rs 3000 crore this year and the next one, on producing original content in India.

Netflix to Invest Rs 3000 crore on Indian Content

India, concurring to its humongous population, is a prime hub for various OTT service providers, along with online retail companies too.

Netflix was launched in India in 2016 and since then, the streaming service has acted smartly by investing largely in local content for Indians, in Hindi and other regional languages.

Complying to this, Hastings, at the 17th Hindustan Times Leadership Summit in New Delhi on Friday announced that Netflix will be spending Rs 3000 crore on producing original content in India, this year and next.

He gave us insights of how well the Indian market was doing for Netflix. He added that Sacred Games traveled all over the world, which was the streamer’s first Indian original series. He also revealed that the animated children’s show Mighty Little Bheem has been viewed by 27 million households outside India.

He informed that the crime drama, Delhi Crime, inspired by the December 2012 gang-rape case in New Delhi, is one of Netflix’s biggest series.

Netflix Has Tough Competition in India

Netflix has over 160 million subscribers around the world. Hastings didn’t reveal the company’s footfall in India but regarded this phase as ’early days’ for the country.

The number of OTT subscritions on different such platforms are increasing every month in India. A market research report has revealed that MX Player has swept away maximum number of Indian customers, constituting about 21%.

While 50% of users surfing through MX Player are found engaging in over 3 other OTT platforms, more than 62% of Amazon and Netflix users were found engaged in again, more than 3 different OTT platforms.

Pragmatically, Netflix will have to pull up its sock if it wants to conquer the Indian market completely, towards which we believe it has already taken a step. It faces competition from rival companies like Amazon and Hotstar, with Apple, Disney and others looking into making inroads in the booming market for streaming.

Hastings has said that India is a key market in the company’s future and that he intends on every smartphone user in the country to have the Netflix app installed on their device.

Its disruptive model is said to have changed the face of the film industry, with several major studios investing heavily in creating their own streaming apps in direct competition to Netflix.

Hastings Addresses Content Ban on Netflix

Hastings, in the conference mentioned that there have been organisations and companies who feel that the broadcast standards should be applied to YouTube or Netflix or Amazon, same as television. He believes that the key difference between traditional TV and streaming is that with online entertainment, content isn’t ‘pushed into everybody’s home’.

In the US, cable television costs about $75. On Netflix, it’s bout $3-5. The people there pay $50 for mobile phone access. However, on the platform, the pricing is pretty low and the market, very large. Due to this, the Rs 199 a month pricing is very competitive.

He said that they do need to self-regulate, keeping in mind different cultures’ preferences and comply with all the local laws. Recently, Netflix was made to remove an episode of comedian Hasan Minhaj’s Patriot Act, which was critical towards Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman.

With entertainment, there’s always going to be some controversy but Netflix’s agenda is to try and earn viewings, as briefed by the CEO.