Indian diaspora laps up local OTT content

NEW DELHI: Original Indian content on video streaming platforms is increasingly finding an audience in foreign shores. This includes but is not limited to the diaspora of more than 32 million spread out across multiple countries, according to a recent report by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

At 164,000, the UAE tops the list of active users of Indian OTT apps followed by Australia (51,000) and the UK (21,000). Meanwhile, Pakistan leads foreign countries in global YouTube search volume for Indian originals, followed by the UAE and Bangladesh. Indian originals like Sacred Games (Netflix) and Made In Heaven (Amazon Prime Video) have notched up global viewership. The former, for instance, gained traction in Latin America, US and Europe with two-thirds of the overall viewership for its first season coming from outside India.

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Other Indian originals such as Delhi Crime, Paatal Lok, Mirzapur, Four More Shots Please! and Inside Edge, have also managed global viewership.

“Indian stories are traveling across the globe—one out of five viewers of Indian originals are from outside India. Both Four More Shots Please! and Made in Heaven were nominated for the International Emmy Awards, a testimony to local, authentic stories finding a global audience,” Gaurav Gandhi, director and country general manager Amazon Prime Video India said.

Countries such as the UAE, US, UK, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa are top international markets for Indian OTT (over-the-top) services. To be sure, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu films have always set the cash registers ringing in these countries with actors like Shah Rukh Khan and Rajinikanth drawing huge crowds.

“The digital payment ecosystem is a lot more robust in countries like the Middle East (West Asia) whereas India is still developing the digital payments economy, so the ARPUs (average revenue per user) are higher," Ali Hussein, chief executive officer at Eros Now had said in an earlier interview to Mint, outlining the reasons for the rapid penetration of Indian OTT services overseas.

To be sure, streaming platforms are investing in strategic partnerships in overseas territories. For instance, Eros Now has tied up with Vodafone Qatar and entered into an integration deal with the UK-based TV and broadband company Virgin Media. The second collaboration will provide Virgin TV customers in the UK direct access to the Eros Now library of films, original web-series, music, and short-format content.

However, the bigger role is that of dubbing and subtitling to ensure local stories reach global audiences. Netflix, which has seen its Indian animated series Mighty Little Bheem viewed by 27 million households outside India, believes that “people have always wanted authentic storytelling that is rooted in local culture and that locality actually illuminates the universal themes of the story,” according to chief product officer Greg Peters. The Reed Hastings-owned platform dubs and subtitles content in up to 32 languages.

“The stories that travel (globally) are effective because they show a deep understanding of human emotions and feelings. They are universal and appeal to a global audience. All we need to do is highlight those emotional moments in a meaningful and authentic way so that our members can find the stories that resonate the most with them, no matter where they are or what language they speak," Kathy Rokni, director, globalization at Netflix had said at a media outreach event in 2019.