Majority Indians support partial censorship for online streaming: Survey

However, a majority- 51 per cent do not watch shows or movies on OTT platforms just yet.

Even as the debate about censorship of online and streaming platform content rages on, a new survey has found that a majority of the respondents would like some kind of censorship or monitoring of these shows and movies.

A five-poll survey was conducted by community platform LocalCircles to check citizen perception of the OTT (over the top) platforms available in India, which received more than 40,000 responses from across India.

One of the findings was that 63 per cent respondents said OTT platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hotstar, Zee5 and so on in India should be subjected to some kind of censorship rules of government code of conduct, while 32 per cent disagreed.

However, a majority- 51 per cent do not watch shows or movies on OTT platforms just yet.

The survey also found that 42 per cent respondents had a subscription for just one OTT platform while 25 per cent subscribed to two OTT platforms, 33 per cent said they have a subscription for 3 or more OTT platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hotstar, etc.

The primary reason, according to 53 per cent respondents, for using OTT platforms was that they could watch content as per their convenience, while 9 per cent said the content is high

Quality, another 9 per cent said they like the uncensored content and 11 per cent said they have a lower cost than others. About 18 per cent were unsure about it.

The main issue 25 per cent respondents had with OTT content was adult-only content being easily accessible to children. The top concern was obscene content for 9 per cent respondents, 13 per cent said it was “anti-national” content, 8 per cent had issues with content deemed insulting to certain religions and castes and 8 per cent were concerned about the use of very strong language. The highest number-- 37 per cent-- said they had no issues with content on these OTT platforms.

Netflix, Amazon slug it out in India's competitive video streaming market

Netflix and Amazon Prime market share gain at the cost of Indian platforms - Hotstar, VOOT, Jio Cinema.

Just like the smartphone segment, the video streaming space (also known as OTT or over the top) in the country is witnessing a fierce fight between indigenous and global players with the latter gaining a stronger foothold in the domestic market.

According to the latest data, Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, two of the dominant players globally, have steadily grown their market share in the country this year at the expense of local firms such as market leader Hotstar, Jio TV and Jio Cinema.

Los Gatos (California)-headquartered Netflix saw its market share grow to 6.3 per cent till October from a mere 0.5 per cent as in the beginning of the year while Amazon Prime Video’s share grew more than two and half times to 10.8 per cent from 4 per cent, according to KalaGato, a market intelligence firm. The figures are based on installed user base derived from a sample of over one million unique smartphone users. Viewership over mobile comprises 83 per cent of the total video consumption online, according to Comscore.

As Indian users took to cheaper smartphones and faster and cheaper data, backed by a wave of internet proliferation of sorts triggered by Reliance Jio, the demand for video OTT platforms has also shot up. Local audience, like their counterparts in the developed markets, are also opening their purse strings for video subscription services. A telling statistics is that over two dozen OTT services have sprung up only in the last 18 months. 

This includes offerings from leading media houses like Balaji Telefilms (Alt Balaji), Viacom 18 (VOOT) and ZEE Media Corp (ZEE5).

While Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, which launched services in India in 2016, have an early-mover advantage, as their growth is primarily seen being driven by their expansive content library and superior product experience built on a trove of data and insights from operations in other geographies.

“There are two to three factors that drive this. One is the range of content and titles they provide owing to their access to deeper and broader content, with them being global players. The second differentiation is technology and user interface: How good their recommendation engines are, how they are able to anticipate and predict what the consumer wants, and how you present the relevant content to the consumer in an easy-to-search fashion,” said Ajay Gupta, a partner at AT Kearney who looks at communications, media and technology practice at the consulting firm. “The third driver is the creation of synergies between the e-commerce and content business, as has been in the case of Amazon. That’s an interesting synergy because ultimately it’s the same target audience that is internet savvy,” he added.

The fact that Amazon Prime Video comes bundled with the company’s next-day delivery service has brought it huge number of users. Netflix also signed up with Airtel, wherein the telecom operator gave a three-month subscription of Netflix with every Airtel post-paid connection. “Almost two lakh users came to Netflix through Airtel tie-up, which was rolled out in August,” said an analyst tracking the company.

Business Standard

Flipkart Plus loyalty reward service goes live for some users: How it works

The Flipkart Plus is currently available as a part of new app update, however, only for limited set of users.

Flipkart, a home-grown e-commerce platform, is gearing up to launch on August 15 a loyalty programme that will be called the Flipkart Plus to take on its arch rival Amazon’s Prime subscription service. However, before the final rollout, the company has enabled the feature on its app for some users to beta test the service. The Flipkart Plus is currently available as a part of new app update, however, only for limited users.

As reported earlier, the Flipkart Plus is a no-cost membership model in which the e-commerce portal would offer several exclusive benefits to users such as free delivery, early access to sale events and rewards across brands based on the frequency of transactions a customer makes. The company is offering the Flipkart Plus benefits at no extra cost or subscription amount. Instead, Flipkart customers can join the membership by earning 50 Plus coins, one Plus coin on every Rs 250 spent.

ALSO READ: Flipkart to launch loyalty reward service on Aug 15 to take on Amazon Prime

Things to know about Flipkart loyalty programme

Flipkart Plus is a loyalty programme in which customers earn reward points on every purchase

Called Plus coins, 50 of these rewards points are required to join the Flipkart Plus membership

Flipkart is offering one Plus Coin on every 250 spent; maximum of 10 coins per order

Flipkart Plus membership offers free delivery, early access to exclusive sale events, priority customer service and exchange offers.

This is not the first time the home-grown e-commerce portal has announced a loyalty programme service. In 2014, the company rolled out a service called the Flipkart First in which the company promised to offer similar sort of benefits at a subscription amount of Rs 500 per year. However, the service did not get much traction and was eventually taken down

Article Source BS