 Alright so the stage is set for our first panel of the day who will be talking about creating sustainable content play This session ladies and gentlemen will be moderated by mr. Arnab Mitra managing director Liquid Asia worldwide. Let's welcome him with a round of applause And I'd now go ahead and welcome our panel members for this session mr. Akash Banerjee Head marketing and partnerships y-com 18 digital ventures boot We will also be joined by mr. Manish Agarwal business head Z5 India and Miss Neha warrior vice president seals India myriad ladies and gentlemen This is our first panel of the day. Let's start with a youth round of applause for them and Mr. Mitra over to you. Thank you So we got a very interesting panel today, so I Think it's a great start that we had already to the day, you know with mr. Krishnan's presentation I think we have a million dollar topic to discuss today Whatever we are seeing around us entire about the OTT platforms and the content and everything that's been created Is that sustainable and how can we actually go ahead and keep sustaining this entire model? So I will just begin the discussion and I actually have fantastic panels over here I have got Akash from boot. I have got Manish from Z5. I have got Neha from myriad. So and I represent an advertising agency. So I Think we are trying to get a very well rounded Point of view about the fact that that Indian industry the media industry actually continues to be Contradictory on one side. We have not just Indian players, but of course the international players like Netflix and Amazon's of the world Investing a lot of money in creating content and Seconds on the other side. We also have free-to-air television channels, which are continuing to connect to the deeper parts of the society and You know what are you trying to understand from this is that while we keep on getting a lot of people using? You know all these platforms and and they're using the data platforms to consume the content Is it really making sense because every time when we are seeing bigger content plays like, you know The sacred games of the world we see significant amount of growth in terms of the consumption What about the other? smaller Content players that are about 25 OTT players at this point in time in the country We would possibly know only five six of them like we can just do a vote here And you will understand only we would only know top five six. What is happening on the other sides? Well, a lot of our content is ad-free and we are spoiled by the likes of Netflix And therefore will consumers actually like when advertisements actually happen on this platform and There is significant amount of investment in creating content our brands. You know really making money While I kind of not to give my point of view here at this point in time I would open the panel to you know starting with You know, Manish yourself that What is your thought on this and how do you think this industry is going to shape up? Thanks, Annab I Think overall OTT has a category like you rightly mentioned as about 24 25 players right now, right? But what's critical is that if you look at from a consumer perspective today and most of today Indian consumer is very very hungry for good content and More importantly if that content is offered in the language of your choice that becomes very critical so And in fact, that's exactly even if you look at from what we at Z5 are trying to do We're trying to offer consumer content in the language of their choice What we witnessed is that this category is growing and of course everybody's interest in this category. It's largely driven By the fact that consumer is has the appetite. I mean We were discussing even backstage if you look at today Indian consumer is spending about eight gigabytes of data I mean on their mobile phones and about four hours per day on the mobile phone is being spent So clearly if you look at it from I mean a few years ago, this number was not even about 300 MB of data So as a category, thanks to smartphone penetration. Thanks to I mean low data costs. We are seeing huge traction Akash, what's your thoughts? Hello, everyone. Good afternoon Let me start off with a quote that Charles became made Close to two centuries back when he said it was the best of the times and it's the worst of the times And I think that line never held true or than what we are all experiencing today It's a great monanza time for the consumers at large massive explosion of devices surplus of content new and varied kind of formats at free experience subscription experience the The time for the consumers has never ever been better But why is it also the worst of the times? one at a platform level for all the platform owners the Monetization challenge continues to be a huge impediment for them to be able to achieve critical scale for their platform and For the consumers it has become a Huge concern area with so much of choice of content with an abundance of coin with the abundance of content It has indeed become a battle for attention But the rules of the game are very very simple The best story wins the most riveting story wins the most relevant story wins And the rest is all complete noise and as platform owners at wood Even on the back of thirty five million plus or the active users monthly users More than five to six billion minutes of watch time We have seen a massive growth in the overall engagement of consumers on a platform with more than five weeks growth But the challenges are for real the challenge of being able to monetize This vast expanse of content second Helping consumers discover the kind of content that they wish to see Third primarily being if India is a country of countries, right? How do you dish out? How do you serve different kind of consumers sitting in different geographies at scale just by Changing just by having X number of pieces of content in regional languages or having a wide number of pieces of content for the new Set of rural consumers or tier two tier three consumers Is that enough to really shape the industry at a scale that we think it should be? And these are challenges that I think not just who Z5 pretty much every platform is currently experiencing and of course One of the things that money should also spoke about What is the experience that you're gonna give our Consumers willing to pay is a ward the way forward or is a sword the way forward or Dabbling with both which is freemium the next model that's going to make consumers convert more make get consumers to spend more time on your Platform these are questions. These are challenges that we're all experiencing but I am more than happy to say and The fact of the matter is there are no right answers and you're in fact discussing In our speakers lounge the only answer very truly is that we all need to keep on Trying out different business models and that's about it. So I guess. Thank you. Neha. I would like to understand from you While Akash wants us to keep on you know experimenting. We still have to make money How do you make money? Hi? Good afternoon, everybody I think like the two of my other panelists have already mentioned that Viewers behaviors have completely changed in the recent past and faster than what we could think and This presents the real challenge for brands as to how to really reach out to the audiences today and If you see the general trends today are not only in terms of catch-up TV on OTT platforms, which is really huge You know, there are there is original content and numbers are there to speak for them for themselves Almost half a billion dollar being parked aside for original content in India and and that clearly is the future But having said that the OTT platform viewers are today totally spoiled for a non Disruptive experience and going forward. However Hybrid you would want to be Time has told us that whenever a richer experience of viewing has come our way We've always taken that and I think that is a non-intrusive ad model And that's where we really fit in because we are completely platform agnostic We work with the linear channels which come on catch-up TV But at the same time we are with the biggest OTT players providing a Unique and extremely superior technology of in-video advertising which is highly contextual and It's actually not a product placement model. It's extremely different way of monetizing your content It the turnaround time is actually a week but having said that we completely keep the ethos of the content in place and We place brands Across thousands of episodes and not just one which is a product placement model and I think that is the future In India while we have tied up with star which is one of the biggest networks in China We are working with the biggest of the digital platforms like Yoku Tencent and The kind of campaigns that we have run out there have been extremely successful Which are completely in-video campaigns and I think that's in future apart from subscription model Ads running within the content and outside They're all going to co-exist but more so the ad unit Of running in the breaks is going to decline as a currency of an and a good quality exposure of in-video Running within the content is going to go up and that's a great monetization model going forward Great. So I think we have heard from all the panelists in terms of their opinion on OTT I think we would get into a little more specifics over here Akash just starting from you because you spoke on Experiences you spoke about how we need to create content and we need to keep the quality of the content in a pivotal position So as an organization as would what kind of strategies do you have in terms of creating content? Which are your highlight content and your regular content? Look at all starts with the consumer segmentation and I think as a marketer It's so heartening to see that few rules of the game. They're still whole intact, right? At wood what we very clearly see are four very different kind of consumer segments The first segment they are still your hardcore TV loyalist Just just before I talk about it would essentially has thousands and thousands hours of content a From the world of the y Com 80 network, which is your colors MTV Nickelodeon colors Etc and a lot of original content that we also create so the first segment It are very clearly the TV loyalist who would essentially have a huge affinity towards watching TV content on TV The only reason when they would you know, they would come on wood would be if they end up missing out on the episodes So it's a very catch-up behavior that gets exhibited and hence How do you ensure that the right kind of episode the right kind of content is shown to that specific consumer segment? The second is there are a lot of consumers who I call as the digital dabblers They end up watching the full episodes on TV, but to watch a lot of exclusive content They come on food. This is what we do on the back of our big boss Our roadies and splits will a lot of the reality shows the third segment is There is now this growing base of consumers who have started possibly watching not just the missed out Episodes but the entire pieces of shows the entire content piece on wood itself and the fourth one Who do I call as the digital first audiences? they are in need of Experiencing and consuming very Differentiated kind of content, which is not your typical 30-minute episode with a very specific kind of narrative, which is not necessarily made for the Lowest common denominator as far as India is concerned, but very strong slightly more Urban at times it which could also be tier two tier three Kind of kind of audience segments But for them digital is the first medium where they go out and see the content that they wish to see but I think The biggest concern that all the platforms are currently facing is on the point of discoverability Right because mass entertainment in this new digital age Unfortunately is still about blockbusters and not about endless choice Actually, that's the point You know, I think you hold the thought over there. In fact, you spoke about digital first and you speak about the blockbusters, you know and Manish I want to understand from you that How do you look at this original content because what we are getting is pretty much original content is driving this entire space and Not just original content. We are talking about high-budget High-production value content, right? So How do you sustain this really? Sorry, you know before before money says Talks about it. I just want to make one point. You know the the word originals is actually a misnomer Okay Every content that whether it's why come 18 or Z is making even for the for the TV networks Even that is original. What is an original original is something which is not fake or which is not a very Original is created from that particular platform Yes, it's more about a digital first content maybe for the new digital first Yeah, so I would just add to what Akash mentioned so for I would say for us at Z5 three prong strategy One is looking at the recurring consumer Which essentially is looking to come to Z5 for a from a catch-up audience perspective This is the 500 hours plus of weekly content from the network which comes on the platform The second point on what you mentioned is the original content piece for us Original defined as something what is exclusively available on Z5 and nowhere else, right? So that's something which you will not find on a linear channels and lastly the digital Premiers which is At Z we've created a property called theatre ke baat pehli baat So essentially all the blockbuster movies Which will come straight from the big screens from your multiplexes straight to the OTT platforms without even hitting the Linear television channels. So this three prong strategy is really working for us I'm saying if you go a little platform agnostic like if you guys don't talk about your own platform But if you just talk about from an OTT perspective itself When there is content that's been created, which is high value high production We see a lot of discussion and chatter around right? But it's not the same case because you cannot keep on creating that kind of content all the time So do I so the point that I want to derive and maybe for the audience as well is Do you think that we will only remain the blockbuster kind of a game or no There is a regular possibility of consuming beyond catch-up TV. Of course So today like I said at the start, you know consumers hung hungry for good content, right? And their original content plays a very critical role. So of course High production value and content exclusively for the digital audience becomes very very critical Because the digital audience is also looking for the content today, which probably they will not get to watch on television Could be because of censorship reasons could be because you know, it's my space my time The second screen in the third screen is very personal for me as an individual Therefore original contents play a very critical role in that when we launched Karanjit Kaur Sunny Leonie's biopic season one We saw huge traction for audiences whether it was from subscription base viewership any metric pretty much, right? because the consumer was looking for that kind of an content and That's where I think if you talk second screen third screen original content in my opinion will always continue to have a very critical role Yeah, yeah, please Look for the network content these strategies very different You're not creating fans. The fans are already there on the back of what they're possibly seeing on TV, right? What you're doing instead is leveraging the fandom for your digital platform, right? And hence how you approach your Marketing how you approach the kind of exclusive surround stuff that you create around it and how you help Consumers discover the content that they are already in love with Pretty much forms the cornerstone of your platform strategy Whereas for your original slash digital first content new exclusive content big broad-scale high-production value content that you're talking about That you're alluding to over there. The rule is very very different over there You are creating fandom you have to create fans you have to Conversations because there is no existing fandom. That's already there in the market, right? And it's a very interesting point, you know And I want to move to Neha and you know ask a question that I think Akash just rightly mentioned I even Manish did like that fans are already there and the fandom exists There is madness about content people are needy about content now in that kind of a space How do you think advertising? In a platform like yours or in general when you're having that kind of an experience Is aren't the ads really intrusive at that point in time? That's a very interesting question first to address the fans It'll be very difficult to understand and very hard to believe that how discerning the audiences have become now and If I'm a fan of a Netflix content if I liked for example sacred games or The next time if I don't see my kind of content being marketed I'm going to move to another space. So while we are building communities I think the biggest question OTT players need to ask is what kind of content You know viewers are willing to pay for Having said that if you have come up with a model of absolutely no Ads first up and I just recently have heard the news that Netflix is gonna come up with a hybrid model of You know freemium kind of a content. It's very difficult to understand how the loyal Viewers of Netflix would react to that because they've always had a very enriching experience While it may get some new viewers for them definitely, but Like I said earlier people are willing to pay for enriching experience Time immemorial Brands have gotten to content Sometimes contextually sometimes not contextually but what we do with our technology, which is totally AI based and machine learning We are highly non-destructive and that's what we pride ourselves in and If anybody saw sacred games and saw one if anybody remembers that Cola brand In sacred games that came in the first episode It was it was put it in the content as if it was always there and that's what we really do And it's it's it's the future for advertising. So I think it's just getting interesting While we are talking about creating experiences, which I think are completely man-made We are talking about an AI based solution to monetize it To come back to you, you know money show if we just if you want to just give us a little more information in terms of the industry and its size and And and where do you think like in next five years like we're talking about a two thousand crore industry at this point in Time in India, which is pegged at like five thousand crore in terms of just OTT content, etc Where do you see the industry going in terms of ad revenues in terms of you know Even more money is being put in creating content original or a catch-up Okay, I'll answer that question slightly differently for you So two data points one if you look at the latest PwC report, it says by 2020 80% of the consumers are gonna be SWAT driven and So which means you know the point also which Neha raised consumers are gonna be willing to pay for it and We have room for all so what I mean is that You want to pay slightly less or want to watch free content You will be okay with that occasional ad burst Within the content at the same time if you want a seamless uninterrupted experience, you will you don't mind paying that premium So that's one second if you look at it from an overall Category space perspective of course Key players who continue to produce and give that enriching user experience will thrive over and above anybody else But net net it's gonna be Completely behind the paywall kind of industry and we are already moving towards that We've seen we seeing not just for us and pretty much for everybody else in the category It is a sword which is actually driving today Numbers for everyone Right, of course you want to add to it. I have a slightly contrary in view to this Yeah, I think it's too early for us to start predicting Where the world is increasingly going to move towards whether a what or a sword Because very clearly a at this level are currently The digital advertising market is only about 17% so it's still a very under penetrated market But what we are very clearly seeing are the other huge tailwinds with respect to where the consumers are Spending more and more time of theirs which is on watching videos online, right? And we all know the data points, you know close to 70% plus odd consumption of 70% plus odd of time spent of a consumer every day is actually happening on online videos and The second big the big data point very clearly is being seen is that the huge growth for most of the platforms I'm not only coming from your big metro consumer metro States or metro cities, but a huge growth is actually happening from your Surround towns your tier two tier three and of course The new rural markets which are only opening up right now for a lot of these new consumers when they come in for the first time I don't know to what extent there will be that much more forthcoming in immediately start paying money to to start watching content because Let's get one thing very clear TV is not going anywhere very very soon, right? TV is very very clearly here to stay even and even in the TV market There's a huge growth that's gonna happen because even TV households only has a 64 percent 65 percent of penetration. So That's one part of the story the second part of the story very clearly is that advertisers will continue to only increase their spends on digital and When we talk about advertisers, we are talking about platforms which are going to run ads and at and at a very very basic level we are talking about to some extent the avod platforms, right and Advertisers are now and I just want to make a make a separate point over here What advertisers are very clearly realizing that maybe a 30-second TV ad is not going to really build brand loyalty by any I by by any measure because increasingly the favorite brands of a consumer is not what comes in the form of a big huge flamboyant flashy 30-second ad But it is what Google tells you what is most relevant for you at a given point in time Which forces you to purchase Sorry, let me just complete but and hence there's a huge focus on Digital performance advertising, which is called as a digital ROI advertising But on the other side advertisers are also realizing that we are still talking about human beings, right? And for human beings it is stories which which does the trick and we saw the previous session where The profiteer MD spoke at length about content marketing So advertisers will continue to spend Disproportionate amount of money on both the ROI side of the business and also on the content marketing side And if that happens the advertising market is only going to grow up for the audience So just just before you and keep down your microphone I want you to add three things you think Content marketers should keep in mind in this entire OTT game or even the content marketing space And I want all three of you to tell three things that Us content marketers should keep in mind. Oh heart attack. Okay, so I think what you said is just right I think with with the content Viewing hub is changing drastically the way advertisers are gonna spend their money is also gonna change like you rightly said AVOD model will Sustain along with SVOD but we've done a lot of research and you know the general tendency going forward for digital audiences specifically is to You know look at the content and avoid the ads while they are gonna get the You know the the customers there, but they're gonna look at innovative ways of really reaching out to them and There's something called a subliminal Advertising which is a very very important tool today to reach out along with a with a 30-second or a 10-second ad today And that's extremely potent and passive form of advertising Which I believe is gonna soon emerge as a very important line item in a planning process for an advertiser When they're planning media campaigns today, we have very little time so chop chop three three points two points quickly First one what Neha spoke about the subliminal advertising I think one of the big issues one of the big challenges that every content marketer currently is facing is how do you measure that? Right we Marketers we advertisers we all love to measure Whatever is there of the consumers head, but unfortunately, you know You could very clearly do that for a 30-second a TVC But very difficult to do that for a subliminal advertising Unless unless you are doing unless you are measuring the mine batters Yes, so that's what we are doing. So when we say that myriads actually puts video, you know, we embed videos Brand videos within the content. It's actually not a product placement. It's an ad unit Which is a global currency of a 10-seconder, which is measurable trackable And researchable and that's what the difference that we are creating in the market And I'm proud to say that we are the first ones who are doing that and that's a real disruptor Okay one data point and Two things to keep in mind Currently you are at about 390 million internet users next 300 400 million growth is gonna come only at the back of language So two things three things which will really really help one grow voice video and one a killer is what I would say One needs to focus on great. So and video I We can take some questions from the audience if you have or else. I'll just summarize what we spoke about anybody any question I can't hear you. Sorry Hi, yeah, I have a question for Neha. Hi. I'm a content creator and a producer and you had mentioned earlier that I think said half a billion dollars of Funding is available or to say a billion Is Mike is working or not but for content creators original content creators We're what is the source of those funds is that primarily brands is an investment where we're where does somebody like me access those funds? If you can repeat your question, yeah Okay, okay, okay, I think that's what I read in the PWC report First of all the biggest investment that is being made by is from the likes of Netflix and Amazons of the world in original content and of course boot and Z5 as well and and I was coming to that and the biggest You know linear players are highly investing in original content Not to forget all Balaji's and TVF's of the world who are producing so much of Original content and while they are getting the audiences who are on linear on their catch up Which is a great strategy like a car said TV is nowhere to go only the medium to consume TV is gonna ship from one screen to The other because of the access of more and more You know data at a very cheaper rate But at the same time too so I feel the millennial audience is so underserved right now in terms of relevant content That they are the ones who are really pushing The big players to enter into original content and like someone Rightly mentioned in the panel that original is a misnomer. It could be original production It could be a great exclusive that you bring to India I mean when the netflix had gone ahead and bid for house of cards It was a whopping hundred million dollar acquisition and a lot of industry experts thought that will they ever make money They had to actually get five or six million odd new subscribers to break even they ended up getting almost 20 million new guys Thank you. Yeah, sorry guys. We are running out of time. So we can't take any more questions. I'll just quickly wrap Firstly, thank you everybody for spending your time. I think what clearly came out that TV is nowhere to go and and OTT platforms are going to augment experiences for audiences I think we'll keep on investing into creating content and experiences for consumers because we are younger as a nation And therefore they are in need of content New formats of advertisements are coming up, especially that Neha represent and and many others, you know that you're aware of I think we have to keep in mind what Manish mentioned that We have to remember that the next three hundred four hundred million Interviews are possibly not so fluent in English and even in Hindi So vernacular is the way so there will be a lot of regional content Which is going to come up targeting the audiences and and I think also what Akash mentioned I think it kind of resonates with I think we have to keep experimenting. We have to keep doing new stuff If we start looking for trends and data points too early for us to even look at that We have to just you know have the fun of creating and keep creating and I think that's really what the No session is so if I have to just close it, you know We are talking about sustainable future in terms of content and it's only possible when you keep on creating content You know because at the joy of for the joy of creating content and keeping in mind the audience and their need and their languages So, thank you very much for listening to us and hope that it made some sense. Thank you. Thank you Thank you so much for that fantastic panel discussion. I'd like to invite miss Winky Singh director bio Ayurveda To please join me on stage to present a token of our appreciation to our panelists Thank you so much once again to our panelists and missing. Thank you very much for doing the honor