Booming OTT Market Pulls BookMyShow Into Content Creation

Teenager Aman Khanna is a movie buff. Addicted to his dear mobile phone, he streams most of the movies on his 5 inch screen ditching the television.  

Thanks to the booming millennial population, the consumption pattern of the OTT content is changing. OTT, a slightly technical term, is used in broadcasting and technology business – mostly referring to audio, video, and other media transmitted via the Internet. In this case, the transmission is without an operator of multiple cable or direct-broadcast satellite television systems.

To cash in on the trend of online video consumption, BookMyShow has ventured into selling content by launching its YouTube channels ‘Bookmystyle’ and ‘BookmyTv’. The entire content is produced in-house. The videos are short-format and engaging - meant for daily consumption.

BookMyShow is not new in the market. There are other players like Scoop Whoop, Hotstar, Story Pick among others creating OTT content for their viewers.

As per the research consultancy, Frost & Sullivan, OTT video market was nearly USD 210 million in 2016. However, OTT industry is driven majorly by advertising and it is projected to grow at a compounded annual growth rate of over 80 per cent till 2020. The advertising industry in India is projected to be the second fastest growing advertising market in Asia after China.

In an exclusive interview with BW Businessworld, Monisha Singh Katiyal, VP Content & Strategy Book My Show talked about the company's foray into content, their line of sight for revenue, and the roadmap ahead:

Are you seeing encouraging signs for your subscription revenue?

BookMyShow forayed into content production primarily to increase engagement with our users- both existing and potential. The video content that we create is highly topical, relevant, engaging and snackable in nature- meant for everyday consumption and the viewer response that we have received so far has been phenomenal. We continue to be focused on expanding the reach of our content and are exploring branded content opportunities on our channels as well.

Not a lot of people know about your two YouTube channels “Book my TV and Book My Style”, is there a strategic thought behind the limited promotion of the two?

Both YouTube channels BookMyTv and BookMyStyle have seen immense traction and growth in a short span of time since its launch. These two channels alone have garnered over 100 million views in just 6 months. We clearly identified the target audience for each and ensured that the buzz was created just through the right channels. More than inorganic promotions, we believe that if the content is good, the viewers will automatically take to it. Some of our videos, such as those created with Taapsee Pannu and Swara Bhaskar for Women’s Day and with Raveena Tandon on Mother’s Day, went viral purely due to their strong content and then of course, through word of mouth.

Since this is a move for BMS towards content are you planning on some BMS originals content in the near future?

The entire content repository on our platforms – be it web, app or YouTube is original and all of it is produced in-house. Viewers particularly enjoy watching exclusive interviews with their favourite film and TV stars. While currently we are only producing short formal content, we are quite excited about the potential of long format content as well.

Digital revenues are still on only long term plans for most companies. How are you dealing with investing in your OTT offer without clear line of sight of equal revenue?

At BookMyShow, we want to exploit the potential of this (digital) medium to engage with our audience and provide them with content that’s relevant to them. Our own platforms- be it our app, website or mobile site, with its immense reach, offers 360 degree advertising solutions to brands- both in movies and non-movies space.