MUMBAI: The Walt Disney Company webcast its Investor Day 2019 on April 11. The event included a presentation by Walt Disney Asia Pacific president and Star/Disney India chairman Uday Shankar.
Shankar’s presentation, largely focused around Hotstar, noted that Star’s OTT platform has reached the 300 million monthly active users mark and detailed growth expectations of the network over the next five years.
In his presentation, Shankar asserted that mobile is set to be the primary screen for the largest segment of Indian population, driven in large part by wireless data becoming available and affordable.
Offering a five-year projection of video consuption in India Shankar said that from 550 million screens (350m mobile + 200m TV) in 2018, the country would boast 1 billion (750m mobile + 250m TV) screens by 2023.
Speaking about how Star India has contributed to this rapid growth of consumers, he said: “Our business Star India has played a key role in shaping this market so far. Driven by our strength in content and our uniquely successful digital video delivery platform Hotstar, we have pole position in this incredible market. In the last two decades, Star has created unparalled capacity to produce market-leading entertainment and sports content in no less than 8 languages. For every 4 hours of TV watched in India, one hour is on Star. Star broadcasts 250 days of live sports every year and has 65% share of the sports viewership in India. Hotstar has just broken the 300 million monthly users mark that makes it one of the largest video platforms in the world.”
He also highlighted the company’s strategy to localise sports by launching regional sports channels in Bengali, Kannada, Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu.
Shankar pointed out: “We have also localised our sports offering. Cricket has always been an obsession in India. But for decades, its reach was limited because it was served largely in English. We took cricket deeper and made it more accessible in Indian languages. The success of our strategy is reflected in the improved performance of IPL last season. The IPL in one year on Star has seen 50% growth in revenue and 30% growth in viewership.
“Localisation and creativity have also led us to develop a uniquely Indian sport like Kabaddi which has already become the number 2 sport in India.”
Shankar concluded his presentation by noting: “Today, Star captures almost 30% share of all TV advertising, and almost 30% share of all digital video advertising as well. It also takes 40% of all TV affiliate revenues.
“Our goal is to improve this share further with a cross screen advertising engine.
“In this enterprise, the key goal has been to enhance consumer engagement. Hotstar is arguably more advanced in engagement initiatives than any other service in India. These include gamification of content, social experience around video and even allowing in-app transactions now. As a result, an active viewer spends 2.7 times more time on video than a passive viewer. We are pushing for even deeper engagement.
“We believe now that the Indian market is ready for a subscription push and that’s why we are on the path to use Hotstar’s massive scale as an AVOD platform to establish compelling SVOD service for the top-end consumers. This is driven by premium content and an easy transaction experience. It is satisfying to see what we have created so far,” he said.
“Our business Star India has played a key role in shaping this market so far. Driven by our strength in content and our uniquely successful digital delivery platform Hotstar, we have a pole position in this incredible market,” he asserted.
