EVOLUTION OF OTT PLATFORMS.

In the wake of the covid-19 pandemic and frequent lockdown, an Over The Top (OTT) platform has taken over the whole business of theatres and the media industry. Due to this, one noteworthy trend of OTT platforms has changed and compelled the usage of it more innovatively. In the past year, the usage of OTT platforms has increased due to the restrictions on traveling and many other things which led people to seek their entertainment online like never before. The biggest interruption was the accelerated shift of watching content on big screens to small screens. This thing doubled the usage of internet users which led to the increase in subscription of all the OTT platforms. Subscription of top OTTs led to the increment of 55-60 percent. Covid-29 has made it clear about the vital importance to be online and create enormous content to engage with a large amount of audience. As a result, more and more content is being created for the target audience. Netflix, Prime Video, Hotstar among others are the prevailing consumer in the OTT platform. But covid-19 presented these OTTs to many users and opportunities for entry into these platforms.

The emergence of OTT platforms has disrupted the entertainment industry. Although, it does have some positive side and negative side. OTT platforms had made it convenient, affordable, and easily accessible for the watchers to watch their favorite TV shows, movies, etc.  Reports say that the average time spends by each Consumer has gone from 20-50 min during this time. With the extension of Lockwood and the current situation, OTT is seeking a new normal. The big players in the film industry might have been discomfort regarding OTT as the new normalcy. But  Due to this films have been bearing a great loss, numerous big projects are on hold and the loss they are bearing is almost around INR 30 billion. sell ve gone down due to the effective impact on financial services, socio-economic problems. The launch of series, movies, etc on the DTH and OTT platforms will collect billions of viewers worldwide. The production house will make millions in the first week itself. The cinemas can see the multi-million film release but have to take the risk of minimizing guarantee deals for covering the production cost.

OTT platforms are creating more impact in our daily lives.
Disadvantage:
1. The content which is streamed is only available to those who have access to the internet and they are not available to some of the rural areas.
2. Unstable wife connection will be the disadvantage for the user to watch on HD quality stream as it needs proper connection. A proper network will not be an interruption for media content. If you want to watch in HD quality, you must have 2MBPs of internet connection.
3. All OTT platforms need personal confidential information for paying for the subscription except HBO, Netflix, Prime Video, etc. Any cybercrime can happen on such sites. Though the securities are tight they may sometimes weaken the ropes.
4. OTT platforms are on their own, the government doesn’t have any right to put laws and regulations. As they are non-censored and there is no age limitation, it’s free to age limit. It creates an increase in viewership. This is the greatest disadvantage.
5. Users are more likely to Westheimer time on OTT platforms whether it is during classes, school, college’s or while studying, mostly are kids and teenagers. The Jump from one series to another and let them keep busy in that stuff rather than being active and doing something creative.

The film industry went through ups and down due to shifts in the industry when all the Bollywood mainstream were bypassed to OTT releases. This trend will be continuing shortly as this was going to be our future in the next 25 years, then why not now? As people are afraid of going to theatres for a while. As of now, it’s covid-19 time, so it’s OTT’s time. The whole family can sit together and watch it together. All those impacts have a different place and watching together is a different thing because everything has both pros and cons.