Telugus watch more local content

Hyderabad: People in Telugu states prefer to watch more regional content on Over-The-Top (OTT) apps such as Amazon Prime, Hotstar, Zee5 among others, making big players in this space focus on creating more regional content.

Propensity to consume regional content is more among Telugus than others in the country. In fact, Telugu people are so hungry for regional content that the current supply isn’t able to satiate them, said Girish Menon, head of KPMG India’s media and entertainment division.

Quoting his organisation’s in-house study, Mr Menon said, “the level of local consumption is high in AP, Telangana and Tamil Nadu. People in these states prefer watching local content over that of English or Hindi. Since Netflix and Amazon Prime — the large players in this space — have very limited content, the market is indeed ripe for regional players to enter.”

Recently, this newspaper had reported about Telugu film maker Allu Arvind joining hands with city-based businessmen Megha Krishna Reddy, Jupally Rameshwara Rao and Nim-magadda Prasad to set up an exclusive OTT platform to stream southern content.

Amazon too, however, doesn’t want to lose the opportunity and is ready for a regional push.

We understand that “tastes and preferences are unique in different parts of India, depending on culture. We want to entertain anyone in any part of the country,” said Vijay Subra-maniam, director and head of content, Amazon Prime Video India. Viacom18, an-other major player in this space, has recently launc-hed a Telugu channel on its streaming platform Voot.

Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, Viacom18 COO and Voot head Gourav Rakshit said he wants to attract Telugu customers in a big way by offering more regional content. “Most regional users have just started using the Internet. So we want to attract them by offering localised content that they can relate with,” he said.
Mr Menon, however, feels that pricing is key for further increase in the OTT consumption in India.

“As most Indians have been paying Rs 250-`300 for cable channels for all their lives, they may find it difficult to paying Rs 600 or Rs 800 for OTT apps. So the key is the good content,” Mr Menon explained.

The Viacom18 chief operating official believes that allowing people watch sample content could be better way to convince them to continue the service further.