While India and the world saw a meteoric rise in the growth of OTT (over-the-top) content platforms, there’s something else that has been slowly dying - theatres/multiplexes. The reason is simple. What you need to pay for one ticket to watch one movie, you can pay for an OTT platform’s monthly subscription that will have several movies and TV shows in it. Users have also become lazy post the pandemic. Not many want to take the pain of walking into the theatres and watching a two+ hour movie in one go. They would rather set up an awesome home theatre inside their homes and watch all the same content from the comfort of their home at their convenience and their timings without anyone else disturbing them. This has all been possible because of the OTT platforms and the cheap data rates in India. The telecom operators in India earn very less on average from each consumer compared to what other telcos in foreign lands do. Because data is so cheap, consumers can watch more and more OTT content without losing their peace of mind. Especially the FTTH services from top ISPs (Internet Service Providers) such as Jio also offer consumers OTT subscriptions bundled with their high-speed internet plans. So now, consumers have both high-speed internet with unlimited data and access to multiple OTT platforms. In such scenarios, why would a consumer want to go and pay separately to watch movies with several other people disturbing him/her in uncomfortable seats? Further, when the Bollywood players and production houses are selling the rights of their movies to OTT platforms after their theatrical release in no time, the consumer would rather pay a single fee for the OTT subscription than pay more and more to watch it in movie theatres. Yes, the experience of watching a movie inside a multiplex is different, but consumers can now replicate most of that experience inside their homes with strong sound systems, great displays, and high-internet speed to play the content in the highest quality possible. It would be safe to assume that the presence and growth of OTT platforms have been taking a lot of money away from the theatres. But it is also making it up for the flops by giving the production houses some more money through the streaming rights deal.
