Strategist | Jan'21 | Evolution of OTT Platforms

ConQuest

Consulting & Strategy Club, IIM Shillong

presents

STRATEGIST

Evolution of OTT Platforms

JANUARY 2021 | VOUME 7 | ISSUE 2

ConQuest : Consulting & Strategy Club of IIM Shillong

ConQuest, the Consulting & Strategy Club of IIM Shillong was founded in 2008 with a vision of delivering sustainable solutions to society by acting as a forum between the industry and students passionate about strategy and consulting.

It strives to equip the students with the domain knowledge and skills by facilitating consulting assignments, expert talks, online newsletters, and competitions.

Memebers: Aditya Agarwal, Anurag Kumar Thankur, Avni Dhingra, Sanyam Jain, Satyam Goyal, Saurabh Aggarwal, Suraj Agarwal and Vidhi Mundhra

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Strategists Contents

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Editor’s Desk

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Role of Telecom Sector & Data Analytics in recent boom of OTT service in India

By Team Victorious

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Are you still watching?

By Hardik Goyal

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Impact of pandemic on OTT services in India

By Team Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf

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Data Analytics: The Kingmaker of OTT

By Team ConQuest

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Editor’s Desk

n this edition of Strategist, we take a look at the OTT platforms, the red-hot industry that rose with the idea of catering to modern notion of entertainment and leveraged the technological advances to its benefit. With a large chunk of population trapped at home during the ongoing pandemic, this sector has gathered special attention all around the world. The Covid-19 pandemic has provided an unprecedented boosted to the industry, as the release of many movies was shifted from traditional theatres to digital platforms. As the time spent by people at home increased, so did their need for entertainment.

The rise of the OTT platforms has been so phenomenal that is being seen by experts as the killing pill for traditional theatres and something that might disrupt the consumer perception of entertainment for good. This is going to be a huge challenge that the traditional theatres are trying to tackle aggressively and is going to affect the thousands of people that are directly or indirectly involved in the traditional industry.

With the improvement in technology and new age consumer trends, more and more innovations are hitting the sector. One of the advantages that the digital platforms have is the amount of user data that the streaming service proposes. The data generated plays a critical role in designing and marketing of the content according to the taste of consumer pertaining to different sections of society and living in different geographical areas.

The demand for regional content has also increased with the ever-increasing penetration of mobile services and this has also left room for smaller players to fil the gap by providing localised content at a phenomenal pace.

In addition to looking broadly at the OTT Platforms, the current issue also focuses on these narrow segments as well.

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ROLE OF TELECOM SECTOR & DATA ANALYTICS IN RECENT BOOM OF OTT SERVICES IN INDIA

BY TEAM VICTORIOUS AARATRIKA BRAHMACHARI & NIRMAL HEGDE VGSOM,IIT KHARAGPUR

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consumption of data increased exponentially.

With the demand for data reaching Since time immemorial, India has been unparalleled heights with each passing day, known as the land of opportunity and the onus on the telecom sector to step up and innovation. A large portion of the credit for satisfy the demand is now higher than ever. this can be attributed to the dynamic activism of the Indian youth. Today, India boasts of the The unprecedented increase in demand for data largest population of youth in the world and has prompted new entrants to offer internet its strength is only set to increase in the future. services at a remarkably affordable rate. India Being the disruptors, innovators, movers, and has gone from using less than 1GB of data per shakers of our times, the youth play a pivotal month at an average rate of 100 per GB in 2014 role in the development of our society. They to nearly 12GB of data per month at an average are instrumental in the revolutionization of rate of 10 per GB in 2020. India now boasts of sectors such as technology, communication, the cheapest internet rates in the entire world. and entertainment among many others.

OLE OF THE TELECOM SECTOR

The commonality that binds the innovation of the youth with the revolutionization of a sector is the inherent need for vast amounts of data. And it is often said colloquially that data is the new oil.

Traditionally, telecom giants such as BSNL, Airtel, Vodafone, etc. were the primary providers of data in our country. But as they focused mostly on providing calling and messaging services, the people did not have access to affordable internet. Up until 2015, telecommunications service providers (TSP) made a lion’s share of their revenue from calling and messaging services with data revenue coming in at a distant third. However, with the emergence of OTTs in the mid-2010s, the 7

The phenomenal growth in the consumption of data means a staggering CAGR of 73%.

One can’t help but wonder if the emergence of popular OTT platforms such as

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Netflix and Amazon Prime in 2016, and many to the increased number of active subscribers. others in the past had anything to do with it.

OLE OF DATA ANALYTICS OTT platforms have not only caused an Numerous online sources suggest increase in demand for data but have also that before the pandemic created inevitably challenged the traditional offerings

by COVID-19, average users used to spend of TSPs such as calling, messaging, and value around 1.5 hours daily on OTT platforms added services. This has caused a major shift whereas now the average time spent by them in the strategy of TSPs where the focus is now has increased by 4 hours! Research conducted on the infrastructure dedicated to providing

by Research and Markets states that the OTT faster and cheaper data to the populace. Also, and the video-on-demand (VOD) market is the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India expected to have close to 351 million users (TRAI) has ruled out the need to regulate by 2024 with greater than 50 OTT service OTT players, thus encouraging the growth providers. Thus, to attract and retain users in of the OTT industry and making their access such an increasingly crowded marketplace to the people easier than before. Another OTT service providers need to provide relevant, factor that has been critical to the growth of attractive, and engaging content to them. For the OTT industry in India is net neutrality. this very reason, data analytics is of paramount The recent outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic importance for OTT service providers. and the subsequent change in the dynamic Advanced data analytics such as deep video of the work ecosystem has been a shot in the analytics has immensely useful applications in arm for the OTT industry in India. Work from powering recommendation engines to provide home, lockdowns, and home quarantines has personalized recommendations to users based prompted many OTT platforms to come up on their behavioral data and preferences with innovative offerings. As per a recent BCG and in designing churn models as well. report, OTT subscription growth in India has been up by 60% since the beginning of the pandemic. This unprecedented growth can be attributed to factors such as innovations that help people experience the closest thing to reality and the propensity of the customers to pay for new types of content. To further augment this phenomenon, many TSPs started to provide additional data for free or at a very nominal rate to encourage people to stay at home. This has resulted in an increased average duration of use of OTT applications in addition

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In today’s world, users increasingly demand content tailored to their individual preferences, and thus, delivering content based on their previous viewing habits increases their engagement and makes them want to come back to such platforms for more!. Consider an instance in which you as a user have subscribed for a service to watch a particular web-series on an OTT platform. If the platform gives you a personalized recommendation about a movie or a web-series similar to the one that you had just finished watching, wouldn’t you be delighted and spend time on the platform for a longer time than you had initially planned?.

Employing advanced data analytics to provide such personalized recommendations tailored to the tastes and preferences of individual users can help OTT service providers realize more revenue. Using analytics can provide a better and deeper understanding of the likes, dislikes, preferences, and habits of users and can help OTT service providers design services specific to their needs.

OTT service providers must realize the importance of understanding churn analytics in today’s scenario. Churn-analytics-based models can help companies realize the churn threats associated with individual users by providing insights as to whether users are engaged with a particular platform or not or whether there is a possibility of users leaving the service. Effective utilization of data can help companies derive answers to important questions such as what can be the next best offer for users? What kind of content did the users abandon? to mention a few. The answers to these questions companies understand where individual users lie on the churn model and design effective engagement campaigns to bring them back. Data analytics can also provide insights as to how users evaluate the value of the contents recommended by OTT platforms, the average amount of time they spend watching them, their response towards these contents, and their willingness to pay for supposed value addition. It can also help companies identify the scope of personalization of ads for the target viewers and identify cross-selling opportunities. Such insights can help companies make decisions regarding formats, pricing, and a host of other factors.

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Zee 5, a relatively new entrant in the OTT space launched in February 2018, has utilized hyperpersonalization using a cloud-based content distribution and application development platform named “applicaster” which has provided it with valuable insights and has also helped it to engage with audiences across multiple devices and platforms. Another OTT service provider named ALTBalaji has used AI and ML to understand the app-related behavior and activities of users who were churning out after the launch of season two of “Broken but Beautiful”. They have found that these users preferred to view contents about multiple genres and were not fixated on watching shows of any particular genre and have accordingly personalized recommendations to facilitate more engagement.

learning and deep video analysis. This methodology can achieve the optimum quality of each video by using the minimum number of bits. As a result, higher quality videos start faster and buffer less, thus providing users with a superior viewing experience.

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ONCLUSION

It is therefore evident that the telecom and OTT industries have a symbiotic relationship where their efforts reinforce each other. The day might not be far where TSPs venture into the OTT space or vice versa. Data analytics has a huge potential to help OTT companies identify relevant, attractive and appealing offerings for users based on their tastes and preferences and can help to increase traffic and user engagement. This is expected to have a positive impact on the telecom industries because of the implied preference of users to avail data and other related services from the telecom providers. While all this may further ease the use and access of OTT applications, it remains to be seen if it can be done in a manner that protects the integrity of net neutrality.

With the telecom and the OTT industries working hand in glove and the increasing applications of advanced data analytics models in the OTT industry, it would be interesting to Data analytics also has important applications see what they have in store for us in the future. in helping OTT service providers optimize bandwidth and storage costs in this era of increasing traffic on OTT platforms. One such application of advanced analytics named “Context-Aware Encoding” can reduce operational costs associated with storing and streaming videos with the help of machine

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Are You Still Watching?

The Rise and Rise of OTTs

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hen people in show-business say "captive audience," they refer to a gripping ability that immobilizes the audience in their places, leaving them unable to look away. Even the best of entertainers could not have dreamt of a 'captive audience' of billions for an entire year. Waiting. Watching. Immobilized.

BY HARDIK GOYAL IIM SHILLONG

SonyLiv, Disney+ Hotstar, and many more.

With theatres closed for a large chunk of 2020, creators and producers initially opted to delay the launch of their work. When it became clear that the situation would not improve soon, they faced a choice: wait for things to get back to normal, or launch on an OTT platform directly.

While some choose the former, most opted Few industries have benefitted as much from to go for the latter. Why not just wait? the pandemic as video streaming services.

You know, the likes of Netflix, Amazon Prime,

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When a film/series is made, there is a lot of investment that goes into it. The longer a project stays on the shelf, the longer producers have to wait to recoup their money and reinvest in other lucrative projects. Time is not a luxury that movie producers could afford after waiting a few months for normalcy.

As the content pipeline filled up, the inflexion point was in sight: get the best deal possible from an OTT player and launch.

How do OTT economics look like, though? It depends on who you ask.

If you talk to the producers of Ponmagal Vandhal, a Tamil legal-drama film made on a budget of Rs. 8 crores, they’d be happy, given that they sold the film’s digital rights to Amazon Prime for Rs. 9 crores. While it seems that the profits could have been higher had the film released in theatres, it is also possible that the film could have suffered losses. After all, small films struggle to get exhibitors to give the appropriate screens and timings that they need to earn a profit. Small films are all but doomed if a blockbuster starring a big celebrity happens to release close to them. A deal with an OTT player for digital rights gives them security and protects them against these risks. No need to argue with exhibitors to get good screen times for your indie film on Netflix, is there?

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Further, small films are more likely to be a hit on digital platforms than in a theatrical release. Word of mouth, combined with big tech's algorithmic powers, aimed at increasing watch time, give these films the push they need. And hey, if it works out, the filmmakers get the credibility and following that they can leverage in their next project. If not, they still turned a profit.

out of the meeting knowing that the movie could earn much more than that by a theatrical release. Indeed, Sanju earned around Rs. 500 crores from the box office (domestic and international). This does not include postrelease digital rights revenue. The economics doesn't make sense for blockbuster films to release directly on OTT. All of this does not even consider consumer habits. There's a certain feeling of going to the theatre with family or friends for the next flick starring a megastar that OTT doesn't quite have. No surprise, then, that filmmakers delayed the release of bigticket movies like Rohit Shetty's Sooryavanshi until we return to more 'precedented' times.

What will happen once we return to 'normalcy' though? With filmmakers no longer being forced to release their work on OTT platforms, it seems like there's no way blockbuster films would release on OTT platforms directly. The same cannot be said for small movies, which Indeed, digital rights revenue has continued to may find a home on a streaming service near you. grow strongly over the past few years, propped up by increasing fees per film and volume of movies released, as per a 2020 EY report.

What about the big tent films, though? If a movie like Sanju, made on a budget of Rs. 96 crores, were to consider an OTT release, the numbers are not in their favour. There's a limit up to which OTT players would pay for digital rights for a film, even a certain blockbuster like Sanju. Usually, digital rights are sold in the ballpark of Rs. 25 crores to Rs. 30 crores. Even if a Disney+ Hotstar is willing to shell out 5x this number, say Rs. 150 crores for digital rights (a significant risk for Hotstar), the producers of Sanju will laugh on their way

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While the pandemic undoubtedly helped OTTs, some gained more than others. Data from Nokia Deepfield published in the Wall Street Journal shows that average daily traffic for Netflix was much higher than its competitors in the US. It stayed high throughout the pandemic, compared to Netflix's pre-pandemic traffic.

A closer inspection reveals that it is perhaps due to the video library that Netflix boasts. It is known that Netflix's video library is more expansive than all of its competitors. Indeed, Netflix added more content per quarter than any of its competitors. Even though new streaming services like NBC's Peacock took away some of their licensed content for their own platforms, Netflix's vast content library ensured that its subscribers had something to binge during the extensive lockdowns.

Not all OTT services gained, though. The pandemic also knelt a death blow to Quibi, a short-lived, short-form streaming service that burned through millions of dollars in an attempt to gain a critical mass of subscribers. Not as flowery as it seems, is it?

The industry is changing. A few years ago, it

appeared inevitable that OTTs and theatres were on a collision course. But is there another alternative? New business models have emerged, after all. A simultaneous release in theatres and OTTs is a possibility that some are exploring. Just look at Warner Bros. They recently announced that they would release all of their flagship movies (IP including The Matrix, Dune, and Godzilla) simultaneously on their streaming service HBO Max in 2021, along with a theatrical release. With new business models come new metrics. At least for Warner Bros, the success of a movie is no longer just how much it earns at the box office; it also includes how many subscribers the film brings to HBO Max. The strategy seems clear, though. Develop an extensive content library that leads to a captive audience. The next step, then, is platform exclusives. "Originals," as Netflix calls it. As Netflix commissions more original content for its platform to differentiate itself from competitors (and they do the same), content proliferation increases. What happens when there's too much to watch, though? The next frontier, then, might be content curation.

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Struum, a new entrant into the streaming industry, will offer no original content when it launches soon. It's a content aggregator that will give you some credits that you can redeem to watch the content you want to, from other OTT players, without subscribing to their platforms. Founded by former Walt Disney and Discovery executives, it aims to solve the pain point of having to subscribe to multiple streaming services by allowing consumers to pick out specific shows that they want to watch from different platforms. This will give muchneeded visibility to the smaller OTT players who have a few good shows/series on their platform but do not have an extensive enough library to attract subscribers. This model's

success hangs on how many partnerships Struum can forge with different OTT players, who may not be so inclined to partner with them, especially the more prominent players.

On a parting note, it is clear that during the last year, as we stared into the Black Mirror in front of us, away from our Office(s), away from our Friends, even when it seemed like we were in the Endgame, the very industry that made our quarantine slightly bearable, in addition to playing Ludo and a deadly Queen's Gambit opening on an unsuspecting family member, of course, has undergone significant changes. What does 2021 have in store for us?

The only thing we can do is: keep watching?

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IMPACT OF THE PANDEMIC ON OTT SERVICES IN INDIA

BY TEAM COFFE BEAN & TEA LAF SWETHA SRINIVASAN AND SARAH IIT MADRAS

During May of 2020, Indians were spending an astonishing total of 4600 crore minutes per day, flicking through all the available OTT platforms. As the lockdown continued in June, it also increased this daily statistic to 6000 crore minutes per day i.e. a 30% growth in viewership as compared to the previous month.

The over-the-top (OTT media service) is a streaming media service offered directly to the viewers via the internet. Most generally, it refers to subscription-based videoon-demand (SVoD) services offering access

to short movies, web-series, documentaries, sports and other entertainment formats.

Currently, there are 40 OTT service providers in India, with Netflix, Prime Video and Disney’s Hotstar being the frontrunners.

The market has garnered $ 155.6 billion, directly owing to the impending impact that covid has had on daily life and work worldwide. And this pandemic-driven OTT boom has impacted various direct and indirect stakeholders of OTT services.

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IMPACT OF THE OTT BOOM ON DIRECT STAKEHOLDERS OTT PLAYERS (+ve IMPACT) Players like Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+ are riding the OTT wave. With theatres shut and people spending more time at home, the thirst for good content is satiated by OTT platforms Opportunities Premiering sports events, award shows and ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY (+ve news can provide greater traction to the IMPACT) platforms. Incorporating vernacular and regionspecific content will help in penetrating Tier II Meritocracy in the film industry is bound to and Tier III markets with greater efficiency. receive a fillip. With OTT players serving as Threats the beacon for ‘content-driven’ films with The Government’s stricter take on censorship is quality acting, everyone wants a bite of the creating a stir. Further, equalisation levies and pie. A lot of fresh faces are receiving great digital taxes that the Government seeks to impose recognition and stars are also taking note. on foreign players may impact behemoths Bolder scripts and unconventional screenplays like Netflix and Disney+. Backlash towards that Bollywood and the other industries would certain content available on the platform, data reject can now see the light of the day. Budget breaches that can damage a firm’s reputation, size and box-office performance will become increasing competition from various OTT less correlated. Further, the reach is enormous players and rising costs of production are and OTT is expected to keep growing bigger. other aspects that need strategic attention. Opportunities Conventional stars may seek to make OTT debuts and release their flicks on OTT. Personal docuseries and biopics will strengthen their fanbases. Digital focus and innovation would be key focus areas.

Threats A large amount of content raises the standards that the artists and producers must pursue to stand out.

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VIEWERS (+ve IMPACT) The pandemic has prompted many bigticket releases to happen via OTT platforms which the viewers can enjoy without health concerns. Many players offered discounts and differentiated subscription charges to enhance accessibility to the user.

GOVERNMENT (- ve IMPACT)

However, theatre buffs were in for a huge disappointment. The OTT experience does not cut it for them. Others who don’t have proper devices or internet connectivity or cannot afford subscriptions are left in the dark.

The Govt has lost out on GST collections that the purchase of items from theatres and ticket sales would have provided. Further, concerns regarding the heavy influx of unmoderated, uncensored content have plagued lawmakers.

They have recently announced their plan to introduce censorship to OTT content.

Accounting for data protection when such a framework is not fully in place is an issue.

Also, the government is also expected to support theatres during these trying times.

Threats Addiction to OTT platforms is a serious threat.

Unmoderated content consumed by children, health problems arising from excessive time spent in front of screen and binge eating unhealthy food threatens to derail any upside from a good dose of entertainment.

Opportunities Getting the Data Protection Bill ready would be of high priority. Opportunities to generate greater revenue via means of equalisation levy analogues are present; though backlash on that front must be taken into consideration. Also, leveraging OTT for educational purposes can help in efficient dissemination of online education.

Threats The backlash against the Government’s censorship policy and potential tax plans is concerning. Costs for supporting the traditional cinema industry will be high.

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CULTURE (+ve IMPACT) This is a great time for cultural dissemination, with high accessibility and growing interest.

With platforms like Netflix and Hotstar, hosting multilingual content from around the world, the opportunity to showcase different cultures worldwide is at an all-time high.

Opportunities This can be used efficiently to sensitize people towards various cultures and bust many myths. There are increased opportunities for tourism and merchandise sale fillips, that can help boost the economies of various regions.

Threats Cultural appropriation is an issue which can deeply affect society and create divisions.

CINEMA THEATERS (-ve IMPACT) Cinema theatres and traditional industry personnel, including eateries & restaurants affiliated with theatres, have been big losers during the pandemic. With complete lockdowns, not only did theatres get no business, they also suffered losses from damage to rooms and screens due to pests and rodents. They didn’t get any significant relief package during the pandemic and the Government is wary about allowing 100% occupancy. Despite 50% occupancy in most states, people are not fully ready to revisit theatres and this is negatively impacting the stakeholder.

Opportunities Indexing on hygiene and social distancing, targeted marketing of movies, getting endorsements from popular faces would help in the industry getting back on track.

Food & beverage players can tie up with aggregators to support their businesses.

Threats The rising cost of ensuring hygiene may topple some players off the scene.

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IMPACT OF OTT BOOM ON INDIRECT STAKEHOLDERS FOOD AGGREGATORS (+ve IMPACT) Binge-watching is typically accompanied by binge eating. Food aggregators like Zomato and Swiggy are getting to ride this high.

Opportunities Partnering with OTT platforms for showspecific marketing, special weekends and coELECTRONIC DEVICE INDUSTRY (+ve branding can boost this industry. Through their IMPACT) cloud kitchens, they can customize food with As people satisfy their entertainment cravings popular themes from various OTT platforms through OTT platforms, the demand for better to add to customer interest and revenue. devices to watch content is rising. Home theatre Including healthy options is quite necessary. models, speakers, earphones are on top of the list Threats Opportunities The awareness around the ill-effects of Launching new home-theatre products, binge-watching and binge-eating can devices for entertainment purposes, equipment result in a shift to home-cooked meals. acknowledging space constraints, economical and budget devices to penetrate deeper into Tier II and Tier III markets would be good moves.

Incorporating projector devices on mobiles is an option. Aggressively marketing the entertainment or professional use of products would be beneficial.

Threats Availability of many OTT apps on mobile devices disincentivizes purchase of other devices. OTT and entertainment will not be a standalone driver for sales in India when it comes to device purchases. The marketing strategy may not be sufficient to fuel enough demand.

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DATA PROVIDERS (+ve IMPACT) Telcos are profiting from increased data usage accompanying rising screen time.

Opportunities Airtel and Jio are looking to dip their toes into the streaming space. With their existing reach, it shouldn’t be too difficult to onboard customers.

Opportunities also exist to collaborate with OTT players to sweeten data packs by bundling them with OTT subscription discounts or free trials.

SOCIAL MEDIA (+ve IMPACT) Social media is witnessing immense traction as users discuss shows online. This accumulates a lot of data and brings greater ad revenue.

Digital advertising by OTT players themselves is a huge contributor to the revenue of social media players, as that is the primary form of marketing these platforms are involved in.

Threats Competing against OTT behemoths might result in telcos bleeding cash. Players like Airtel are already not profitable and need to focus on core operations to get that set.

OTHER INDUSTRIES (+ve IMPACT) Certain industries have received unexpected boosts due to the OTT boom. In the 3 weeks after the release of The Queen’s Gambit, chess set sales rose by 87% and chess book sales shot up by 603% in the US. This opens up doors for niche industries.

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DATA ANALYTICS THE KINGMAKER OF OTT

By Team ConQuest

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ncreasing penetration of affordable broadband and smartphones, customised OTT apps with innovative pricing models, along with the sheer convenience, have made OTT platforms popular and there is no doubt the pandemic has brought millions of customers to the doorstep of online streaming platforms.

One entire OTT industry revolves around is data. From streaming to analysing and making the data work for you is an end-to-end process in which every click, every search and

every choice is recorded and is fed back to the system to make improvements and decisions.

The role of data analytics can be broadly divided into two major segments first being Quality of Service (QoS) and second Quality of Experience (QoE). Quality of Service is mainly oriented to analyse the performance of the network and the media involved and the analysis is used to improve the application. On the other side, Quality of Experience is concerned with the point of view of the end user and how he perceives the value of the

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service and the analysis is used to improve •Enhancing user experience: What the customer experience via personalisation personalized recommendations can you make and content quality improvement. for users? How are they engaging with the platform? What will keep them coming back?

The major purposes that data analytics serve for an OTT platform are •Targeting ads based on user preferences: How much is too much?

•Understanding your users: What is the How can the ads be personalized? next best offer for the audience? What is What ads work best for a target viewer? the next best action they could do? What do they abandon? Knowing this will help •Making accurate predictions for the you retain your users and reduce churn. next best offers or actions: This could fuel cross-sell/up-sell opportunities •Improving the lifetime value of and improve user experience. each user: What will let you nudge them up the revenue chain? Are there any cross-selling opportunities?

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Major algorithms used by OTT platforms are: 1. Near Real-time Recommendation (NRR) Engine: OTT Platforms update their recommendation within seconds. Every action like click or searches are considered as significant parameters and accordingly changes are made to the recommendations. The entire algorithm responsible for the recommendation is built through rigorous analysis of data.

2. Metaflow: A cloud-based human- centric network that shifts the focus of Data Scientists from the hassles of modelling to actual problem solving. Metaflow works like a plug and play extension where the scientists can experiment with various fine-tuned features.

3. Polynote: Polynote allows JVM Based machine learning to easily integrate seamlessly with Python. It allows features similar to IDE, for e.g.: Auto complete, Error highlights, reproducibility, editing, improvements, visibility, data visualization 4. MetaCat: Data required by OTT Platforms can be from various sources and destinations, available in various forms which cannot be complied together for analysis. To help in collection and compilation of metadata from various sources, MetaCat is used.

5.Druid: The main objective of Druid is to provide LIVE analytics on databases where queries execute every moment and at variable time-periods. It is highly scalable and can be used for top performance for any given workload.

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Big Data in OTT-verse: The biggest money churner for the OTT platforms lies in capturing the data of the consumer preference regarding the type of shows liked by the consumer and using that data to design original content.

The rise of the OTT platforms was mainly for streaming purpose, but soon these platforms realised that the profit margin would be way better if they stream their own content instead of the content owned by others, where they had to pay royalty to the original producer of the content.

The data is used to get a better analysis about the preference of consumers pertaining to a particular

segmentation like age or geaography and thenn using that data to develop original shows in regional languages that the audience will pretty surely like.

With the increase in demand of variety, original content is going to be the key driver of growth for the 30 player OTT industry in the upcoming years. Video streaming companies are expected to spend about ₹1,920 crore for creating original content for India in the year 2021, that will be a steep 17% rise over the ₹1,400 crore spent in the year 2019. This increase comes after the services have seen a steep rise in audiences due to the lockdown in 2020.

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