With the Covid-19 pandemic fast-tracking the acceptance of OTT in the minds of consumers, the desi audience has begun treating it like the new mainstream entertainment. And so, in the last few years, the number of players in the field has seen a steady rise.
Starting out as a utilitarian video playback application, and then integrating other forms of entertainment, including video playback, streaming, music, and gaming, MX Player has come a long way.
MX Player completes a decade this year as a video player and four years as an OTT platform. In an exclusive interview, Gautam Talwar, Chief Content Officer at MX Player, talks about its core philosophy of consumer centricity, content strategy, portfolio indexation and more. Excerpts:
The rise of OTT has been phenomenal in the last two pandemic years. How has MX Player evolved?
MX Player has evolved into becoming a clear leader in its category, and has achieved the phenomenal 1 billion download milestone on the app store in a very short period. Our viewers have appreciated the multi genre and multilingual content pieces.
With the pandemic accelerating the adoption and overall change in the consumer consumption habit on OTT, we are confident that this change is more permanent than temporary. It is a habit that is being formed and MX Player is playing a major role ensuring that our Indian audience continues to treat OTT as the new mainstream in the time to come.
Tell us about your original content and successful shows. Why do you think these shows worked?
We continue to be the launch pad for India’s talent pool of producers, script-writers, actors and creators with regional hits like Samantar 1 and 2 or Queen 1 (part 2 coming soon), to tentpole shows like Aashram, which is going to see the release of its next season this year. For us, the key metric is that most of our shows are getting to be franchises, including our recent hits like Matsya Kaand, Raktachal and Campus Diaries, which tells its own success story.
There are two major reasons for the success of these shows:
a) We work with the best creative talent in the industry along with our team at MX Player to convey differentiated and fresh stories
b) Consumer centricity is our core philosophy as we keep meeting and understanding user needs and map their mind space as to what they are wanting to watch now or probably want to watch in the future.
I truly believe a heady mix of the right content approach along with a passion to tell great stories makes us successful, and we mindfully align our content strategy accordingly.
What do you keep in mind when looking for original content for MX Player?
We have a very clear strategic mapping which we use to greenlight our shows. We are a proud MASS brand, and we never lose our focus, regardless of what takes place in the marketplace. We look for fresh narratives, originality as well as the passion of the partner/makers we closely work with. Our own strategy, content piece, portfolio indexation and many more variables are taken into consideration while greenlighting a project. However, paramount to all this is the STORY itself!
Do you think that Hindi OTT can command the same clout it did when theatres were shut during the pandemic?
We are surely witnessing a behavioral change over the last two years with newly formed habits that we now consider the new normal. I believe that the content in theatres might need a relook. The stories the audience is looking for in theatres will undergo a change, given the kind of content OTT platforms are putting together. OTT will keep evolving along with consumer needs and preferences and will become an integral part of the consumer’s life space. It is not replacing any other medium but will surely become the preferred medium for most of the consumers.
There are multiple video-on-demand platforms - which do you feel are your biggest competitors?
MX continues to be the market leader in OTT on the back of its strong content slate as well as cutting-edge product and technology innovations. However, this is a growing category and I genuinely believe that competition fosters growth and development – hence with the depth of content available across platforms, there will be more of a behavioral change of the consumer. And once we accomplish this, we all reap the benefits. Having said that, eventually there will be some level of consolidation. Also, I do think everyone has their own set of audiences that they are catering too. Rather than viewing each other as competition, I consider all of us as category developers.
You offer 13 languages, and have 300 million users (MAU - globally) - what are your goals for 2022?
Growth in all metrics is our goal for 2022. Our aim is also to ensure that the franchises that we are creating are well received by the audience. And, most importantly, our goal lies in offering unique and engaging content to the viewers.
Buying rights versus creating original content - what makes more money for you?
Both are equally important. We are an AVOD platform and both drive watch-time which in turn drives revenue; hence it makes no difference if it comes from an original or an acquired show. The idea is to have continued engagement on the platform by streaming high-quality, premium content for consumers across the length and breadth of the country.
Also read: ZEE5's Nimisha Pandey: "Originals or exclusive content continue to be a key driver"
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