Is The Rise of OTT Posing An Impending Threat To Cinema Halls?

2020 hasn’t been a very cheerful and productive year for many people because of the COVID-19 pandemic that struck the world in March. Things aren’t particularly working in anyone’s favor, be it a businessman, a corporate employee, an MNC, or a small-scale business owner. Everyone has suffered huge losses due to the nationwide lockdown that was implemented in March and even continues to-date in some of the states.

Things haven’t gone back to normal and from what the news tells us, it doesn’t seem like normalcy will be restored by the end of this year. People are scared to step out and mix with the crowd which in-turn has prompted a lot of businesses to close down despite the lockdown getting absolved. But if there is any business that seems to have borne the brunt of this pandemic, it is Cinema halls.

A great number of cinema halls across the country have shut down and many others are suffering huge losses. And although the pandemic appears to be the major reason behind it, owners of these cinema halls are singing a different tune. Many cinema halls’ owners have cited the boom of OTT platforms as a greater threat to their business.

It was during the year 2016 that giant OTT platforms, Netflix and Amazon Prime, entered the Indian market and started streaming different shows and films from around the world. The first two years saw a steady and moderate rise in their number of subscribers. But things took a sharp turn when Netflix announced its first Indian original show, Sacred Games , in 2018. The show went on to push Netflix India to greater heights in terms of popularity and kicked off the trend of web series in India.

Soon after this Amazon Prime too followed suit and announced its original shows such as Made in Heaven and Mirzapur. The web series scene in India thus exploded and became the ultimate anecdote for the poor state of Indian television for many people. But the rise was still slow and steady. It was 2020 that proved to be a landmark year for streaming platforms in India. The year saw many more streaming platforms getting launched such as Disney+Hotstar, Zee5, and Sony Liv.

With all the cinema halls shut down and television serials being discontinued due to the lockdown, these OTT platforms saw a huge opportunity to go more mainstream and capture all the more space in the Indian entertainment market.

Since many big-ticket films were waiting to get a theaterical release, OTT platforms soon started buying these films exclusively for online streaming. This was the first time when big-ticket films saw an online release in India. Films like Laxmii , Lootcase got an exclusive deal with Disney+Hotstar. Amazon Prime followed the same pattern with the release of Gulabo Sitabo , Shakuntala Devi: Human Computer , and Soorarai Pottru , and Netflix came up with Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl , Serious Men , Raat Akeli Hai , and Ludo . This strategy proved to be a huge success for OTT as now more and more people were buying their subscriptions.

But it is this popularity of OTTs that cinema hall owners around the country are gravely scared of. The comfort that these OTT platforms offers, which is getting a wide variety of films without having to step out of your house, is posing as a great threat to the theatrical viewing experience that cinema halls offer. With roads getting busier and noisier by each day, going to a theater to simply watch a film eats up a lot of time and for many people, time is a luxury that they just can’t afford. It is for this reason that cinema halls were noticing huge footfalls in their tickets even before lockdown. The lockdown, along with the OTT boom, has just incentivized these footfalls.

Theaters, around the country, are slowly getting open but the attendance has been hugely sparse. Not many people are still comfortable to step out only to watch a film. The fear of COVID is making people stay at home or at least avoid crowded spaces. However, cinema halls are now trying to attract a large audience by following the guidelines set by the government and making their theater, a safe and clean place for film-lovers to come and experience the magic of cinema. Only time will tell whether cinema halls will succumb to the rise of OTT and bleed to death or people still would want to experience the theatrical experience of watching a film.