As people across the country are taking measures to stop the spread of COVID-19, educational institutions and workplaces have been shut-down. Apart from this, other recreational facilities, like theatres, gyms and pubs, have also been closed for the time being.
Meanwhile, there has been a rise in the viewership across various OTT platforms in India; the viewership has increased up to 20%. This rise has been attributed to social-distancing that is being put into practice everywhere.
People are turning to OTT platforms (like Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hotstar, Hungama Play, and more) for entertainment, and digital content is now becoming a quarantine-essential. On this subject, Prabhu Ram, Head-Industry Intelligence Group (IIG), CyberMedia Research (CMR) stated:
The Coronavirus pandemic has caused a significant shift in the way we operate, where work-life balance equations have also irreversibly changed.
People who used to watch this content while travelling to work in the morning used to do so on their phones, but now there is a shift from the content being viewed on phones to televisions.
The peak hours of consumption have also changed. In the morning, consumption used to be high during office commute hours i.e. 8 – 10:30 am. At present, high consumption hours have extended up until 11:30 am. In the evening, the peak time used to start at 8 pm, but now it starts as early as 6 pm and does not end until midnight.
The rise in viewership and subscriptions has taken place mostly in the metropolitan cities and are expected to grow further. As people shift to these platforms, there is a possibility that they will stick to this change even when things go back to normal.
Also Read: Netflix, Apple TV+ and more halt productions due to COVID-19