Mumbai: Following a successful run with its original content, Watcho is expanding its choices by providing packed bundles of the most popular OTT platforms. This gives its consumers access to a wide range of new digital content while maintaining the convenience of a single subscription.

Watcho offers OTT content from Disney+ Hotstar, Zee5, Sony LIV, Lionsgate Play, Hungama Play, HoiChoi, Klikk, EpicOn, Chaupal, and Oho Gujarati through a single login and subscription system.

Subscribers also have access to a massive library of original content, including 35+ captivating web series, user-generated content, snackable shows, and live TV from Watcho exclusives.

Indian Television.com spoke to Dishtv corporate head Sukhpreet Singh, who shed light on the various aspects of Watcho being an OTT aggregator as a one-stop solution.

Singh has been associated with Dish TV since 2016 and is presently designated with the company. In his current role, he is responsible for planning & implementing a brand strategy for Dish TV, package construction & pricing, managing the interactive channels of Dish TV, corporate communication, media buying, and building brand equity for Dish TV.

Edited excerpts: 

On the campaign ‘One Hai Toh Done Hai’

Watcho has been an OTT platform with its own content for the past two years, and we have very good short-form content as well as a variety of other features. The campaign is focused on the next step, which is the integration of OTT bundles.

Watcho was designed to be different from other OTT platforms because there are so many. It aspired to be an OTT platform that is more than just a passive platform for consumption, but also one that encourages active participation through user-generated content. Watcho has short-form content and various other enrichment features, and it is intended to be an active participation forum rather than just a streaming platform.

As a result, we had a lot of success with it. And obviously, when we looked at our consumers who were consuming content from Watcho, we noticed that they were also consuming content from other OTT platforms and liked to watch live TV.

The customer is at the centre of everything, and the goal is to provide a platform that serves everything in one place. Watcho is more than just a platform that aggregates content from other OTT platforms; it also has its own content. It also has a user-generated content feature as well as a library of other content and languages. It creates content about tropical topics. We are delighted that all of the major and well-known OTT providers have integrated with Watcho.

One good feature about Watcho and Watcho OTT bundles is that they are accessible to anyone, whether you are a customer or not. All our connected devices have Watcho inbuilt in it.

On the strategy

We are a content provider, and our strategy is to bring the best content available to whichever technology and platform are available to all of our customers and potential customers, whether it is on a satellite platform or streaming content, whether it is on television, mobile phones, or your laptop. We want to be the gateway for customer content consumption. So our strategy is straightforward: content can be distributed and delivered to consumers in a very convenient manner from anywhere, on any screen, and using any technology.

There is the convenience of having a single subscription and managing everything in one place. In today's world, where subscribers are confused about what content is on which platform and the management of subscriptions and payments, we are simplifying those things for customers and being an independent provider to the customer.

On opportunities

The biggest opportunity is the explosion of content. While people are still watching linear TV, and it is also growing in rural areas, there is also a lot of individual consumption of streaming content, which is the biggest opportunity for anyone else in the content distribution business.

We've been given the opportunity to expand, which will require deep integration to bring it to the masses because Dish TV has also integrated our retail trade and offline payment methods into our OTT bundle plan.

OTT providers are very important to us because they invest in producing high-quality content. We are assisting them in expanding their reach, which is a very traditional partnership between a content provider and the platform that distributes it.

On the challenges

There will always be challenges when there are opportunities, such as the availability of adequate bandwidth to watch high-quality content. That is the difficulty.

Looking at the lower states and rural areas, new technologies such as 5G, as well as other technologies on the horizon, will take time to reach tier 2 cities, ensuring that high-speed internet is also available at a reasonable cost, further catalysing content consumption.

India is a very diverse country. So when creating content, there's a lot of regional content coming up now, and we have regional language partners to overcome the challenge of diversity in Indian languages and content preferences.

On new trends

The current trends could be going in a variety of directions. For instance, a lot of content consumption currently takes place on mobile devices. However, there is a movement to move that to a larger screen. Additionally, more individuals are watching streaming material on connected TVs.

Second, the increase in regional content consumption; and third, the availability of all these different types of content on a single platform. One of the emerging trends is OTT bundles, and businesses like ours will assist in simplifying things for the user.

On TV vs. OTT

India is a huge country. Some people do not even have a television in their homes.

As a result, parts of India that previously did not have television are now purchasing it at a rapid pace. Rural electrification is taking place, and as a result, electricity is now available in the majority of India's villages. At the same time, rural economies in India have become more diverse in recent years.

Economic cycles are occurring in the top-tier cities, but because our economy has been relatively stable, growth is occurring in all categories, including television, which will continue to grow.

Rural areas are also gaining access to the internet.

There is family consumption of television content versus individual consumption of mobile and personal devices. This is yet another factor that will lead to hybrid consumption across multiple screens.

On the balance between content and business

We are not required to balance it. I believe the customer will strike a balance. The subscriber, viewer, or customer can balance their content consumption, whether through television, streaming devices, or various platforms and methods.

What we will try to do is figure out the customer's pain points and try to solve them. For example, if multiple subscriptions are a pain point, we will try to solve them. We will also look at the seamless availability of content on various screens, whether it is a television, a mobile phone, or a laptop. We can assist them with our UI (user interface). We will try to do so because our job is to see where the customer and technology are going and then make it as convenient for the customer as possible.