Is OTTs threat or opportunity for PayTV?

The increased proliferation of smartphones, tablets has led to the mushrooming of OTTs (or Over-The-Top services). Well, the telecom fraternity has already created a lot of hullabaloo around it, saying that OTTs are eating into their profitability riding on their networks. And now, the issue is under regulatory authorities and is getting scrutinized.

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But now, here comes another question –is OTTs a threat for PayTV operators too? To some extent, some sort of insecurity could be sensed with operators such as Tata Sky, Viacom 18 Digital Ventures coming up with their own OTT platforms such as ‘TV Everywhere’ proposition, which will enable subscribers to access an array of content from plethora of channels on any device.

At the NextTV Summit, held in New Delhi today, industry experts debated the issue that whether OTTs are the competitors or partners of Pay TV operators.
Akash Banerji, Head of Marketing and Partnerships at Viacom 18 Digital Ventures, said: “Though the OTT video space is hotting up but still it’s in a nascent stage and I don’t think we should start talking about that whether it is the end of PayTV?”
“I think a lot of time has to go to actually say that they are taking share from TV. In fact, we should say viewing time on TV versus viewing time on multiple screens is shifting,” he added.

PayTV in the country today has 63% penetration at the household level, and the industry has been growing at a 15-21% year-on-year.