Viacom 18 is entering the already crowded OTT market with the launch of Voot Select online streaming channel. Voot as an app is already present but the new subscription driven app will have much more content in the form of movies, 30 original series or shows and will include over 33 live TV channels.
The other key feature of the Rs 999 per year or Rs 99 per month Voot Select subscription will be that the viewers of soaps on the GEC channels under Viacom 18 will get to watch the episodes on Voot Select 24 hours before it is beamed on TV. This could prove to be a big selling point since there is a large base of viewers, particularly among women who would be more than willing to watch episodes 24 hours earlier. Viacom 18 claims more than 50% of their viewers on Voot are women. Voot Select subscription allows you to watch on 4 screens simultaneously.
The over the top or OTT video content streaming business is growing in the country thanks to the availability of data in the hands of the smartphone users and the data is not very expensive either. Netflix, Amazon Prime and Hotstar lead the pack with their diverse contents like movies in English and in the local Indian languages. They have commissioned special original series to be produced exclusively for them creating a new crop of producers and actors from within the Bollywood and other communities. The web series platform has caught the fancy of the average viewer in the country, especially among the youth and is proving to be a success story as far as the OTT players are concerned. Each of these have some special offerings like Hotstar with its Star Sports live feeds and Sony Liv similarly. Amazon Prime offers free one day delivery to the Prime members on its ecommerce platform.
Viacom 18 can also add some special offerings for its Voot Select customers to remain competitive in the field. The Voot Select app will be available on both Android and iOS app stores.