OTT platforms may see consolidation over next five years

The rapidly increasing over the top (OTT) space is likely to see consolidation over the next five years, according to industry experts.In the OTT/ digital space the number of players will shrink and I predict the maximum number of players that will remain in this space will not be more than 10 in the next three to five years.Advertising money is going to get even more fragmented and with increasing players its going to get worse, media veteran Raj Nayak said at the Ficci Frames event.I think thats when real realisation of value will happen both in terms of subscription and advertising, he said. Nayak, who recently quit as Viacom 18 chief operating officer noted that digital players have devalued their product.A recent report by global management consulting firm Boston Consulting Group expects the OTT market to be $5 billion by 2023.The report had noted that the number of players in the Indian OTT market had grown from 9 in 2012 to 32 players in 2018.It had also noted that all platforms struggle with retention of consumers, and on an average 50 percent of OTT apps installed are uninstalled in the first seven days of installation.Media firm Zee Entertainment Enterprises video on demand service Zee5s chief executive officer Tarun Katial felt the broadcasters perhaps missed a chance by creating a catch-up TV environment on digital platform than on-demand original content.Broadcasters have done a good job with OTT, very differently from anywhere else in the world, but we unfortunately created a catch-up TV VoD platform and this is where we have come in late than the Amazons and Netflix of the world, he said.