Indians won’t mind ads during Netflix if given good deal: Report

One in three Indians won't mind seeing ads as they watch over-the-top (OTT) content streaming platforms like Netflix or Amazon Prime if they get a good deal from the vendors, video Cloud services provider Brightcove Inc said on Monday.

While 25% Indians want to pay nothing and watch ads as a trade-off to consuming content, 14% respondents would like to pay a higher fee to be free from ads and a similar number would like an option where they can customise their price and ad packages.

In its annual "Asia OTT Research Report", conducted with research partner YouGov, the company said 35% of respondents in India might be open to a reduced monthly subscription package that serves ads depending on the price whereas 44 per cent said they would definitely sign up.

This means that nearly 80% of Indian respondents are open to a hybrid model of reduced price subscription video on-demand (SVOD) services with some ad funding.

The survey polled 9,000 participants across nine countries in Asia, including 1,000 consumers in India.

"The findings suggest that the online TV consumer in India sees the value in TV content whether they are paying with greater focus and attention, or with their money. Indian consumers do not mind seeing ads as part of their shows, especially if they are getting a deal," said Janvi Morzaria, Sales Director-India, Brightcove.

Nearly 60 per cent of 'lapsed' respondents plan to sign-up for OTT services again in the future. Subscription fatigue is not common for users in India as content was the primary driver for their subscription to multiple OTT services.

When asked how much respondents would be willing to pay for OTT services, 37% of respondents stated less than $1 per month, 27% would pay $$1-$4 per month and 16% would pay $5-$9 per month.

"Nearly 22 per cent of Indian respondents found two ads as an acceptable advertising load per ad break and 13 per cent were open to three ads per break," said the report.

Offline downloads (42%, access on mobile (42%) and using less data on mobile (40%) were the top three OTT service features most wanted by Indian consumers.

"OTT service providers should make the advertising experience engaging while limiting ad loads per break. Consumers are now willing to watch ads if they have the option to subscribe to a reduced price plan," said Morzaria.

Popular Indian digital service providers like Hotstar, ALT Balaji, Zee5, Voot, BigFlix, Sony LIV, Eros Now -- apart from the global giants like Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime Video -- have flooded the Indian market.

There are currently more than 32 online content and video streaming platforms in the country and the market is expected to hit $5 billion by 2023, according to the global management consulting firm Boston Consulting Group (BCG).