Cashing in on online videos in India
As consumers bid farewell to 2014 and ring in 2015, we take a look at one of the most prominent trend in the digital marketing industry – online video content. In 2015, the global video ad spends is expected to surpass USD 10 billion, according to a report by Group M titled the ‘India Digital Playbook’.
The emergence on online videos has caused an expansion in the overall audio visual media landscape in India. It is home to the third largest video consuming markets in the world. According to the research, 60 million users are consuming online video through desktops and mobiles each.
Consequently, this has led to a decline in the number of users consuming media through TV, which is especially the youth in the urban areas. Consumption pattern has move from scheduled content to online video on multiple devices. Bollywood and sports have garnered large interest on the online video space.
There has been a 27 per cent rise in the online video audience in 2014, which was largely driven by the users within the age group of 15- 24 and led 38 per cent share of the online video audience in India. This has also been reflected in the ad spends by marketers. Some of the major factors driving growth in online video content include growth in consumer base, low cost, increased reach of the medium on back of better internet connectivity, unique content and higher inflation on TV.
Mobile video provider such as YouTube, VuClip, and Video Talkies, among others are currently sitting at an audience base of 25-30 million users daily. Meanwhile, Live TV apps such as NexGTV, ZengaTV see 30 million users daily, largely driven by sporting event such as cricket’s Indian Premier League which attracts 12 million users every season in India. Interestingly, IPL 7 saw a larger consumer as against global online audience for London Olympics 2012, according to Star TV. Selected services have seen 20-25 per cent of their consumers subscribing to their paid services.
From enabling side technology companies such as Videology, Madhouse and others have built custom video experiences as innovative rich media advertising formats for brands to leverage.
Going forward, telecom operators are expected to drive the growth on online video through attractive offers on data plans, ignoring the minor speed bump when Airtel announced that it will charging for Voice over Internet Protocol Services separately and not under its 2G or 3G data plans, though it later retracted it. Also, the launch of Facebook’s video plan is expected to give uplift to the video advertising opportunities for brands and marketers in 2015.
