-Is OTT taking over the TV in India?
-Are TV-viewing habits changing rapidly?
Tata Play CEO Harit Nagpal says television is here to stay, and so is OTT.
Watch whole conversation with Tamanna Inamdar: https://bit.ly/4b6bPNV
-Are TV-viewing habits changing rapidly?
Tata Play CEO Harit Nagpal says television is here to stay, and so is OTT.
Watch whole conversation with Tamanna Inamdar: https://bit.ly/4b6bPNV
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TVTranscript
00:00 Yes, there are some people who are cutting the cord.
00:03 But is everybody cutting the cord?
00:05 And is that permanent?
00:08 You recently saw Asia Cup, World Cup, and IPL, all three
00:14 being offered for free online.
00:18 But the television industry, the paid TV industry,
00:21 where people pay 300 rupees, 350 rupees a month
00:23 to watch television, probably saw the highest growth
00:28 versus any previous World Cup or Asia Cup or IPL
00:31 that has been seen in that period.
00:35 So is TV dead?
00:36 There are 110 million people who are paying 300 rupees a month.
00:40 Homes, sorry, not people.
00:41 110 million homes that are paying 300 rupees a month
00:46 on an ongoing basis for television still.
00:49 There are new customers coming into the paid TV world
00:52 every day, which are more than the new customers coming
00:55 into the OTT world every day.
00:58 Because we run both the businesses.
00:59 I'm an aggregator for television.
01:01 We are also aggregators for paid OTT apps.
01:05 We have a business called Binge, which
01:07 we launched about two years ago, where we aggregate the OTT apps.
01:10 And you could buy a bundle of OTT apps
01:13 and get a unified interface through which you
01:16 don't have to but go from one app to the second
01:18 to the third.
01:18 But I'm sure you're seeing a greater growth on Binge.
01:20 No, we're not.
01:21 No.
01:21 The new customers that are coming in onto television
01:26 every day is by a factor more than the new customers who
01:31 are coming into Binge every day.
01:33 Because what happens is we look around ourselves,
01:35 like the first story, and say, me and my friends
01:39 are buying frozen, ready-to-eat food.
01:43 Therefore, everybody in the country
01:44 must be buying frozen, ready-to-eat food.
01:47 So OK, if I were to put this another way,
01:49 you're saying India is maybe cutting the cord,
01:51 but not Bharat.
01:52 Bharat is still watching TV.
01:53 Even India is not cutting the cord.
01:57 So you think everybody who's living in Bombay is rich,
02:01 and everybody who's sitting in a village poor?
02:04 No.
02:06 That's not a fact.
02:08 See, there are people who drive a very fancy car,
02:12 an average car and a low-end car in Bombay.
02:15 There are people who take the metro.
02:18 There are people who take the cab.
02:19 There are people who take the bus.
02:21 There are people who take the auto.
02:23 And there are people who use the bicycle also.
02:26 All of us coexist.
02:28 If there are people buying scooters,
02:30 there are people buying cars, then
02:32 why are you building a metro?
02:33 And all around me in Bombay, when I see,
02:35 I see metros, new metros being built everywhere.
02:39 Why are you building those metros
02:40 if the cars and the scooters population in Bombay
02:43 is increasing every day?
02:46 All industries coexist.
02:48 All forms of delivery coexist.
02:53 My question is, yes, you had maybe an unusual year.
02:57 You're talking about World Cup and all of these events.
02:59 Yeah, World Cup next year also.
03:01 True.
03:01 But this time, maybe there was more push to watch it, et
03:06 cetera.
03:07 Can you see this sustaining?
03:09 Why not?
03:10 I don't see--
03:10 Everyone is saying this is a sunset industry.
03:12 You're saying, no, it isn't.
03:14 Are more people going to come on and watch TV?
03:17 Or are they going to--
03:19 They are.
03:19 The current generation, is that going to not even
03:21 know how to change a channel?
03:22 See, your problem is that you are
03:23 watching the current generation in your own genre.
03:26 Correct.
03:27 There are various genres of the current generation also.
03:31 You live in South Bombay, and you
03:32 look at the current generation of your genre, and you say,
03:35 oh, all my friends are watching XYZ.
03:38 So everybody must-- everybody travels by car.
03:40 So who's using the metro?
03:41 The kids don't know what a remote is.
03:44 Your kids, not everybody's kids.
03:46 [LAUGHTER]
03:49 OK.
03:49 OK, so point taken.
03:50 So you're saying TV is here to stay.
03:52 The business is here to grow.
03:54 And OTT is here to stay also.
03:55 And both will grow.
03:57 Just as planes and trains are both growing,
04:02 TV and OTT will both grow.
04:03 [MUSIC PLAYING]
04:07 (electronic music)