India is one of the fastest growing markets in the world for the OTT or Video-On-Demand platform, the space currently sees strict competition. But it has been proven to be a difficult market to crack for Giant Netflix streaming.

“In every other major market, we have spinned Kewheel. Things that make us frustrated are why we haven’t succeeded in India, but we lean there,” CEO CEO Netflix said in revenue calls for the fourth quarter of 2021.

For the October-December 2021 quarter, Netflix added 8.3 million customers. But projected to only add 2.5 million customers in the January-March 2022 quarter, down from 4 million was added a year ago – the lowest growth since 2015.

It also led the streaming giant stock to fall as much as 24 percent on Friday.

Netflix’s performance in the fourth quarter was led by the Asia Pacific region, where he added 2.6 million new payment customers, led by solid growth in India and Japan.

However, in the OTT market that grew rapidly in India, Netflix is ​​still a distant third. According to the research company of Media Asia partners, while Netflix does not reveal customer figures for India, Netflix has a customer base currently around 5.5 million in this country.

It’s much lower than Amazon Prime Video and Hotstar, each of which has around 22 million and 46 million customers. This even when Netflix looks spend 3,000 crore on content in India.

Netflix must also cut prices in India with almost 60 percent to follow other pricing from other platforms. Until then, the Netflix basis began at Rs 500 a month while people like Amazon charge Rs 999 for a year.

“We feel it is the right time to reduce our prices, to increase accessibility to all incremental values ​​or features that we have conveyed to the market to more Indian consumers,” Greg Peters, COO and the product head of the Netflix officer said. He added that the price slash followed overall Netflix activities have been carried out in India and learn more about Indian consumer tastes.

So why is the Indian market ‘frustrated’ for Netflix, and will the price trim enough?

Content is key

Netflix called India quite unique in his letter to shareholders because the determination of TV prices was very low.

“We believe this new price will make Netflix more easily accessible by wider plots of population – strengthen our value perceptions,” he added.

Experts say cutting prices will help bring new customers, especially those who might use services through sharing passwords. Reducing prices to the lowest RS 149 for cellular plans will also open new consumer bases in Tier 2 and 3 cities.

However, content is key, and experts say Netflix must change its position and images become global or international and bring regional content.

“Netflix’s idea is the first to reduce prices in India first and then find out the content,” said Karan Taurani, a senior vice president of analysts, the Capital of Elara.

Karan said the focus on better execution in regional content is the key to Netflix. Most countries speak Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Bengali, and other regional languages; Make customized content for them cannot be avoided in markets like India.

“Positioning Content Netflix must change. For someone who hasn’t watched Netflix, this perception has more English, more international content. No one does global content such as Netflix, but needs to have more local language – more regional content and on Various genres. Also, Netflix does not have a family show concept, “said a media analyst.

Meanwhile, people like Hotstar, Prime and Zee5 videos aggressively encourage regional content. While Zee5 said in media reports recently that nearly 50 percent of its holders came from regional content, Hotstar had more than 40 percent of viewers from regional content in 2019.

A FICCI-EY report since March 2021 estimates that the share of regional language consumption on the OTT platform will cross 50 percent of the total time spent in 2025. And experts believe that this will be the key to a strong Netfold on the Indian market.

In addition to regional content, a large focus on the original will also help encourage Netflix growth in India, experts said.
To be sure, Netflix said recently focus not only on genuine content but also has local and regional content, especially in Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam.