How Tata Play Binge is looking to rule the OTT aggregation space

For the last two years, Direct-to-home (DTH) company Tata Play (earlier Tata Sky) tested Binge, its OTT aggregation service, with its DTH subscribers. But as the company looks to gain non-DTH subscribers, Tata Play Binge is now open to all connected TV and smartphone users, with no DTH subscription required at the customer’s end. “I always believe that it’s an ‘and’ market and not an ‘or’ market as both the people who watch TV and those who watch OTT are growing and we, as a service provider, will move where the customer is headed. India has a market for both to grow,” Harit Nagpal, MD and CEO of Tata Play, told Business Today.

He said the company’s move to offer its services to non-DTH subscribers will widen its base to the entire pay TV universe of more than 120 million users. Binge allows customers to access 22 apps for Rs 249 per month and 27 apps for Rs 349 per month, which makes it one of the largest collections of apps on offer. From its DTH subscriber base it has already gained close to 1 million subscribers. 

India has a host of other OTT aggregation platforms like OTTplay and YuppTV Scope while telecom players like Reliance Jio and Airtel also offer aggregation services through their bundled packs. Even OTT platform like Amazon Prime Video has started streaming aggregated content from platforms like Discovery+, Lionsgate Play, DocuBay, Mubi and others. “It’s still early days for the industry and more competition will only grow the industry. There will be at least 4-5 players in this space for the industry to grow,” he says. 

While the company already has a hybrid Android box for those who want to switch from TV to OTT seamlessly but through their pure-play OTT aggregation platform, Tata Play is looking to cater to younger audiences, who Nagpal believes would start adopting in urban centres first and then trickle down to smaller towns and cities. 

“The OTT space will mimic the DTH adoption space. That’s the natural progression of the market. There is a lot of potential in the industry to grow. Today, paid OTT content is not being aggregated in a way that it convenient for other people. One can’t sit and wonder where to find a particular piece of content. In television, it was the cable operators and the DTH operators that provided access to channels. The same thing will happen here eventually,” he adds.

He adds that forging alliances with content producers is key in this business. “Another thing that is critical for us from a customer standpoint is making discovery easier. In just five seconds of switching on the device, one should start watching what they wanted to watch. If 500 million people are consuming content on OTT, only 10 per cent are watching paid content. Of that 5 per cent comes through aggregators,” he said. “It is difficult to keep track of so many subscriptions. That’s where we come in. We make it easy for consumers to subscribe and watch the content relevant to them,” he said.