ISSN: 1550-7521
ISSN: 1550-7521
Naresh Kumar M* and Elangovan R
Assistant Professor and Head, Department of Visual Communication, Dhanraj Baid Jain College, Chennai-600097, India
Received: 24-Nov-2023; Manuscript No. gmj-23-121005; Editor assigned: 27-Nov- 2023; Preqc No. gmj-23-121005; Reviewed: 02-Dec-2023; QC No. gmj-23-121005; Revised: 14-Dec-2023; Manuscript No. gmj-23-121005 (R); Published: 20-Dec-2023, DOI: 10.36648/1550-7521.21.66.403
Citation: Naresh Kumar M, Elangovan R (2023) A Study on the Uses and Benefits of OTT Platforms amongst College Students in Chennai. Global Media Journal, 21:66.
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The arrival of Over-the-Top (OTT) platforms has enriched the entertainment industry with more viewers adopting this facility with much ease and popular support. Of late, there has been a sharp increase of OTT usage among college students. This research study attempts to find out the uses and benefits of OTT among college-going students in Chennai. A detailed online questionnaire was used to collect data from students. Netflix and Hotstar are more popular than other apps. Malayalam and Hindi films are found to be better in content and craft. Students prefer the subtitling option than the dubbed versions of the original. Majority think that Web series are more suited for OTT than films
OTT; Subtitling; Entertainment industry
Technological innovations and advancements have led to new media and their growth. From film, TV and social media, people have always lent their support and patronage to them when they arrived. Their primary functions are disseminating information, imparting education, and providing entertainment. Of late, entertainment has taken precedence over other functions. Among the traditional media, film and TV have found special mention in the minds of audiences due to their audiovisual elements. This viewing experience of people has dramatically changed over the years with the arrival of every new technology.
With the invention of mobile technology and cellular networks, the latest being 5G technology, the audiovisual media of film and TV have shrunk into tablets and Android TV screens. Consequently, the avenue of watching films in the tablets and Android TV became possible thus making people avoid the theatres.
Over-the-top platforms, popularly known as OTT platforms, have been the latest media innovations that technology has contributed. Like any other medium, OTT has its own merits and demerits. It is another version of home theatre facility with additional benefits of viewing other programmes besides movies. OTT provides convenience, variety and cost-effective options.
Tripti Kumari (2020) found that the emergence of OTT platforms has affected the television and movie-watching habits of the majority of users in her research study. It is an emerging pattern that suggests OTT has really affected the watching of films in a different way. This is applicable to all viewers including collegegoing students.
In the case of the youth population, the use of OTT Platforms has become an addictive habit. The majority of OTT users are aged between 18-24 years old and looking for interesting content and hence OTT platforms target people of this age group to gain momentum [1].
While the traditional media verticals reported a negative growth over the previous year, digital subscriptions grew by 49 percent and online gaming grew by 18 percent over the last year. In addition, 29 million subscribers paid for 53 million OTT video subscriptions, the MICA Ahmedabad report stated.
The growing use of OTT Platforms has impacted the conventional way of watching films in theatres. Chhajer A [2] opines that the OTT must have gotten the limelight due to COVID-19, but there have been other reasons such as increasing demand for highquality videos and affordable subscriptions to OTT platforms that have made it inseparable from its customers. Watching movies and other content, especially media, became very popular during Covid-19 pandemic as people were housebound.
The trend of people viewing multiple content channels at the same time, along with demand for new and exclusive content is forcing the big production houses and directors to release movies directly onto the OTT channels rather than Cinema halls [3].
Due to the competitive challenge from the corporate giants, the smaller local theatres face extinction. Gangal A [4] reinforces this in her study stating that Bigger chains like PVR, INOX and big cinemas might win the trust, but it is going to be a big challenge for the smaller chains and local cinemas / single screens.
Primary streaming services like Amazon Prime and Netflix are investing more on producing content besides Hindi and English, in eight major Indian languages [5].
The college students use OTT platforms for a number of reasons. Varghese S [6] mentions a few reasons being smartphone penetration, cost effectiveness, convenience of service, personal medium and availability of international content which influences the decision making of young people.
Ganuza and Viecens [7] says that with OTT, the content creators can interact with their audience directly through a web page or Smartphone app. In streaming service, the viewer has the facility of consuming the movie and visual content in their place and time as they wish. Out of five Smartphone owners in India, at least four people watch content in at least one OTT app [8].
The originality of content also plays a role for a person to go in for OTT. 85% of the surveyed audience stated that they watch more original content in OTT platforms [9].
Coming to the Indian streaming market, it will collectively account for 46% of the overall growth in the Indian entertainment and media industry from 2017 to 2022 says a PwC India, [10] report. Today, there are over 42 crore viewers, with 12 crore active paid OTT subscriptions.
Dasgupta & Grover [11] in their study found out that the four major factors that affect consumer adaptation towards different platforms are convenience, mobility, content and cost.
Devadas Menon, [12] in his study on purchase and continuation intentions of OTT video streaming platform subscriptions found that the reasons for people changing from television to OTT are convenient navigability and entertainment.
Dr. Ranjan Kantha, [13] made a study on the perception of people of Bhubaneswar city towards OTT applications. The study is to understand the viewing contents of teenage people and the changes of youth towards television to movie platforms. It was observed that the future of high performance is bright in India and the reasons for this performance are the penetration of smartphone, cooperation between media, and digital quality of the medium.
Baccarne B, Evens, T. & Schuurman D [14] mentionedthe loss of monopoly of traditional television due to the introduction of digitalization and the addition of a greater number of screens in our life. In their research, they identified various factors like price, video quality, ease of use, personalized channel offerings, interactivity, flexibility, etc. contributing to the success of OTT TV.
They also found out that there is a growing trend towards content consumption by the country’s youth towards over-the-top (OTT) video streaming services such as Amazon Prime, Sony Liv, Hot star, Netflix, and Mxplayer.
Begum (2018) reports quoting another study by IHS Markit that 76% of those surveyed gave their opinion that availability of localized content was a critical factor in choosing a streaming service while 74% opted for the quality of dubbing and subtitles of international content.
The main objective of this study is to find out the uses and benefits of OTT Platforms in Chennai among college-going students. This research study also attempts to find out the different aspects of OTT usage and the preferred features on OTT apps. The findings from the data may help in gaining new insights into this new technology and a deeper understanding of OTT platforms and its usage among college students.
A quantitative research study was done among 320collegegoing students in the age group of 17 to 21 years in Chennai city. Respondents were chosen from four clusters namely South Chennai, Central Chennai, North Chennai, and suburban Chennai. An online questionnaire containing 12 questions about various aspects of OTT usage such as frequency of usage, choice of devices, attractive features of OTT apps, and content preference etc. was distributed among the college students. It had mostly close-ended questions. The cluster sampling technique was used for collecting data. A pilot study involving 5% of the samples was done before the actual data collection.
Data analysis and interpretation
The usage of OTT platforms among college students of many cities in India is becoming increasingly popular. Chennai, a popular cosmopolitan city, is swiftly adopting this new media and entertainment technology.
Nearly half of the college students are in the age group of 17-20, followed by 23.1% in the age group of 21-26. It was observed that Tamil was the mother tongue of most of the students (87.2%).
Figure 1 refers to the frequency of usage on OTT Platforms by the users. Half of the users watch some content or the other on OTT platforms daily. About 31.6% watch only when their favourite content is being streamed. Only 13.8% watch weekly twice.
Figure 1: Frequency of OTT usage.
The Smartphone seems to be the popular device for watching OTT content (51.6%) followed by TV (30.6%), Laptop (17.8%) and TAB (17.8%) as shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2: Device for viewing OTT.
Figure 2 As many as 82.8% of the students watch other language programmes besides Tamil, whereas 17.2% watch only Tamil films. Language doesn’t seem to be a barrier when it comes to watching films. Subtitle feature could be one of the reasons for this. Though the majority of students are Tamils they are open to watching other language films.
Malayalam films are found to be much better in terms of content and craft by 44.1%, followed by Hindi (24.1%). Tamil and Telugu are rated very low (Figure 3). This finding reinforces the receptiveness of the most of the students to other language films. They seem to like and appreciate Malayalam and Hindi more than the Tamil films. OTT has given an opportunity to watch these films and has provided them with an exposure to other regional Indian language films. After the emergence of OTT platforms film industries based on the regional languages of India have become popular around the world [15].
Figure 3: Most consumed regional language films in OTT.
The most watched content is Tamil films (46.3%), followed by Web series (35%) and other language films (16.9%). Web series are also increasingly becoming popular among college students (Figure 4).
Figure 4: Content Consumption.
According to Figure 5, two-thirds of college students seem to prefer watching film with English subtitles, followed by dubbed versions of the original (20.6%). Very few students watch films without subtitles. A meagre 2.5% watch films with regional language subtitles. About 75% of respondents stated the availability of localized content, quality of dubbing, and subtitles of international content as the critical decision-making factors in choosing a streaming service [16].
Figure 5: Special features on OTT.
When it comes to the popularity of OTT platforms, Netflix seems to be the first choice (38.4%), closely followed by DisneyHotstar (35.3%) and Amazon Prime (23.5%). Netflix and DisneyHotstar seem to have the latest and larger collection of films and Web series, as represented in Figure 6.
Figure 6: Popular OTT platform.
Regarding attractive and convenient features for usage, 41.3% prefer Subtitle options, closely followed by dubbed versions in another language (40.3%). Time convenience, Pausing and resuming and watching movies in privacy are preferred by 28.7%,31.6% and 23.4% respectively. The original language allows the emotions to come through fully and the students seem to like to experience the natural sound of the language. College students prefer to read subtitles, especially English over dubbed versions.
Another aspect of using the streaming services by the youth for their own convenience is the time when they are alone. They prefer watching their movies and series when they are alone in their comfort zone at their own convenience, according to Mrinal Chatterjee [17].
Watching films in theatre seems to be the main preference of 43.1%. About 33.8% students prefer to watch depending upon the content and about 23.1% prefer watching in OTT. Theatre viewing experience is preferred because of better quality, sound, larger image and community viewing experience. If there is a combination of data packages and internet access, people will surely go in for selecting OTT platform over movie theatre. It is a direct influence says Paramveer Singh [18].
When it comes to choosing films to watch on OTT, the most influencing factor is peer suggestion (39.1%), followed by review (27.2%), and social media promotion (25.6%). Only 8.1% of the respondents go by suggestion pop-ups on the screen.
About two-thirds think that Web series are more suited for OTT than films. About 22.7% think that OTT are suitable for film as well as web series. Generally, web series are low-budget and their production values may not be as great as a typical film. The big screen is more suited for action, sci-fi, films, and content that needs a larger-than-life presentation.
Regarding the sharing of OTT credentials with friends/relatives, about 73.4% say that they share and the rest 26.6% don’t share.
Key findings
Most of the college-going students in the age group 17 to 26 years, whose mother tongue is Tamil, watch other language programs on OTT platforms. Half of the users watch some content or the other on OTT platforms on a daily basis. Smartphones seem to be the popular device for watching OTT content. Malayalam and Hindi films are watched more than Tamil films as they are found to be better and more interesting in terms of content and craft.
Netflix and Disney Hotstar are more popular with college students than other OTT streaming platforms. Feature films and Web series are the most watched content on OTT. Two-thirds of college students prefer watching films with English subtitles followed by dubbed versions of the original and this feature is one of the most attractive and convenient features for them besides pausing and resuming and watching in privacy. Watching films in the theatre is preferred. Students tend to get influenced more by peer suggestions and recommendations than by movie reviews and social media promotions when it comes to selecting films. Majority think that Web series are more suited for OTT than films. Most of them share their OTT credentials with friends and relatives.
Suggestions and limitations for future research
Since the study is about the uses and benefits of OTT Platforms among college-going students in the 17-26 age group the findings and the results may not hold true for other age groups. The study area is limited to four parts of Chennai and it may not be wholly representative of the city. Moreover, the results may not be accurate as the sample size is limited to 320. The research focused on only some important aspects of the uses and benefits of the OTT platform. There is immense scope for doing research on the impact of OTT on different types of audiences. The role of OTT could also be studied in the field of education besides entertainment.
There has been an exponential increase in the OTT viewership recently. It has already broken the language barriers because of its diverse content leading to cultural communication among viewers. In this rapidly growing field, many new features and innovations are likely to develop which will definitely lead to more beneficial and effective use of the OTT. The uniqueness of this platform, the smart gadgets and the apps make it possible to experience OTT along with opening numerous possibilities and opportunities in the entertainment industry for developing original content and new genres.
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