Arrival of Netflix in India: Good or Bad? Case study by Nayantara Dasgupta

Change in the TV Landscape

Netflix is one of largest on-demand content streaming company in the world with

around 62 million subscribers out of which more than 40 million are in the US.

A great bunch of online streaming cosmopolitan Indians may just have a reason to

rejoice, because the popular video on demand streaming service called ‘Netflix’

plans to step its game and venture into the Indian market. With 4G services

arriving in India increasingly and players like Reliance Jio and Airtel scaling their

spectrums hugely, the entry of Netflix could not have had a sweeter arrival.

Good news for Indian TV addicts?

Coming back to the point, Netflix is said to be the God in providing online

streaming services. To most of the viewers, gone are the days of trying to

download films and TV soaps, which would most often take ages, considering the

speed and efficiency of Indian internet service providers. One can now plainly

stream content online on Netflix. Moreover, the wide array of content on Netflix

has already made it a popular site globally and hence now Indians have a wide

variety of content to choose from!

Every night will be a movie night

India is known for its diverse culture. People with different cultures have

different tastes. However, one thing is common; they enjoy watching Indian

shows. Many regional channels are available on TV easily and people don’t want

to miss their favorite shows. This doesn’t mean that Netflix can’t provide such

shows rather the provider has vast library of diverse shows and movies. In

addition to these channels, Netflix also provide critical acclaimed shows and

international TV channels. But the problem is majority of people like to watch a

popular show rather than experimenting something new. So, this is another main

problem Netflix suffering from and with the fear that whether it would get proper

returns or not.

Hassle free movie nights may just be around the corner!

This may also mean that more and more Indians may just be getting increasingly

addicted to international television. While this is a great way of increasing our

aptitude towards global art and culture, Netflix coming to India can in the long

run turn out to be a cause of great controversy and debate.

It will lead to a decline in their regular share of revenue, which has already been

dwindling ever since internet downloads and pirated content started doing great

business. So the big picture projects the advent and settling in of Netflix in India

as not a smooth one, rather it seems fraught with opposition and protests.

Survival of the fittest

Zooming out of the big picture issues and zooming in to the particulars of the

process, Netflix still stands on shaky grounds. Netflix will not be the first service

to provide streaming of movies and TV shows in India, as players like Star TV’s

Hotstar, Pritish Nandy-backed Ogle and Spuul to name a few are already gaining

a huge amount of traction in the sector.

Viacom18, propelled their pristine English GEC channel Colors Infinity in stan-

dard definition and high definition.Colors Infinity is attempting to address Indian

audiences that want to keep up with the seasons being watched on the US televi-

sion.Their objective has been to broaden the English viewing category and reach

out to a much wider audience through inclusive campaigns that will give Colors

Infinity maximum visibility and reach. This is a direct threat to the sustenance of

Netflix where the viewer needs to pay for their content. This is where the wide

range of content which Netflix has to offer, comes into play.

Firstly, Indian masses being highly diversified have a wide range of tastes, and all

of them may just not be catered to, by the content that Netflix has to offer.

Secondly, we are all well aware of the internet speed and services in India, and a

heavily loaded site such as Netflix may face tough roads in adapting and estab-

lishing presence because of the slow internet which eventually makes most of us

get frustrated with online streaming.

Also, India having a major piracy market may just make licensing and copyright a

major problem for Netflix leading to major legal debacles.

Hence, while many will be jeering at the advent of Netflix in India, the real reper-

cussions will be known only once the process actually gets completed. Until then

the debate rages on!

Nayantara Dasguptanayantara.dg@gmail.com