Prasar Bharati to Launch Family-Friendly OTT Platform by August

May 15, 2024

The Indian government-run broadcaster Prasar Bharati wants to start its own over-the-top (OTT) streaming service by August. The service will offer material that shows Indian culture and society while still being family-friendly. This project is a direct reaction to what people think are content problems on private OTT services like Netflix and Hotstar.

Recent Context and Government Intervention

The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government, has added the OTT platform to its 100-day plan, but only if it wins a third term in a row. People have called the entertainment on private OTT platforms “vulgar” and “abusive,” and the decision shows that the government is worried about it. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting shut down 18 OTT platforms in March under the Information Technology Act, 2000, because they showed “vulgar and obscene” material. A parliamentary panel talked about the need to regulate material on platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime in May 2023, which brought the issue under even more scrutiny.

What are the Initial Offerings and Future Plans?

Prasar Bharati wants to get people to use its OTT platform, so it plans to give away its material for free for the first year or two.
By taking away the cost barrier for new subscribers, this approach aims to quickly build a large base of initial users.
The free access time is also meant to get useful feedback from users, which will be very helpful for making the platform better.
After the first week of being free, Prasar Bharati may start charging based on what they learn from user comments and how well the platform works.
What the final pricing model is likely to be will depend on how engaged users are, how valuable users think the content is, and a study of the competitive market.
This staged method lets the platform grow in a way that is sustainable. The feedback and new users will help make the service more useful and maybe even profitable in the future.

Content Collaboration and Development

Prasar Bharati has worked with well-known content makers like the Sri Adhikari Brothers, Vipul Shah (producer and director), and Kabir Bedi (actor). The goal of these agreements is to make sure that high-quality programs that teach about other cultures are made. In September 2023, Prasar Bharati also put out a draft contract that explained how the OTT platform should be built, run, and maintained.

More About Prasar Bharti OTT platform

Prasar Bharati, India’s public service broadcaster, started DD Retro, an over-the-top (OTT) service that offers old shows from Doordarshan’s archives. The goal of the platform is to provide famous shows from the 1980s and 1990s, especially for people who like old Indian TV shows. There are well-known shows on it, like “Ramayan” and “Malgudi Days.” As part of Prasar Bharati’s plans to digitize and preserve its huge amount of broadcasting material so that it can be accessed by people around the world who know how to use the internet, this project was created.

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