‘Our content is provocative and edgy, we are not trying to serve the entire family’

The overall global strategy is to have premium adult and edgy service that has big originals supported by big movies and locally by local productions with stories that can play globally.

By Reya Mehrotra

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The newest OTT platform in town is Lionsgate Play and it’s already seen a successful year of operation in the country. As Lionsgate Play’s first Indian original Hiccups and Hookups starring Lara Dutta and Prateik Babbar and directed by Kunal Kohli has just released, we speak to Jeffrey A Hirsch, president and CEO of Starz, a Lionsgate company, and Rohit Jain, managing director for Lionsgate South Asia and networks-emerging markets Asia, about the refreshing storyline of their debut originals, their expansion plans, their attractive pricing and more.

The OTT app of Starz is known as Lionsgate Play in India and other South Asian countries but in other parts of the world it is known as Starz Play. Was that a conscious strategy as we already have a strong network of Star channels here?

Jeffrey A Hirsch: We looked at the marketplace and saw the appeal of Lionsgate brand and Lionsgate movies coupled with it being a crowded market with Star network in the marketplace. So, we decided that for consumer awareness and for strength of the brand, we’ll go with Lionsgate Play.

You launched in India in December 2020. How do you define the Indian market for OTT platforms, both new and existing?

Rohit Jain: It’s been a great one year for us. We launched a year ago. We still find India in very early stages of growth. As far as streaming is concerned, we are roughly about a three-year-old industry. For the size of our population and for the number of people using either mobile Internet or broadband, the opportunity is phenomenal. We do think there’s tremendous room for more premium networks to come in. Within a year, our audience is almost in 1,000-plus cities in India which is something that has taken us by surprise. In the traditional theatrical world, one typically fails to reach that level of depth and streaming is allowing us to do that and we are seeing fantastic growth. But there are many years of growth ahead of us as far as the number of platforms and audience size is concerned.

The timing of the launch of Lionsgate Play in India coincided with the pandemic. It was a time when OTT was witnessing a boom and everyone was turning to OTT, movies were being released on OTT networks. So, was the launch timing a strategic move or was it being planned for a long time?

Rohit Jain: We launched B2B in the market two years ago. I certainly think Covid-19 has fast forwarded the entire digital evolution, whether it is streaming, edtech or e-commerce. You pick up any segment and the digital world in general has got fast forwarded. It pushed us to start thinking a little more aggressively about the region; so, we certainly fast forwarded our plans. If you look at the kind of originals we are doing, the investments we are making in content, the fact that in this year we have premiered more than 50 titles—series and movies put together, so I think the last two-three years have seen fast forwarding of the digital world that has happened because of unfortunate reasons but it has fast tracked a lot of business plans in general for the entertainment industry by many years.

So, if not for the pandemic, would you have waited for a few months more to launch in India?

Jeffrey A Hirsch: I don’t think we would have waited more. I think we probably would have more originals on air at this point. We were very excited about the opportunity in south Asia and specifically in India. We got a great management team on ground there and, if not for the pandemic, we would have got two to three originals by now.

In terms of investment and content, what’s the strategy for India specifically and for other south Asian countries?

Jeffrey A Hirsch: The overall global strategy is to have premium adult and edgy service that has big originals supported by big movies and locally by local productions with stories that can play globally. We got Indian original productions that we can bring to the US or Europe. The idea is to have big global originals supported by movies, but local stories that could play globally as well.

How are you planning to expand across Asia?

Rohit Jain: Expansion is happening across every dimension if you look at just our footprint on geographies. We have in last 12 months launched in eight markets in this part of the world already. The Philippines goes live in the next quarter so that takes us to nine. So, my guess is that by the end of next year we’ll be in 12-15 countries. We are rolling out aggressively. Same with partners. We’re great fans of working with partners that make the reach and access of consumers easier and relevant. So, in a very short span we have probably eight to 10 big partners in the region and same with content. I spoke about just the number of premieres we have done. One thing that streaming has allowed is to break the barriers of geography, language, and culture. Suddenly everyone in India is watching French and Korean content and the same is throughout the world. We have phenomenal originals coming out of what we are doing in the UK, Spain and eight to 10 originals here. When you look in totality, between 50 and 60 Hollywood global premieres and eight to 10 local high production value become a substantial offering for consumers matched by very few premium networks in this part of the world.

It’s been a year of functioning in India. Do you think the response has matched your expectations?

Jeffrey A Hirsch: From the global corporate perspective, it is exceeding our expectations. Rohit’s team has done a phenomenal job in a tough environment launching big titles, launching markets, partners, originals. We couldn’t have been happier with the progress in that part of the world.

How have you strategised the ratio of Indian and western content?

Rohit Jain: The positioning of our platform globally is rather unique compared to some large streamers as a lot of them are becoming family network or in a traditional sense, large broadcasters because they cater to every age group and that’s the way their content lineup is built up. We are worldwide very targeted, razorsharp in terms of reaching out to young and mature adult audiences. In the last one year, 70% of our audience has been between 20 and 35 years. So, we are a lot about contemporary urban global content. That coupled with the amount of investment that Jeff allows us at a global level, it becomes a sizeable content offering and people are watching content in every language today. We have a 70-30 or 65-35 split between global and local content. Language is less of a split, what is more important is the premium content which is subscription led. There’s a certain identity we have created all over the world. We have 30 million-plus subscribers worldwide and it has a certain scale and size not matched by many.

Jeffrey A Hirsch: We got big originals like Shining Vale starring Courtney Cox, Gaslit starring Julia Roberts, Becoming Elizabeth and more coupled with the show here, Hiccups and Hookups, which is a casual take on relationships and has universal themes. We have taken consistent storylines and based them in parts of the world and the audience from any part of the world can enjoy it. We are very well positioned with our content.

What are your upcoming tie-ups with Hollywood studios and franchises to look forward to?

Jeffrey A Hirsch: The first and biggest is The Continental, which is a prequel to the John Wick story coming on Starz by Lionsgate Television. It is a look at the hotel in the franchise set in 1975 New York city. It is a phenomenal kind of three-night special event series. We have ties with almost every studio in Hollywood, be it Warner or NBC or Universal or 3 Arts Entertainment that is a part of Lionsgate. We are in bed with almost every Hollywood studio, with big stars in India, Indonesia or Japan, South Korea, or the US. We look for the best of the best.

What are your plans for collaborating with Indian directors and production houses?

Rohit Jain: The first original comes out in three days, and we have the best of talents working with us. Hiccups and Hookups is by Kunal Kohli and that speaks about the kind of brand and content we want to do. In a country of cultural diversity, we hardly have any content around siblings. We know one song which is 50 years old, so this is great. Our second series comes out in March by director Akarsh Khurana. He has done great content previously and we have a great lineup. If not for Covid delays, we would have had more this year, but next year for sure.

Are we likely to see any original movies?

Rohit Jain: We are contemplating on that. Series gets us the highest consumption and viewership. In the last one year, the average viewership has been 90 minutes per day, which I think is among the best in the class—thanks to the binge-viewing population.

Hiccups and Hookups is your first original series and has a refreshing storyline on brother-sister relationship. Can we look forward to more such refreshing content and takes on relationships?

Rohit Jain: With every series, we attempt to do something very fresh. The first original is provocative and edgy. The intent is to do something not done before and build premium content for a certain age group of audience and global stories. The audience in Delhi, Mumbai, Pune today is as global as the London folks, so there is no reason for not doing it. The idea is to do different genres, something fresh and positive.

What about expanding to regional content in different languages?

Rohit Jain: Not immediately. The way we are approaching regional content is slightly different. We are not focusing on regional originals in the near future. We are only one year old and happy with our journey. Most streamers did two-three originals in their first two years, so we are happy with our progress, but we have Hollywood content dubbed into regional language and Hiccups and Hookups goes live in five languages. There’s tremendous consumption of premium content in local language to cater to the regional market.

In September this year, Amazon had announced partnering with eight streaming services and Lionsgate was one of them. What are the other partnerships with Amazon and other OTT platforms?

Jeffrey A HirscH: As a wholesale business, our content is provocative and edgy and not as broad, and we are not trying to serve the entire family. So, we are viewed as an additional or complimentary service to those big broad services. Our view is that we should be partners with all of them whether it is Amazon or Apple or Google or as local partners across India. So, you will continue to see us doing more and more deals wherever we can be viewed.

Any upcoming partnerships as of now in India?

Rohit Jain: Not at this point. Apple and Amazon are the primary ones as of now but we are open to anything that leads to convenience of consumers—as a combination of allied services. Our large part of partnerships is with telcos as data and video are directly related.

Several OTT platforms have emerged in India in the last two years with Amazon Prime Video, Netflix and Disney Hotstar being some of the prominent players. Do you see the Indian market becoming competitive in terms of OTT business and how do you plan to establish your hold?

Rohit Jain: The Indian market is competitive. It is one of the most open markets globally. But there is a bias in assuming winners in a market of this size. We are forecasting that by 2025 we would have surpassed television; they will be a large market for large streamers but in a market of this size we are trying to target the young and adult audience base and our content and ambitions in proportion with that. Some global streamers want to target 300-400 plus million subscribers but for us it’s 75-100 million subscribers. So, it depends on how you are looking at the market and what you are targeting. At this point, we make 75-100 shows a year, and 15-20 premium content for a market of this size. That is just scratching the surface. So, in that space, there’s a lot of room for players like us to come.

Jeffrey A Hirsch: If you look at our price, it makes us a compelling add-on to those broadband services.

Your annual subscription costs only Rs 499 in India. Is the attractive pricing a strategy to draw consumers?

Rohit Jain: For four to five years from now, it is about growth for us and building viewing habits in people. In the last 12-18 months itself, the market size in India has gone up from 15 to 50 million. So, at this point, we are seeing the next two to three years as an investment phase to build consumer habits to reach out to a wider audience and ensure Hollywood and originals content is being watched by more and more cities. In the last one year, streaming services have taken prices down to make it easier for consumers to lap up this service. At this point, the common goal is to take the 50 million market to 200 million market.

How do you define the taste of Indian viewers?

Rohit Jain: Indians lap up action thrillers while in other parts of Southeast, Indonesians love romance, the Philippines love the horror and comedy genre. But if there is good premium content, people are lapping it up irrespective of language and genre. In the last one year, I have watched content across seven to eight languages. I haven’t seen content in those many languages in my entire life. So, there cannot be a better time to be a consumer. The latent demand was untapped so far.