BY ROBIN GHOSH
(ECONOMIST, ASSOCIATED WITH TV AND ENTERTAINMENT SECTOR IN INDIA FOR LAST 30 YEARS)
KOLKATA, 11 MAY 2023:
Yes, it is!
How and Why?
Let us go step by step.
1. First, read this data to understand the media landscape:
a. India has more than 837 million internet users.
b. 800 million use broadband.
c. 600 million use smart phone
DD Freedish, a free, state controlled DT H operator reaches 58 million homes or about 270 million people.
e .YouTube reaches 462 million people every month.
f. YouTube is watched by 90% of all who use the internet for news, entertainment or information.
Now, two significant shifts have occurred.
1. Smartphone is being used as TV
2. Smart TV owners watch YouTube as a default option as an alternative to TV or OTT channels.
Implicitly, the lines between devices, content consumption, and even content creation are getting evaporated or getting removed.
Now, note the observations made by Ishan Chatterjee, MD, YouTube India
“On YouTube, we are seeing the lines between consumer of a video and creator blurring today.
Everyone is a creator and that’s leading to the explosion of hyper- local communities and new content genres”
Pushparani Sarkar, an eighty year old grandmother from West Bengal, shares her recipe videos on YouTube and is preserving the food tradition and culture of the region.
Consumers = Creaters.