CAN YOUTUBE WIN THE LONG-FORM RACE?

Many disgruntled producers see an urgent need for an alternative to OTTs

- Lata Jha

Gunjan Soni, country managing director of YouTube India said the platform is seeing healthy interest from both standalone creators and organized studios to launch content.

This August, the head of a Mumbai-based boutique content studio found himself in a bit of a pickle. A show he and his team had been developing for nearly eight months for a top streaming platform had been axed as part of a broader content overhaul. The OTT executives had offered no explanation other than to say that the series no longer fit into their India strategy.

But the studio head knew better; only days earlier, the streaming service, known for deals with top Bollywood studios, had inked a multi-film partnership with a film production house, allowing it to screen all of the latter's upcoming titles as part of their post-theatrical release. Industry experts pegged the deal size at close to ₹500 crore.

"There is no math to what they do, they end up picking the most random films for obscene amounts and pay disproportionately high sums to a few studios. Obviously they would have no budgets left for smaller or mid-scale high-quality content," the executive told Mint, on condition of anonymity.

As video-streaming platforms go slow on green-lighting web originals and acquiring films post-theatrical release, the ones largely bearing the brunt are small and mid-budget companies and regional filmmakers—bigger studios with clout are still managing to strike lucrative deals.

Further, even a theatrical release is not a viable option for many small projects. Industry experts point out that films made with production budgets of ₹6-8 crore have to still spend an equal amount on promotion to gain mindshare among audiences for a theatrical release. That is impossible for many.