Kolkata, Sep 25: OTT has emerged as the main content viewing option in this pandemic.

As an OTT platform, hoichoi always eyes a larger Bengali viewer base worldwide and that makes it the most preferred Bengali content streaming destination globally.

UNI had an exclusive interaction with hoichoi co-founder Vishnu Mohta where he shares his observations on the changing scenario of content watching during the pandemic.

Here are the excerpts:

Q. Pandemic has slammed every sector badly. How do you and your team cope up with the pandemic?

Vishnu: It was a difficult phase for all of us. The first lockdown came with an absolutely new set of norms, the team had their systems set up in their home, and everyone coordinated over internal software. Along with work from home, we also began shooting from home. This process of shooting from home was a bit time consuming so, to make up for it, we released 7 World Digital Premieres from India and Bangladesh. We also started getting back on track as from May onwards we started releasing 1 shows every month.

Before the second lockdown, however, we kept ourselves prepared as before it we begin completing most of our shoots, maintaining all the safety protocols, that were in the pipeline, so that we stay committed to our promise of delivering two shows and a film every month.

Q. How challenging it was to add content continuously during the pandemic?

Vishnu: It was very challenging during the first lockdown, to conduct a shoot from home. As to produce an output that matches the quality that was produced during a normal phase and make it equally interesting for the audience was a new task we were undertaking. To keep the flow going, we started shooting from home as well, the directors started directing over the phone and the actors would shoot it themselves and send it back to the directors. After the shot got approved, the whole footage used to be sent to the editors for packaging and we would edit it. After the second lockdown, although things started to look better, challenges were still there as for shoot there was still a lot of precautions and restrictions.

However, even though the production process was very challenging but the way our audience have given us an overwhelming response during the pandemic. We saw a 4X growth in traffic on the hoichoi platform along with witnessing 60 mins of average daily watch-time among subscribers, on average each user visiting the platform thrice every day.

Q. hoichoi is eyeing international expansion. What are you keeping in mind while you have decided the countries to expand?

Vishnu: We are focusing on collaborations with the biggest creators and partners for creating content and distributing the platform among a diverse audience base. This year, hoichoi plans to deepen its presence among the large Bengali population residing in the South-Asian Countries like Malaysia and Singapore. hoichoi looks to partner with key telecom operators in the South-Asian Markets. Even in the Middle East, hoichoi plans to strengthen its grip as the OTT platform plans to take a similar approach and comes together with the key telecom players in the Middle East by the end of December, to cater to the existing Bengali diaspora in the region.

With the motive to escalate customer acquisition level, hoichoi plans to launch digital gift cards this Puja across many countries like the US, UK, Australia, Singapore and the middle East that will offer Special pricing plans to enable people to gift their loved ones a subscription to hoichoi to consume the best in Bengali entertainment.

Q. Bangladesh has emerged as one of the most important countries for Bengali OTT content. How much growth have you seen in subscriptions after expanding to Bangladesh?

Vishnu: We will be ever grateful to the audience of Bangladesh for the kind of love that they have showered upon us. All thanks to the Bangladesh audience our monthly Subscriptions have doubled each month within a year. Collaborating with local creators and talents from Bangladesh have been a pleasure; they present phenomenal content for the platform that narrates story now not only from and of the people of Dhaka but also from the other parts of the country.

Q. In your opinion, what is the emerging trend of content watching? What do you believe should be the USP of content to rule the OTT platform?

Vishnu: This is a challenging question to address as I feel our audience base is quite diversified. We have people of different age groups and demographics. Like if you ask me, then before ‘Tansener Tanpura’ our audience base was mostly consisted of people from the age bracket of 18 to 35 years. But after its release in July 2020, that norm was broken and we got a lot of subscribers and viewers who were above 45. Therefore, this shows that it is always evolving and that the digital industry is never nascent.

Q. How much market share do you have on a Pan-India and global basis, just keeping Bengali OTT platforms in mind?

Vishnu: We have been fortunate enough to become the Bengali entertainment destination of choice for most Bengalis Worldwide. Basis the kind of love we receive from our users in India and Bangladesh and also globally, especially from countries like the US, UK, Australia, Canada, Switzerland and even places like Japan, Iceland we believe we are doing fairly well in reaching out to most Bengalis worldwide and being the top of the mind recall for people who want to watch quality Bengali content.

Q. Will you please confirm your year-on-year growth, specifically during pandemics?

Vishnu: hoichoi continues to grow at over 60 per cent year on year while doubling down on its users from India, Bangladesh and other International Countries and Viewership has grown 4X during the last year.

Q. What’s your take on the ongoing debate of implementing censorship to the digital medium?

Vishnu: No comments here.(UNI)