Bengali OTT Platform hoichoi Sees 40% Rise In Direct Subscriptions, Partners JioCinema

Bengali OTT platform hoichoi said it has seen a 40% year-on-year increase in direct subscriptions and a 60% rise in individual watch-time per subscriber. 

Besides West Bengal, the OTT platform is also undertaking six productions in Bangladesh to cater to the Bengali-speaking population of the country. Hoichoi is also eyeing the Bengali diaspora in the Middle East through to expand its user base through partnerships with telecom operators and offline marketing, Mint reported

“The lockdown was a great boost to OTT viewership, in general, but things haven’t really slowed down for us thereafter. We believe in offering a value proposition and not underpricing ourselves. We’re completely focused on the paid customer base that we target,” hoichoi cofounder Vishnu Mohta told the publication in an interview.

He said the company has been focusing on healthy output and investing in a number of shows. 

To further expand its reach, hoichoi is looking to sign content syndication deals with various other platforms for regional distribution of its content. As part of this, the OTT platform recently partnered with JioCinema to offer Hindi dubbed versions of its shows and films to a wider audience.

Going ahead, hoichoi will focus on exploring opportunities to make its content available in South Indian languages such as Tamil, Telugu, and Malayalam this year. Some of its original shows like Indu and Taqdeer have already been taken up by other platforms for remake in other regional languages, the report said.

hoichoi is also setting up ‘hoichoi Studios’. Its productions will be released exclusively on the platform as against the productions of its parent company, SVF Entertainment, which are released on other satellite and digital platforms after their theatre release.

Mohta also claimed that hoichoi is “marginally profitable”. It must be noted that the platform reported an operating revenue of INR 47.99 Cr in FY22 as against INR 36.53 Cr in the previous fiscal year. Net loss rose to INR 1.49 Cr from INR 90.79 Lakh in FY21.

In the Bengali content space, hoichoi competes with  Addatimes and KLiKK. However, with its aggressive growth plans, the platform is also in competition with the likes of Disney+ Hotstar, JioCinema, Netflix, and Amazon Prime Video. 

The competition in the OTT space has intensified more since the pandemic. With over 450 Mn internet users being engaged in video content streaming activities, companies and production houses in the OTT space are striving to grab the emerging market. 

Recently, Netflix forged a multi-year creative partnership deal with Indian movie production giant Yash Raj Films (YRF), while JioCinema has signed a multi-year partnership with NBCUniversal (NBCU) and Warner Bros. Discovery.

Amid increasing competition, JioCinema and Disney+ Hotstar are also streaming premium cricket content for free.