OTT Recommendation Platform OTTplay forays into streaming, launches 5 OTT Subscription Packs in partnership with 12 Indian & International OTTs, launches 4 OTTs in India for the first time ever!

by Suman Gupta

After helping more than 5 million Indians navigate the complex landscape of OTT content with AI-based personalised recommendations every month, OTTplay is now making its foray into OTT content streaming, with the launch of OTTplay Premium- bundled subscription packs!

The 5 carefully curated subscription packs not only bring together popular OTT platforms like SonyLIV, ZEE5, LIONSGATE PLAY, Sun NXT, ShemarooMe, Curiosity Stream, ShortsTV, DocuBay, but they also make 4 international OTTs – Hallmark Movies Now, DUST, FUSE+ and Tastemade+ available in India to the Indian audience for the first time ever via OTTplay Premium Subscription Packs.

OTTplay Premium – Bundled OTT Subscription packs curated for different genre & language preferences

The 5 subscription packs – Jhakass (5 Hindi OTTs) Totally Sorted (8 English OTTs), Simbly South (4 OTTs focused on South Indian Languages), and Chota Pataka (Containing 5 assorted OTTs) start from just Rs. 50 per month paid annually and result in savings of anywhere between INR 3000 to INR 12500 per year when a user buys an OTTplay Premium subscription pack vs. buying these OTT subscriptions individually.

The viewing quality on the OTTplay Premium app is exactly the same as on the respective platforms, but, the overall experience and user journey is, super enhanced given the fact that users can now discover titles they love across multiple OTTs as well as get relevant content by OTTplay’s experienced editorial team in terms of OTT ratings, reviews, interviews of their favourite stars and latest OTT news, all in one platform.

The journey from “OTT Play se pucho to OTTplay pe Dekho”

OTTplay’s journey from starting off as a recommendation app that answers “What to watch?” and “Where to watch?” for the Indian viewers, to now solving for the problem of “How to watch” is nothing short of fascinating.

With this launch OTTplay levels up from being a content discovery engine that curates content from across 60+ Indian and international OTTs to a streaming platform that allows you to access your favourite content from 12 different OTT platforms through one single subscription.

In their recent launch event, OTTplay’s founder Avinash Mudaliar introduced OTTplay as a tech-first product that aims to resolve the OTT consumer’s pain points efficiently, “We specialise in curation, aggregation, recommendation and hence personalisation. With the launch of subscriptions on the OTTplay app, we now have a better understanding of our viewer’s preferences through not just their stated preferences, but also their actual

consumption patterns, and we are very excited to see the upgrade in the accuracy of our personalized OTT recommendations across platforms, genres and languages”, quoted Avinash.

Talking about the inspiration behind the creation of OTTplay’s Premium Subscriptions, he said, “Our aim is to enable consumers to spend time watching their favourite content, not searching for it; according to a recent Accenture report, close to 70% of Indian OTT consumers find the process of navigating different OTT apps “frustrating”, and that is the precise problem we had set out to solve with OTTplay.

Through our extensive user surveys, we discovered a strong need as well as intent to pay amongst consumers for bundled subscription that would enable them to directly stream content on the platform – thus providing a one-stop OTT destination. In the last one year, having earned the trust of millions of OTT fans in India and having positioned OTTplay as the #1 recommendation platform, it was only logical to transition into the aggregator space and democratise the experience of consuming streaming content. A common problem that many face today relates to acquiring subscriptions to multiple OTT platforms, the cost that comes with it, and tricky navigation between apps.

With OTTplay Premium Subscriptions, we want to provide a seamless experience where users can consume all the content they want to watch in one place. We are also immensely proud of the width and depth of the content, our 12 OTT partners bring to the table, across 10 Indian languages and a host of international languages, 18+ genres and 20,000+ shows.”

Fresh international content, in India for the first time ever!

Spanning a wide spectrum of genres, users will now be able to seek and discover the best and latest content according to their unique interests and tastes with the launch of 4 internationally-acclaimed OTTs for the first time in India by OTTplay. Leading the pack is the ultimate destination where love happens, Hallmark Movies Now, followed by DUST, the premium destination for the best sci-fi content, FUSE+, the melting pot of pop culture and people and Tastemade+, a platform to satiate your food, travel and design craving.

These four, along with LIONSGATE PLAY, Curiosity Stream, DocuBay and ShortsTV give OTTplay an international edge, making it a preferred destination for curious Indian cinephiles.

In terms of the width and depth of content, these international platforms come with a clear differentiation. With a rich legacy steeped in all-things romance, Hallmark is undoubtedly the reigning brand and symbol for love! FUSE+ celebrates talent, pop culture, artists, and creators who break boundaries through original stories.

With ideas that inspire and shows that entertain, Tastemade+ brings its viewers on a journey to upgrade their taste with its wide collection of curated and award-winning content around Food, Travel, and Design from around the world. Home to sci-fi blockbusters as well as premium scripted and unscripted series featuring time travel, aliens, and artificial intelligence from visionary filmmakers from around the globe, DUST, is the world’s premier destination for sci-fi.

After winning the hearts of millions of cinephiles across the globe, these newly launched OTTs are geared up to bowl over the Indian audience!

Our partnership with OTTplay is an exciting opportunity to expand our international footprint as we bring Hallmark Movies Now to India for the first time,” said Francisco Gonzales, SVP, international distribution. “Indian audiences now have a one-stop destination to access a curated mix of signature Hallmark content.”

OTT Aggregation – A win-win for all

Speaking about the partnership, Amit Dhanuka, EVP, LIONSGATE PLAY said “Our endeavour has been to ensure that viewers are provided with a curated line-up of content for the best viewing experience. Taking this forward, we are excited to partner with OTTplay to reach a large and diverse sector of consumers with a digitally-driven offering enabling consumers to spend more time watching than searching – this is in-line with our ethos of ‘play more, browse less’. We look forward to a successful partnership with the end user discovering the best of content.”

Talking about the partnership, a ZEE5 spokesperson said, “We are excited to be a part of this endeavour aimed at broadening the horizons of digital content consumption and improving online entertainment experiences for consumers. At ZEE5, we passionately believe in and have been democratising content for the country’s diverse entertainment seekers through innovative offerings with added value proposition. With this collaboration, we aim to strengthen our connect with the wider audience base and enable them to enjoy ZEE5’s extensive and diversified content library.”

At Curiosity, we know our audiences want to know more and our factual content and documentaries satisfy that need. We are very pleased to partner with OTTplay as they optimize valuable insights to superserve their consumer with the factual content they are searching for, providing for the ultimate customer experience,” said Mr. Bakori Davis, Managing Director and Head of International for Curiosity, Inc.

The platform works seamlessly across all operating systems and does not need any additional hardware to be installed, unlike a few existing aggregators. Users can explore OTTplay subscriptions on the OTTplay website as well as the iOS and Android apps