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Issue link: https://digital.macdirectory.com/i/1299064
India’s video subscription market is projected to reach 500M by 2023, surpassing the US market and making it second only to China. Thanks to owning India’s Hotstar, Disney + instantly became India’s largest streaming service with more than 1M hours of drama and movies in 17 languages and coverage of every major genre including live cricket and soccer. More than 300M mobile viewing subscribers have access to all Hotstar and Disney + content as well as HBO, Fox, Showtime and the latest Hindi and regional movies … a helluva’ deal. The growing use of the country’s digital infrastructure and an enhanced Internet are rapidly making India a major target for the OTT industry. While lots of producers (and every exhibition owner) are hungry for content to throw on their screens, we’re more in tune with the growing streaming audience. We’ll wait for Wonder Woman 1984, No Time to Die, Top Gun: Maverick and the others to stream on one of our services. We have plenty of streaming options and while VOD services are short on new shows/movies right now, there are still huge libraries of “yet to see” content. Our only concern is how quickly/safely the creative/production crews – folks who really do the work – will be back on the set. TV show and movie production crews went from a full calendar of projects at the beginning of the year but by the end of the first quarter, things were blank and bleak. When studios around the globe shut down production, the contract work and paychecks disappeared. “I’m taking it day-by-day,” a Toronto-based DIT (digital imaging tech) who asked not to be identified said early this month. “We’ve been around long enough to know how the industry works, so we have a financial reserve set aside; but still, it’s a psychological struggle.“ “We have to/want to get back on the set, but it’s going to be … different,” he noted. “Fewer people, new responsibilities/duties and all of the new guidelines set up by the government, studios, industry/trade associations and they really don’t know what’s going to work or what is going to shut us down … again.” “We don’t know what we don’t know,” a UK-based shooter said during a video call. “We need as much information – even if it’s rough info – and data as we can possibly get. Sure, some folks claim we’re overwhelmed with data, but they’re not onsite doing the work.” “We’ve never been in this position before and we have to take it in a laissez faire fashion,” he added. “If it works, we say, ‘See, told you so.’ If it doesn’t work, we say, ‘See, told you so.’” “Or … we simply sit this one out and there’s no fun in that,” he concluded.