OTT under I&B radar- A veil over pure entertainment!

The Internet as a medium has come a long way giving its support to many of the social activities. So has it done a ton of good to the entertainment industry? If the best television shows today are like novels, with sustained narratives stretched out over seasons, then it would stand to reason that Web series are like short stories in glowing rectangles, drama and comedy distilled.

 

The average Web short lasts between two and ten minutes, an easily digestible entertainment snack that doesn’t ask for too much attention in a space where the reel can derail even the most focussed mind. The smartest Internet filmmakers understand the frenetic, lonely, jumpy browsing experience and just how much a surfer can bear when her eyes are always being pulled away. What a Web series can do, if it deploys itself correctly, is create a pause, a visual coffee break, a moment of communion in an open tab.

 

 

Many people today complain that the content on the web series is not that decent and not worth watching by the youngsters. Following the increasing controversies over the content on the over-the-top (OTT) platforms, Information and Broadcasting ministry too proposed bringing under its purview the contents being streamed on the various OTT platforms. “OTT being a digital platform will fall under the purview of the Ministry of IT but now we are proposing a decision that the content should fall within the purview of I&B ministry,” said Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

 

The content in web series may be a bit vulgar but is much more engaging than that of the traditional entertainment media sources. That may sound like an overstatement of the form, but consider this: if we are living through a golden age of television, then we are experiencing an almost golden age of Web-native series. With I&B regulating the content, entertainment at web to takes a back step. The engaging content in the series makes people automatically to jump up to the next episode, know the complete story.. sometimes even binge watch on a holiday!

 

Web has its own way of story telling that makes it more watchable, it has very stricken content, more deep story than any, any movie. Jumping to the statistics today, the upward climbing graph shows that Netflix alone has made up to 167 million paid subscribers. Let’s not even count the unpaid subscribers who use the platform for free by creating new mail ids every time! It has done a business of USD 5500 millions in year 2020.

 

As well, since web series are made available online, instead of being aired at a single pre-set time to specific regions, they enable producers to reach a potentially global audience who can access the shows 24 hours a day and seven days a week, at the time of their choosing. Moreover, in the 2010s, the rising affordability of tablets and smartphones and the rising ownership rates of these devices in industrialized nations easily reflects that web series are available to a wider range of potential viewers, including commuters, travellers and other people who are on the go.

 

But as they say, while on the pathway of growth, criticism has to follow first. Addressing to all those who complain about the content in the web series, the control is totally in your hands. The internet platforms are open to all and all at the very same time can be editors to it. Producers create stories, actors perform and users watch as they find it engaging. This altogether has become a parallel (yet different) entertainment industry to traditional means, engaging a lot of employment, capital and user base. All we need is acceptance to truth!