By- Riya Upveja
Television played an important role in connecting the public and educating the world by sitting at home. it introduced many programs like news programs, music programs, entertainment, education etc. It also introduced many programs which taught them moral values and many things that could educate them and also many programs that could aware them about the crimes. As the time passed by meaning of these programs started changing gradually, Television started offering more entertainment programs which took the interest of the youth and as the advancement in technology took the charge the youth started shifting from offline mode to online mode and then came the era of OTT platforms. OTT platforms are subscription streaming services that offer a wide variety of series and movies through distribution deals which can be accessed by anyone by a paid subscription. They offer a wide variety of shows coming all around from the world be it Chinese, Indian, Japanese, Korean, Italian and American. One of the most popular OTT platforms is Netflix which was launched in India in the early 2016 by its chief executive Reed Hastings. Before launching in India, Netflix expanded in more than 60 countries. Netflix is more than just an OTT platform, it has become a status some a premium product with a flaunt value that is the ability to boast about something. Initially Netflix was the only OTT platform available in India but after a while of its arrival in India Amazon Prime Videos and other OTT platforms were also launched. OTT platforms can be accessed through internet browser on computers, or through applications. They offer content not only from recent years but from many years back. it includes programs in different genres like romance, comedy, drama, thriller, fantasy, action, science and fiction and many more and gives a wide variety of content in these categories. The scope of OTT platform is endless and it has no limitation of time as you can watch any kind of program at any place, at any hour by just being connected to internet. They also offer programs through distribution deals. Basically, the production house of a certain movie, drama or documentary pays the platform to make their content available on it. Unlike television OTT platforms provide different attractive offers to the customers to increase their number of subscribers and by expanding it base and adding new shows to it by considering the interest of people.
OTT platforms has taken over the audience of Television which is mostly the teenagers right now but is expanding its territory and even though they have become a mainstream application for the viewers there still are things that these platforms do not have over television but their wide variety of features attracts their viewers keeping aside the functions they cannot provide. They have become popular mostly because of the entertaining content they provide from all over the world and that too without any advertisements. These platforms have also started some new trends which are enthusiastically welcomed by its customers, terms like binge-watching and Netflix and chill which has turned to the cool side of the customers making them want more and more from these platforms following the trend. The fact that they have become a thing to boast about making it a status symbol is also one of the reasons they are always on demand due to their premium services but all these things have also brought out the bad side of the audience making them addicted to the application and even exposing content to children who are not even eligible to watch it. There are no rules for the under aged people to watch the appropriate content and censoring system which is bringing out a behavioural change in the students. They have started acting like matures without being in the state of an understanding and a mature personality. They are indulging themselves into activities like consuming alcohol and drugs and smoking as to them it is presented to be cool and something that no one should be ashamed of doing so. They are becoming sleep deprived and which is turning up their frustration, lowering their performance in academic and extra -curricular activities, but if the students do not just see these OTT platforms as only an entertaining source they can attain so much knowledge from the educational content it offers movies and documentaries related to past events or mysteries that are unsolved or are in the process of getting the result, documentaries about different issues.
We can say that television is being replaced by OTT platforms but as they mostly offer content based on entertainment, television is still going to be a part of our life for a long time.
