Abstract
Web series and video on demand services destabilised and efficiently replaced popular entertainment in the past one year, due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. The subsequent lockdown not only impacted the traditional creative industries, such as TV and films, but it has also catalysed the way narratives are produced and consumed over the internet. Narratives on the web have been posing challenges to traditional storytelling since the past decade, but the changes in the Indian market have been slow until this year. The industry has also been studied extensively from the perspective of various disciplines, film studies, marketing, psychology, and communication being a few of them. These studies have elaborated upon the evolution of the industry, its popularity, challenges and roadblocks specifically in relation to the Indian market.
The study in concern tries to trace the evolution of the industry in comparison to the predictions. It tries to verify if the predictions and scope have been met by trajectory and what quantum of growth can be credited to the COVID pandemic lockdown period. This research starts with gathering studies conducted on the industry, specifically in the Indian market, since its existence. With the help of a qualitative meta-analysis, this paper tries to analyse the trends and trajectories predicted vis-a-vis the actual growth in numbers over the years, specifically in the post-COVID era. Researchers aim to suggest a model on the production–consumption patterns and the functioning of the industry.
Introduction
The worldwide pandemic of the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) hit the world in late 2019–early 2020. The subsequent global lockdown had populations worldwide locked within their homes adversely impacting many industries and economies (Golechha, 2020). With public spaces like parks, malls and markets being shut down indefinitely, every sector of business, including the media and entertainment industries, saw a rapid decline (Kanitkar, 2020). Print media had already been seeing a steady drop in revenue generation in the past decade, and during this period, it saw a further sharp drop of 32% in 2020 (Ninan, 2021).
According to the KPMG report on revenues generated by media sectors, the overall revenues of print, out of home media and radio also dropped in the year 2020. On the other hand, films remained at the same position as after a brief setback initially with the theatres shutting down, as they found the OTT (over-the-top) industry as a new platform for release (Image 1). Emerging as the most prominent player in the media and entertainment industries, television and digital entertainment industries, including OTT and gaming saw an exponential rise (IBEF, 2021).
India recorded the second-largest internet population in the world at a staggering 749 million users at the end of 2020. Rising internet accessibility rate and smartphone penetration rates have been instrumental in the rise in user base of OTT services (Keelery, 2021). According to the FICCI EY report, the Indian media and entertainment sector is estimated to see a rise of 13% during 2021–24. The subscriber base of OTT platforms grew more than 60% between 2020 and 2021 (FICCI, 2022).
There were five important factors that have brought about a tremendous acceptance of the OTT amongst the audience. The vast library of content available online has enabled the viewers to choose content, unlike the traditional broadcasting model that forced them to watch content selected by the broadcasters. Two, the online medium offered flexible timing without a broadcast schedule followed by the service provider. One may watch as much and as per the individual availability of time and may even pause viewing. Three, the absence of advertisements also proved to be a huge factor to keep the audience engaged. Four, the privacy offered along with flexibility of device usage allowed the audience to watch what they wanted individually and not be bound to the collective choice of the family. Lastly, the quality of content was also preferred over the content offered by mainstream television programming (Srivastav & Rai, 2021b).
Comparative Growth of Media Sectors.
Media content has always been credited to have a great impact on populations. Several theoretical frameworks, such as framing theory (Chong & Druckman, 2007), agenda setting theory (McCombs et al., 2014), uses and gratification theory (Blumler & Katz, 1974), and the bodily practices involved with the televisual experience (Nelson, 1989) have approached it from various perspectives, including empirical to qualitative and have ascertained several degrees and ways in which media shapes an individual’s opinion (Anderson, 2019). Nelson’s research over the years also explores the redundancy and normalisation of TV programming and thus paves the way for novel approaches to audiovisual content creation and consumption (Nelson, 1990). Moving to a broader paradigm, Marxist theories also delved into culture production vis-a-vis the media industries. Fuchs discussed how political economy affected content production for media platforms and thus contributed to shaping the public psyche (Fuchs, 2023). The media organisations become the power structures in this reference and the study of the medium reflects the critique of society (Fuchs, 2014). Smythe’s audience commodity theory also reinstates itself through the content production–consumption patterns on the internet (Smythe, 1981).
As the general day to day lifestyle got affected by COVID-19, the media consumption habits also underwent a change. The need for more options to seek better entertainment is a dominant reason for the change in how content is produced and consumed. This study probed into the changes brought in by the COVID-19 pandemic in the production and consumption of products from the media and entertainment industries. The study is an attempt to analyse the audience bases, functioning of the industry and the content being produced, along with the discourse around the industry and the shifts brought in it due to the pandemic.
A number of studies have been conducted on the OTT industry in India in the past few years, but there is a pressing need for estimating the impact of the rise of this industry and its correlation with the existing media industries producing audiovisual content. This study also approaches the changing paradigm of media studies with the amalgamation of internet studies, and how it contributes to the culture production and consumption from the lens of the Marxist critical theory (Sandoval & Fuchs, 2010; Tyson, 2023). This study tries to identify gaps between the studies and summarise their findings simultaneously.
Aims and Objectives
This study attempts to evaluate the effect of the pandemic due to COVID-19, and the subsequent lockdown on the media industries in the country. Specifically focusing on the video on demand (VOD) or the OTT industries as they are popularly known, the study tries to analyse the changes brought in the production and consumption of content by the pandemic. Lastly, it tries to ascertain if the discourse on these industries has also changed in the academic circles.
Research Methodology
The method adopted for this study is a qualitative meta-analysis through an in-depth review of the research studies published relevant to the subject. From the time the world was introduced to the internet and later the OTT industries, the fulcrum of research studies on entertainment and communication industries has shifted from other media platforms to the Web. Critical interpretive and descriptive analysis of the studies was done through a qualitative systematic review to meet the paper’s objectives. Meta categories were derived from the data set through a thorough research synthesis for this study. These categories were pertaining to the researcher’s approach in their respective studies. Writings from multiple authors were accessed to reduce the individual bias as much as possible.
Meta-analysis was chosen for the following reasons:
To look for trends and answer questions not raised by individual studies To discuss opposing stances and views To possibly bridge gaps in data and findings
Sample
Studies conducted on the OTT or the VOD industries in India were taken as the sample universe. The indexes that were accessed to gather the data are as follows: Google Scholar, Taylor & Francis, DOAJ, ProQuest and EBSCO. A few filters were applied to gather the sample, which are explained in Table 1:
Filters for Obtaining the Sample.
After applying all these filters, 45 articles were obtained, 11 of them were rejected as they were book chapters and conference proceedings. Six of them were rejected as they were published in SSRN, a website for open-access pre-publishing and not a journal. Seven more were rejected further as they were published in journals of different disciplines, one being atomic sciences. Lastly, five more articles were filtered out due to their publication in low impact, and inadequately indexed journals, thus reflecting on the quality of research. Total 16 articles were chosen for the analysis. All the articles that were filtered out were also referred to while writing the paper, either in the introduction segment or discussing the findings.
Review Protocols
The studies were reviewed by abiding to the following present protocols:
Assessment of Risk of Bias
The study could have undergone a risk of bias at three stages, selection of sample (selection bias), parameters of study for individual papers (performance bias) and lastly reporting of results (reporting bias). To overcome these, the approach of the study was streamlined before gathering the data. For gathering the data, several platforms were accessed to gather different types of data sets. For checking the performance bias, the methods, the credibility and replicability were checked for individual studies. Lastly, for checking reporting bias, overlapping information from the sample sets was referenced while categorising the findings for a broader applicability.
Factors for Analysis
The papers were first categorised according to their research aims and objectives and then according to the methods that they had adopted. The theoretical frameworks that were abided by the authors were referred to, to group them further. Next, the findings or the papers were analysed to comment on their novelty, importance and the addition to the repertoire of public knowledge. Lastly, the suggestions made by the researchers were reviewed in the light of the aims and objectives of the study.
Data Analysis
Few themes were found to be organically emerging from the findings and discussion segments of the 16 studies picked up. In the case of studies based on media platforms, according to a communication model, a sender, a receiver and a message are found to be the most basic units of communication. These three themes identified the three approaches to the study.
First was a user-centric approach. This method helps in exploring and defining the target audience. Their characteristics, user habits and reasons for adapting or forsaking a medium were studied and evaluated in this paradigm. The second approach is the producer-centric approach, where the studies explore the producers, from the lens of critical media theories, and probe into the motivations, influences and practices of the industry and its functioning. The last approach was the product or message-centric approach, which helped in analysing the message, its root influences, its impact on the masses and consumption patterns. The papers were categorised and analysed with the help of these three approaches to reflect on the aims and objectives. Lastly, there were a few papers that positioned their studies in the COVID-induced lockdown.
The sample and their findings are summarised in Table 2.
Papers and Their Findings.
The findings are further discussed in detail using the following three approaches:
The first sample study checked for the acceptance of OTT in the consumer base. Surveying the possible future audience, the paper pointed out that ‘performance expectancy, habit, content availability and price value’ were the prime most forecasters for using OTT Platforms. With the help of a quantitative survey exploring factors like gender, age and experience with OTT, the paper used the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology 2 model (UTAUT2) to test its hypothesis. The findings revealed that the target consumers were going to keep the described factors in mind when choosing to switch from TV to OTT or even further in choosing a particular platform from the selection. The most important predictor was the behavioural intention of the user for actual usage of OTT services (Malewar & Bajaj, 2020).
The second sample discussed the viewing patterns of the audience and noted a shift to OTT by a major portion of the audience. Researchers Chatterjee and Pal conducted surveys and interviews to shed light on the reasons why the audience was keen to switch to OTT platforms. Contextualising the research in the time of lockdown, the researchers probed if the OTT was replacing the theatre experience for the viewers. The findings elaborate that while it was the mobile phones that had facilitated the switch to OTT convenient, the respondents missed sitting in the theatre for the experience. Mobile phones had added to the mobility of the experience and made watching content an individual experience, the respondents missed the novel experience offered by film theatres. Researchers expressed their concerns about two factors, subject to OTT platforms, the first being a lack of censorship on the medium, making all content accessible to all age groups who had access to a smartphone and internet, second being the rising short attention span of the audience due to the nature of the medium. The study concluded with a note on global technologies helping to platform locally made content and thus increasing the exposure it gets (Chatterjee & Pal, 2020).
Another study in 2021 explored the factors affecting the consumer willingness to subscribe to the OTT streaming services in India. With the help of the survey method with snowball sampling, the researchers used several quantitative tests to validate the shift and then additionally provide the reason thereof as well. Evaluating the medium and platform, the research listed out wide choice of content as the first reason for popularity of OTT. The second reason was the convenience of the viewer, offered by the flexibility of these platforms. These were followed up by features offered by different services, such as pause and play, forwarding and rewinding, and algorithm for suggestions, clubbed with pricing and overall quality of service offered (Nagaraj et al., 2021).
The fourth study that explored the user base probed into the changing consumer preferences and gamification of the medium. Administering a survey to elicit quantitative data and a logistical regression analysis, the study discovered a shift in the content hosted on the OTT platforms. Compared to the medium of television and films, this content proved to be more popular with the varied audience niches and this in turn impacted the viewing behaviour, making OTT viewing a largely personal experience compared to a public one. Rising popularity affected the expenses incurred by the target audience in the entertainment sector largely. The researchers also pinned the reason for the shift on the incentives offered by the services, convenience of use and lastly the expansion and penetration of the telecom sector (Sadana & Sharma, 2021).
Another study exploring the user base utilised the method of netnography instead of the surveys. Studying the official Facebook groups of OTT service providers, the researchers observed patterns in consumer behaviour and communication between producers and consumers and even consumers themselves. The study acknowledged social media as the site of market genesis for the OTT platforms as the target audience was already online. Also, comparing between two platforms, the researchers noted that along with the content, it was the communication strategy adopted by the platforms over social media and, furthermore, the ability to use the medium to the maximum that helped these conglomerates in widening the consumer base (Srivastav & Rai, 2021b).
The next study by Sivamol and Suresh explored the user beliefs and recommendation systems using Pearson’s correlation tests and regression analysis between the two. Checking the user feedback on the algorithms of different Indian OTT service providers, the study propounded that technology needed to make the platform easy for adapting for initial users, but it was the personalisation in later stages that helped in expanding the user base. The study ended with making suggestions to the industry on how to widen its user base (Sivamol & Suresh, 2019).
Moving onto the studies exploring the medium, the first study reviewed was conducted by Srivastav and Rai in 2021. With the help of in-depth interviews conducted with industry personnel, ranging from creative to technical top marketing, the researchers explored the functioning of the industry and its differences from the existing film and TV production industries. The findings elaborated on a shift from traditional economic models that the industry was adopting to generate revenue. The interviews also touched upon data tracking and discussed various ways of reaching out to the audience on this new medium (Srivastav & Rai, 2021a).
Another study by Mehta and Kaye (2021) investigated the production and distribution processes of digital video content over the Web. Classifying the platforms as open and close ended, the researchers conducted 10 interviews with independent content creators, 5 who were producing content independently and 5 representatives of digital media companies. The study surmised that the telecom industry is aiding the digital video market, and the content is available in two categories, user generated and producer generated. Social media marketing has made independent content creators multitaskers. They were trying to build an audience base through cross-platform identity. The industry was frugally run, and creativity and flexibility were applauded in the quasi-corporate organisations. The organisations were nepotism free and had less organisational hierarchy. The professionals unanimously stated that all these factors made the industry an unconventional one by Indian standards (Mehta & Kaye, 2021).
Mehta further explores the precarity of the industry impacting its creativity through his paper ‘Precarity and New Media: Through the Lens of Indian Creators’. With the help of interviews with the practitioners of the industry, the research discusses the aspects controlling creativity, that are free labour, digital media practices and the emerging OTT industry. He further highlights the unsettlement in most of the Indian media landscape, that is less risk-taking capacity, more nepotism and hegemony in the system. He also points out further shifts in social media, in forms of socialising, promotion and commerce. The interviews also throw light on the impact of traditional structures, population and perseverance in building a career on social media, specifically in Indian society. The content was also not completely defined as it shifted from memes to graphic novels to web series and there was an observed osmosis between texts across platforms. With so much flexibility, the industry was full of multitasking individuals who had no set roles, thus making the precarity a vicious cycle (Mehta, 2019).
The fourth study on the medium was conducted by Puthiyakath and Goswami (2021). The study explores the coexistence of two media platforms with the application of the niche theory. With the help of a survey with the audience base, the paper gathered data to correspond with consumer satisfaction for the two mediums, across eight microdimensions in the uses and gratification theory. Ranging from information gratification, amusement gratification, relaxation, convenience, financial benefit, habit and social interaction. OTT was far ahead of TV in terms of convenience gratification. The audience, while using both platforms simultaneously, was inclined towards OTT more, and with time, the inclination would increase (Puthiyakath & Goswami, 2021).
Fitzgerald’s study on media imperialism and globalisation further explored the venture of OTT services in India, and their acceptance vis-a-vis the vast geographical and cultural diversity. An early study, published in 2019, the paper is an analysis of secondary data, collected from various reports and media coverage. Opining that it was the multinational corporations in todays’ era, which was homogenising the culture and was not giving the diversity enough representation. Discussing the influence of FAANG companies, that is, Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google, Fitzgerald discussed their ability to influence the culture. His concerns were echoed by TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) as they had claimed that the companies were disturbing the social fabric of the nation, while Jio’s Mukesh Ambani had also complained about the data colonisation in today’s time by foreign firms. Interestingly, a study of reinforcement of imperialism through the OTT services was conducted not by an Indian or a South Asian scholar.
Moving onto the content-centric approach. The first study reviewed was Resurrecting Realism: A Study of The Internet Film Genre in Indian Context (Srivastav & Rai, 2019). With the help of content analysis, the researchers discussed the nature of content in the short films made for YouTube. The films had reverberations of the movement of realism and were different from the mainstream content in many ways. Filmmakers of renown like Anurag Kashyap and Anand Gandhi were making these films for the web not to make money, but to narrate the stories they were not able to on bigger screens. This shift in the medium could be credited to the lack of censorship, easy reach to the audience and freedom from corporate structures, which affect the creative processes (Srivastav & Rai, 2019).
The next paper reviewed by the same authors used narrative analysis of Ghoul, a 2018 web series by Netflix. The findings discussed that the content was not only different from the mainstream, it also criticised the mainstream thought process. The paper elaborates on the representation of gender, race, politics and religion of the country, in the light of Auteur theory, a theory emanating from film studies. The study further solidifies the internet as an alternative storyteller, experimenting and dabbling with themes that are usually censored from the bigger screen (Srivastav & Rai, 2019).
The last paper on content was again by the same researchers, exploring and comparing the narratives of the first indigenous web series by two largest players in the field, Netflix and Amazon Prime Video India. The researchers mulled over the narrative and narrative techniques and analysed various themes represented in the narratives. The findings propounded that the digital narratives were shifting the discourse of the society. The web content was competing with the content from all over the world, thus the production standards were quite high. But at the same time, the stories need to be very emotional in nature to connect with a sentimental mass like the Indian audience. Lastly, both series belonged to the same genre, as they were thrillers, capitalising on the binge-watching model of the medium, and thus helped ease the Indian audience into accepting the shift (Srivastav & Rai, 2022).
Studies that purposefully took COVID into account were lesser, possibly due to the time frame. The first one was published in August 2020 and credited COVID-19 directly for the success of the OTT industry. Researchers conducted surveys and focus group discussions with the audience and surmised that the factor of time, its availability and flexibility, due to the lockdown was majorly responsible for the expanded fan base and increased usage of the platforms (Madnani et al., 2020).
Another important paper by Nijhawan and Dahiya published in December 2020 applied the technology acceptance model and theory of innovation to adaptation of the OTT platforms by the audience. Opining that as COVID lockdown had forced people to stay indoors, many entertainment options were cut away, thus turning the audience base towards the screens. Physical contact with newspapers, books and other media was also reduced, and the already growing content on the platforms helped in retaining the newly recruited audiences. The paper also traces the timeline of OTT in India and follows the acceptance patterns and motivations of the users (Nijhawan & Dahiya, 2020).
Data Synthesis
The initial studies were focused on ascertaining the popularity of OTT platforms in Indian audience bases. The factors on which they focussed included gauging the shift in viewing patterns, analysing audience responses to adaptability and measuring the factors of gender, income and age affecting the adaptation. With time, the focus of the studies shifted to analysing the market structure, medium overlap with television and the challenges the producers faced. The recent trend was found to study the content that has been produced specifically for the internet platforms so that a clear demarcation between different media platforms can be observed. One more major aspect to be studied was the COVID impact on the industry. While most of the studies acknowledged the impact of COVID on the industry, there were two that probed it specifically to quantify the effect.
Most of the user-centric studies were conducted in the quantitative paradigm with the survey method. Researchers surveyed the audience base and obtained their feedback and attitudes towards the OTT industry. The surveys conducted were mostly snowball or convenience sampling. Given a country like India, with a wide and varied population, this type of sampling method is very unscientific and would give skewed data. The audience base is expanding day by day with the penetration of the smartphones and internet, bridging the digital divide. Civic agencies with the rising patterns of media production and consumption have a major role to play in a democracy, deliberative or organic (Dahlgren, 2006).
Also, the data collection was done online, thus limiting the response ratio as well. While few studies went ahead and conducted interviews or focus group discussions after the surveys, only one study used netnography to observe the audience base and its communication patterns. Producer-centric studies adopted the qualitative approach as three studies utilised the method of interviews with the producers to get insights into the functioning of the industry (Mehta, 2019; Mehta & Kaye, 2021; Srivastav & Rai, 2021a). One study utilised the survey method again, with audience responses gauging the acceptance and popularity of the mediums. Content-centric studies were all conducted by two researchers, whose first paper utilised content analysis, and later two utilised narrative analysis for web series (Srivastav & Rai, 2019, 2021a, 2021b).
Third, the theoretical framework the quantitative studies abided by, ranged from theories of media studies such as uses and gratification theory to theories related to technological adaptation, such as UTAUT2 model (Malewar & Bajaj, 2020), technology acceptance model and theory of innovation (Nijhawan & Dahiya, 2020; Sivamol & Suresh, 2019) to theories of media platforms functioning comparatively, such as the niche theory (Puthiyakath & Goswami, 2021). Two qualitative studies utilised the grounded theory to locate their findings. Two studies chose to do a regression analysis (Nagaraj et al., 2021; Sadana & Sharma, 2021).
Findings and Discussion
After a comparison of results of the studies, the strong establishment of the industry emerged as a result of the lockdown, which acted as a catalyst in its formation. With the heterogeneity of the web and vastness of the Indian audience, there emerges a niche for every type of content on the internet. Various factors, such as flexibility of use, vast option of choices and individual-oriented content have been the factors contributing to the rise in popularity of the OTT services. From the perspective of the producer, internet and OTT platforms have certainly been able to liberate the maker as there are many avenues through which an audience can be reached (Dutta, 2022). Interview-based studies highlighted that the producers now had greater creative liberty compared to the other platforms. Now as the artist gets the liberty to practise the craft as per their choice, there is an observed marked difference in the content produced.
The change does not end here. Revised production patterns and a new medium would also need to revolutionise the distribution and consumption patterns for this new industry. The audience is comparatively sharper, smarter, agile and more aware. They are quick to choose and quicker to discard. Word of mouth emerges as the key marketing agent, albeit virtually through social media. The civic participation in the entertainment sector increases, with the communicative engagement of the audience and producers alike (Dahlgren, 2006).
As the content is on the web, the audience also has an eminent virtual presence. From checking and reviewing the trailers, to live streaming the shows, to discussing and dissecting them in online forums, generating and circulating the memes adding to the collective memory and resulting in the generation of paraphernalia content, the audience is not merely passive anymore (Wayne, 2022). The internet allows them to participate, taking their voices as instant and incessant feedback. This makes the audience a co-creator of content as well, resonating with the audience commodity theory (Smythe, 1981).
A model has been devised to establish this relationship between the content providers and the audience (Figure 1). According to this model, the platform creates the content and tries to further engage the audience on social media. The audience provides feedback on the content as well as social media groups. This feedback on content helps in making furthermore production-based decisions and feedback on the social media helps in formulating the marketing strategies for the brand. This is also aided by the data tracking to consolidate the research even more thus proving Smyth’s theory (1981).
Suggested Model: Audience as Co-creator of Online Content.
Further discussing the audience segmentation, while the demographic segmentation might be very varied for the audience, it is not the sole criteria for designing and serving them the product. The psychographics of the audience matter a lot in the virtual world. Data mining, extracting, tracking and analysis help the content makers and providers determine what is selling, why and who is watching it. And the audience plays a part in helping them by being active as a digital populace. The audience relates to the content and attaches a piece of themselves to it by liking, sharing, commenting and further even remixing this content.
Another important discussion that emanates from here is the need for entertainment, and a person’s dependency on the web for it. The need to be entertained, which figures nowhere on Maslow’s hierarchy (Maslow, 1943), emerges supreme, as the Netflix CEO claims that Netflix is winning the battle against one of the primary requirements of life; sleep (Raphael, 2019). With the lockdown introducing the concept of unstructured time with work from home, leisure occupies much larger space in the routine compared to recent times in human history. Another factor is that for the first time, the medium for work and leisure remains the same, that is the computer with internet.
While it has been discussed for a long time in academia that technology is making an island of a man, isolating them as separate entities, it is their need for learning and sharing human experiences through storytelling that is proving imperative even in the virtual world. It can be argued that this rising need to watch the content is not merely an extension of need to be entertained, but the need to connect and relate to human experiences even if virtually and be a part of further production of culture. Binge watching, thus, is actively wanting to be a part of media and thus culture production and consumption.
Lastly, discussing the studies which threw light on the attitude of people working in the industry. While most of them were excited about working on the web, they were a bit sceptical about the audience, the industry practices and future of cinema and TV. They confirmed the existence and importance of tracking audience data and there emerged a new currency. This new currency is traded, exhibited, chased across platforms, even for a brief engagement, for an episode or an entire season. The hits on links and website traffic monitoring help in this.
Further Scope for Research
The findings of the studies limited themselves to exploring the initiation of the audience in the industry, that is analysing the factors responsible, how was the shift happening, how was the producer adapting to the dynamics and how it was affecting the content. Only one study took a larger perspective, commenting on how watching foreign-made content is homogenising the audience base and is an extension of imperialism in modern times in the Indian subcontinent. This highlights the need for further studies, which are not blindsided by the emergence of a new medium but are critical of its practices and are able to analyse the shifts in society vis-a-vis the medium. The factors responsible for the shift, as highlighted by the studies, were temporary, due to the COVID-induced lockdown, but the factor of individual time vs family time is a huge shift for Indian society. There is a need for research that explores how OTT has affected family units, who are now choosing to have their own space and screen separate from the family.
The next concern is for censor-free content. As the world’s largest democracy, the fulcrum shifting the opinion of masses is of extreme pertinence. In this scenario, it is imperative to discuss the impact of constant subliminal content. The literacy rate and the education facilities have not reached far corners of the country, unlike the digital network, as they are not privately funded. In this case, how is the rural audience going to react to the global content or even content produced by Indian stakeholders taking advantage of no censorship.
Lastly, the concept of binge watching and how it affects the psychology of the individuals. Many studies explore the effects of screen exposure to the human brain psychologically and physiologically. While the Netflix CEO confirms that the company is at war with a natural process, that is, of sleep, how does this affect human beings, in shorter and longer run.
The researchers conclude the analysis by suggesting these studies to be conducted further in future.
Footnotes
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.