Reports suggest that US-based OTT giant HBO Max India launch will happen in our OTT market as early as May 2022.
Going by leaked reports, HBO Max has priced its subscription plans very competitively. A basic plan might cost as little as Rs 69/month, while the mobile-only, and standard plans cost Rs 139/ month, and Rs 329/month respectively. The platform is yet to confirm these plans though.
HBO Max mostly offers foreign content as their library almost entirely comprises of English titles. Speaking of foreign content, Netflix might be considered as the prime rival of HBO Max after the latter enters the Indian market.
Netflix’s library also primarily consists of foreign content, much like HBO Max. In a way, both these platforms target the same section of the Indian OTT audiences.
However, HBO Max isn’t as aggressive as Netflix when it comes to content production. The platform has the knack of producing content-rich shows, which include Game of Thrones, The Sopranos, The Wire, and others.
Also, the subscription plans of HBO Max are much cheaper than that of Netflix’s. It is too early to say this, but HBO Max might be eating into Netflix’s viewer base in India, given the similarities in content library and the competitive pricing.
As for Amazon Prime Video, the platform has tapped into the regional OTT market by producing regional language content. The platform is also aggressive when it comes to acquiring digital rights of regional films, which bought it closer to regional audiences. HBO Max doesn’t offer that in the beginning or may not target regional content at all.
HBO Max has blockbusters like Game Of Thrones and Batman like titles in its library. If these shows are dubbed and released in regional languages, it might cater to a section of Indian OTT audiences and get an instant boost to its subscriptions.
With HBO Max’s Arrival, which OTT platform will be affected the most? Given the similarity in content library, Netflix might be the one that is affected the most.
