Daybreak - Youtubers are dominating Indian living rooms by taking a page out of the TV playbook

Episode Date: November 5, 2024

Here’s a riddle inspired by true events. We all know that pay TV subscribers have been declining for a while now. But at the same time, overall TV viewership has only been increasing. How can that be? Well, for that we have Youtube to thank. In the first half of 2024, Indians spent 8 trillion minutes watching videos. More than 90% of this was on Youtube. Now, generally when someone says the words ‘watch on youtube’ you imagine a mobile phone or a laptop right? That seems to be changing as a lot more people are watching Youtube videos on their TV sets. In Uttar Pradesh alone, Youtube reaches about 90 million households through connected television sets.And here’s the surprising part. This is roughly equal to or more than the reach of television programming. Youtube is now entering TV territory, by luring viewers into watching new format shows. Like comedian Samay Raina’s “pointless reality show” India’s got latent. Eight episodes have been aired since June, and so far, they’ve gotten up to 4X more views than the channel’s nearly 4 million subscriber base.Many similar Youtube channels are offering their subscribers TV like programming to keep them hooked. Plus, what makes them really stand out is that most often than not, these shows are better produced, that too on cheaper budgets.Looks like its time for TV channels to buckle up and fight for the throne...or couch!Tune in. We are hosting our first live recording! If you are in your 20s, like to run or just enjoy meeting new people, sign up for The Ken X 56 Run Club. This is for our Bengaluru-based listeners only. We meet at 7:30 am near Tonique on Kasturba Gandhi road. 

Hi, this is Rohan Dharma Kumar. If you've heard any of the Ken's podcasts, you've probably heard me, my interruptions, my analogies, and my contrarian takes on most topics. And you might rightly be wondering why am I interrupting this episode too? It's for a special announcement. For the last few months, I and Sita Raman Ganeshan, my colleague and the Ken's deputy editor, have been working on an ambitious new podcast. It's called Intermission.

We want to tell the secret sauce stories of India's greatest companies. Stories of how they were born, how they fought to survive, how they build their organizations and culture, how they manage to innovate and thrive over decades, and most importantly, how they're poised today. To do that, Sita and I have been reading books, poring over reports, going through financial statements, digging up archives, and talking to dozens of people. And if that wasn't enough, we also decided to throw in video into the mix. Yes, you heard that right. Intermission has also had to find its footing in the world of multi-camera shoots in professional studios, laborious editing, and extensive post-production.

Sita and I are still reeling from the intensity of our first studio recording. Intermission launches on March 23rd. To get an alert as soon as we release our first episode, please follow intermission on Spotify and Apple Podcasts or subscribe to the Ken's YouTube channel. You can find all of the links at the ken.com slash I am. With that, back to your episode. You know, in the first half of 2024,

us Indians spent 8 trillion minutes watching videos. More than 90% of that was on YouTube. But have you ever thought about what? makes YouTube YouTube? Let me give you my two bits. It's the way that the platform is designed. It's made to host, share and maximize the time users spend viewing content generated by other users. It's an open space without too many limitations. Now, generally when someone says the words, watch on YouTube, you generally imagine a mobile phone or a laptop, right? Well, that seems to be changing now, as a lot more people are watching YouTube videos on their television sets.

In Uttar Pradesh alone, YouTube reached about 90 million households through connected television sets. And here's the surprising part. This is roughly equal to or more than the reach of television programming. Again, we do know that pay TV subscribers have been declining for a while now, but the thing is, overall TV viewership is actually increasing. Now, here's where things get really interesting. Like I said, more and more people are watching YouTube on their TV sets. And what works for YouTube is that it doesn't tell content creators how long their content needs to be.

But other platforms tend to dictate terms like the length of content being uploaded. So YouTube is largely agnostic in that sense. What YouTube is doing now is not only luring viewers into watching new format shows, but also taking territory away from television sets. Take India's Got Latent, for example. This is a self-declared, pointless reality show. Basically, it's a spoof of the super popular TV show India's Got Talent. The YouTube spoof version is headlined by comedian Samayraina.

It has a set format, crew, and even works on a budget, just like a TV program. Eight episodes have been aired since June, and so far they've gotten up to four times more views than the channel's nearly 4 million subscriber base. Many similar YouTube channels are offering their subscribers TV-like programming to keep them hooked. Plus, what makes them really stand out is that more often than not, these shows are better produced, that too, on cheaper budgets. Looks like it's time for TV channels to buckle up and fight for the throne.

Or should I say, couch. Stay tuned. Welcome to Daybreak, a business podcast from the Ken. I'm your host, Jahil, Philip. posts and I'll be joining my colleagues Nika Sharma every day of the week to bring you one business story that is worth understanding and worth your time. Today is Wednesday, the 6th of November. When my colleague, the Ken reporter Nathan Narday, asked Manu Vijayan, the founder of a Mumbai-based

talent agency that exclusively manages stand-up comedians about the viewership of Samay Rana's YouTube show, he told him that getting four times more viewership than the 4 million subscriber base is a solid metric. because it clearly tells us that India's got latent, not only entertained and existing audience, but also managed to tap into newer ones too. That's also probably why channels like The Viral Fever, which started as a sketch comedy channel back in 2010, have started producing TV-style shows. They have longer formats, with an equal or greater quality of production.

Nathan spoke to Vijay Koshi, the president of TVF, and he said that they began releasing TV-esque series like pictures and permanent roommates on YouTube as early as 2015. So what's happening? What happened to good old-fashioned TV shows? Shailesh Kapoor, founder and chief executive of Ormax Media, a media consulting firm, told us that viewer habits are shifting because scripted or fiction content on OTT platforms has reached a saturation point. So to keep their viewers hooked, these platforms have started offering non-scripted,

reality content. Like, I'm sure you noticed how Netflix has become the home for Kapil Sharma's popular show. The older seasons of the show used to be popular on television channels like colours TV and Sony. Kapoor thinks that there is another reason. And that is audience fatigue with reality shows running into multiple seasons. Think the likes of the singing reality show Indian Idol, which is now running into its 15th season. Turns out, television ratings have fallen by 25 to 50% in the last two years for all nonscripted content, barring of course, big boss. So, as the YouTube library becomes more and more like TV, it is transitioning from being a platform with snackable content to a rival for television programming.

Stay tuned. I am interrupting this episode to make a very exciting announcement. If you've been on social media since the beginning of this year, you may have noticed that run clubs are really having their moment. They are blowing up. Or should I say gaining pace across the country. And this resurgence of run clubs is largely being driven by young people, Gen Z's and late millennials.

The best part is that most of these runners are first timers. So, we were curious. What is making hundreds of young people take to running? Are they all desperately seeking that runners hide? or is there something more to it? Well, to find out, Snigda and I will be joining the 56 Run Club here in Bangalore on Sunday morning. The best part is that you can join us too.

We are organising our first ever live recording. So if you are in your 20s and would like to feature in an upcoming episode of Daybreak, sign up for the Sunday run. The sign up link and the details of the run will be in the show notes of this episode. To understand how content creators on YouTube are, are giving TV channels a run for their money, let's go back to the Samayana show. We spoke about audience fatigue in the last segment, right?

Well, India's got latent, with its offbeat format, arrived just around that time. This fatigued audience was waiting for something fresh. And the show really is one of its kind. Like Vijayan said, you cannot find such a wide variety of guests letting loose in front of an audience. And that is what elevates the entire experience of what.

watching the show. The common thing between YouTube and TV is that both are mainly driven by advertising revenue and they bask in the number of viewers tuning in. For context, every day, nearly 500 million monthly YouTube users in India are hit with more than 700,000 hours of content, daily. But now, the ground that each of them is standing on seems to be shifting. While the old guard, like TV channels and studios, are trying to catch eyeballs or on your phones and laptops, the likes of Google are doing just the opposite. Rajesh Shishadri, former Asia Pacific head of premium content and advertising for YouTube, told us that for each of them, that's where the biggest opportunity is now.

Small screens for TV and studios and big screens for YouTube. And how it's playing out is quite interesting. You see, apart from not dictating the length of content, YouTube also came in with the promise of ending appointment. viewing, which is the practice of maintaining a schedule to watch particular television programming like Daily Soaps. That meant viewers no longer had to plan their time around when a particular program aired, they could just tune into YouTube as per their convenience.

Now, YouTube creators are taking a leaf out of that television playbook, and it is working too. Again, let me take you back to Samay Rana's India's God-Layton. There's roughly a three-week gap between every episode. TVF also followed a similar weekly scheduling pattern back in 2020. What Raina does is a couple of days before he releases a new episode. Viewers are shown the countdown to the publishing date and that creates a sense of urgency in viewers. Sheshadri, who used to work at Google, helped us get a better sense of what is happening. He gave us the example of Netflix.

The OTT giant popularized the model of engagement where it dropped a whole season in one go. But over time, we've seen studies that show virality dips after dropping it all at once. To put it simply, if you release too much and too soon, chances are it dies out quicker. So the solution for that? Well, drip feeding at regular intervals brings back the audience and makes them stay longer. This is the perfect example of TV thinking which successfully created stickiness within its viewers. And Samir Rana's show on YouTube is doing exactly that. Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of the Ken,

India's first subscriber-focused business news platform. What you're listening to is just a small sample of our subscriber-only offerings. A full subscription unlocks daily long-form feature stories, newsletters and podcast extras. Head to the Ken.com and click on the red subscribe button on the top of the website. Today's episode was hosted by Rahil Filippo's and edited by Rajiv Sien.