DTH
ABC to add more features to its broadband video player
MUMBAI: US media firm Disney-ABC Television Group will add further enhancements to its ABC.com broadband video player later this year.
Disney-ABC Television Group president Anne Sweeney says, “We have been clearly focussed on what consumers are doing and continue to build our business to match their behavior and their interests. In the past year, through efforts like our ABC.com video player, weve shown our dedication to deliver the best content to consumers in ways that are relevant and cost effective for them.
“By continuing to listen to our audience and enhance our digital offerings with the best technology available, we further strengthen their relationship to our brands.”
Later this year users will be able to watch episodes in two additional screen sizes. Providing beautiful, crisp resolution, a full-screen viewing size will be added. Also, a small mini screen (240×136 pixels) that users can position wherever they choose on their desktops will be available. The standard viewing size (500×282 pixels) and the larger viewing size (720×404 pixels) will both continue to be offered as well. The enhanced player will also featu dyrenamic bandwidth selection which automatically adjusts the bitrate of video streamed to maximise the experience for users, regardless of the capabilities of their Internet connection.
Additionally, a Pause Ad feature will be rolled out. Whenever users pause an episode they are viewing online, the screen will feature a static ad from that episodes featured sponsor which will remain on-screen until they reinitiate viewing of the show.
Later this year ABC.com’s full episode player will be expanded further to include national news and local content, in addition to primetime entertainment programming. Additionally, this new player will be geo-targeted, offering the ability for local ads and content to be more relevant to each individual user.
To date, ABC affiliates covering 80 per cent of the US, including all major affiliate groups as well as the ten ABC owned stations, have launched or have committed to launching the player on their own websites and are taking advantage of the opportunity to incorporate local advertising into the programming.
Disney-ABC Television Group executive VP, digital media Albert Cheng says, “We are excited to see that research continues to support two of our original hypotheses. First, it again confirms making episodes available online results in additive viewing opportunities for consumers and is not cannibalizing linear network viewership.
“Secondly, users have an extremely positive response to the interactive advertising on ABC.com. It has been part of our strategy to conceive and demonstrate a new advertising model on the web with 30-second countdown clocks, interactive ad containers, pause ads and other future innovations that help our advertisers and maintain a quality consumer experience. We are pleased to see advertisers embracing this strategy and working with us to create interactive ads that engage consumers and maximize the potential the platform has to offer.’
Since the broadband player launched as a permanent feature on ABC.com in September 2006, over 50 million episodes of ABC primetime series have been initiated by users. Based on new research conducted for ABC by Frank N. Magid Associates late last year, the broadband player continues to attracted a young, highly educated audience; the average age of users was 28, and more than half were college graduates. In general, users of the ABC.com broadband player skew female, mirroring the linear networks audience.
Among those surveyed, 77 per cent watched online because they had missed a particular episode on television and were looking to catch up. Viewing generally occurs within the first 24 hours of an episodes broadcast on ABC, with online viewing peaking at 10 pm. The majority of users viewed from home (76 per cent), with 57% using a desktop computer and 43 per cent a laptop.
On an average, 84 per cent of users surveyed were able to recall the advertiser who sponsored the episode they viewed. Users surveyed embraced the interactive advertising, with almost 50 per cent rating the advertising experience as excellent and approximately one-third describing the featured advertisements as entertaining and informative. Users surveyed gave especially high marks to entertainment category sponsors, as well as sponsors whose ads contained the multiple opportunities for interaction including games, product demos and coupon offers.
ABC.coms broadband player currently offers full-length episodes of shows like Desperate Housewives, Greys Anatomy, Lost and Ugly Betty free to consumers on ABCs website the day after their broadcast premieres.
DTH
Prasar Bharati’s WAVES earns Rs 2.9 crore in first year
Platform scales content, users but monetisation gaps limit revenue growth.
MUMBAI: Big waves, small ripples at least for now. When Prasar Bharati launched its OTT platform WAVES at the 55th International Film Festival of India in November 2024, it pitched a bold vision: a homegrown rival to global and domestic streaming giants, blending video, audio, gaming and commerce into a single digital ecosystem. Five months into FY2024–25, however, the platform’s revenue stands at just Rs 2.90 crore, a figure that underscores the gap between ambition and monetisation.
On paper, WAVES looks anything but modest. The platform has ingested 13,608 titles, totalling 9,495 hours of content, with over 13,000 titles already live. It has streamed more than 575 live events from the Mahakumbh Amrit Snan and the 76th Republic Day parade to the Hockey India League, Kabaddi World Cup and Mann Ki Baat while offering 74 live TV channels and 12 radio channels. With over 10 lakh registered users and more than 200 content partners onboarded, the scale resembles that of a fully operational streaming service rather than a pilot project.
The architecture supporting this scale is equally robust. Built under Prasar Bharati’s Central Archives vertical, WAVES runs on a cloud-based infrastructure with DRM, encryption and an integrated analytics dashboard. It includes dedicated units for content ingestion, quality control, publishing, graphics, marketing and billing, and is distributed across platforms such as OTTplay, Tata Play and BSNL. The offering extends beyond video to include audio-on-demand, e-games and even e-commerce via ONDC integration.
Yet, the numbers reveal a core disconnect. Despite its scale, WAVES generated just Rs 2.90 crore in a market where India’s OTT industry crossed Rs 23,000 crore in 2024. A key bottleneck lies in monetisation infrastructure: subscriptions cannot currently be purchased within the app and must be completed via an external website. In a mobile-first country where over 95 per cent of OTT consumption happens on smartphones, this extra step creates friction that most users are unlikely to overcome.
Ironically, content is not the problem, it is the platform’s biggest strength. Prasar Bharati holds one of the world’s richest broadcast archives, including 45,154 hours of digitised Akashvani programming and 35,723 hours from Doordarshan. For WAVES alone, over 3,800 hours of archival content have been made OTT-ready, including classics such as Ramayan and Shaktimaan, alongside rare cultural recordings and historical broadcasts.
There are early signs that this library holds commercial potential. Revenue from archival content licensing rose sharply to Rs 3.38 crore in FY24, up from Rs 67 lakh the previous year. Meanwhile, free digital platforms continue to drive massive reach, the PB Archives Youtube channel clocked 119.78 million views and added 4,02,000 subscribers in FY2024–25, crossing 1.7 million in total, while DD News has over 5.84 million subscribers.
That, however, presents a strategic dilemma. While free distribution builds scale, it also conditions audiences to expect content at zero cost making it harder to transition to paid models. WAVES, designed as a hybrid AVOD-SVOD platform with advertising and subscription layers, is yet to fully crack this balance.
The broader challenge is not technological but strategic. In an ecosystem dominated by platforms offering seamless payments, aggressive pricing and high-budget originals, WAVES is still bridging the gap between being a content repository and a commercially viable product.
For now, the platform reflects both promise and paradox. It has the scale, the content and the infrastructure but until monetisation catches up, WAVES remains less a revenue engine and more a digital showcase of what India’s public broadcaster could become.
