Amid Covid-19 OTT platforms gain from adult content :Report

According to news portal LetsOTT, VoD service MX Player's adult comedy Mastram had the highest single day viewing this July with 11 lakh people watching the show.

Ekta Kapoor's ALTBalaji registered 60 per cent increase in viewership and 21 per cent increase in monthly active users in May compared to the same period last month. The platform listed erotic horror show Ragini MMS Returns as one of its most watched programme, the report said.

Netflix's erotic thriller movie Fatal Affair replaced Charlize Theron's The Old Guard as the most watched movie last week, said media reports.

Media consulting firm Ormax has listed Prime Video's Mirzapur and Netflix's Sacred Games, both filled with explicit language and violence, at number two and three respectively. In another listing, Ormax has listed Amazon’s sex comedy Rasbhari at number six for the first week of July, according to a Mint report.

Reports said the rise in viewership, mostly driven by adult content, can be attributed to factors like private and individualistic viewing on phone, demand for Indian erotica in two and three tier towns where people don't understand or have access to foreign content, absence of opportunities to socialise and date which some people substitute by watching erotica.

According to experts the next wave of OTT growth will come from small towns and regional language markets, which will help the erotic content top the charts, said a Mint report. For small players this is expected to be mass viewership driver as producing such content will not require big stars or fancy budgets, the report added.

However, the Information and Broadcasting Ministry has already asked the OTT providers to come up with self-regulatory mechanisms. There have been demands from prominent leaders, including Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, to regulate and filter the adult content being shown on video streaming platforms.