Yep. But Twitter, I'd imagine is for eyeballs. As one of the guys I spoke to said, "Twitter is for you guys" as in the media. :)

Venkat Ananth The Ken, Staff Writer

Thanks, Sunny. Agree with you. Local language content is what works in election campaigns. And dialects too, as you said.

Venkat Ananth The Ken, Staff Writer

Thanks, Prasanna, for the feedback. Yes, there is a situation with a lot of their brands, but obviously, we kept it focused on Vice for now.

Venkat Ananth The Ken, Staff Writer

Thanks, Vivek. Appreciate your feedback. It is about practices. Facebook today, someone else tomorrow.

Venkat Ananth The Ken, Staff Writer

Thanks, Akhil. These (data protection, privacy, consent etc) are issues that deserve urgent attention, and the wider the discourse, the better of course. I mean, its easy to trap ourselves by probing Cambridge Analytica and its work in India, but that's besides the point. Generates decent primetime noise, but beyond that, it remains a 2-day story. People forget about it and move on to something else. I mean, that's how our news cycle really is, but focus on these issues is absolutely imperative.

Venkat Ananth The Ken, Staff Writer

Thanks for your feedback, Yash. I think Spotify will spend a good year to license music. So anyone expecting them to launch in the next few months, won't happen for now. Ideally look at next year. From the outside at least, Spotify's entry will be interesting to watch. Because at least at a global level, they're known to have the best technology. So one way to look at it is that their entry will force others to look at tech more seriously, if not make it a priority. But let's see how this plays out. I agree with you on the user-friendliness. Saavn is the closest that comes to Spotify in terms of that, to be honest. In terms of payment, again have to wait and watch. They've done exceedingly well with their premium version in the US. Maybe they will tailor their product differently for India in terms of pricing.

Venkat Ananth The Ken, Staff Writer

I think Saavn does offer simultaneous listening on 5 devices. Same with Gaana+ (their subscription product). Sure, the inclusion of record labels and their perspective is a fair point.

Venkat Ananth The Ken, Staff Writer

Hi Shrinath. Thanks for your comment. And I absolutely agree with your view. The next 18 months could be key, with the access to data only going to get deeper. And OTTs will slowly start leveraging that for, as you rightly point out, content creation.

Venkat Ananth The Ken, Staff Writer

Hi Priyanka. As someone who a) works for a subscription product and b) who subscribes to at least five international newspapers, I think the future of the news business is the subscription model. The ad-based model or the "content" model as its called, I think is okay, but I am also inclined to think, personally, that readers deserve more. And the only way to get them to access quality journalism, in my view, is to get them to pay for it. Everything starts from there. I am personally very bullish on it. But yes, you are right. Uptake might be limited as of now, but I think once more and more news companies start putting their stuff behind a paywall, things might just start taking off. Business Standard was bold enough to start it first, and now ET wants to get on to it, even TOI. Even Moneycontrol. So for now, the win is that the subscription model is at least beginning to be a part of the thinking in these companies. Can it scale up? We have to wait and watch. Also depends on the quality of the respected offerings.

Venkat Ananth The Ken, Staff Writer

Hi Udaibir, thanks for the feedback. Totally agree with you re telco-content provider partnership. Distribution is something these providers have been longing for. And these partnerships, it looks like, will be critical going forward.

Venkat Ananth The Ken, Staff Writer

Hi Sunil. First, thanks for the feedback. Second, there's no bias as such in our reporting regarding AltBalaji. The focus in this story was about setting the content landscape in India. I'd definitely like to know more about AltBalaji and the progress it is making.

Venkat Ananth The Ken, Staff Writer

Hi Miten, the table is based on the data compiled by Counterpoint Research. Specifically, in the case of Hotstar, which has a hybrid model, the number is inclusive of free and paid users.

Venkat Ananth The Ken, Staff Writer