Ben Stokes: Phoenix from the Ashes has been created with director Sam Mendes who features on-screen to discuss the highs and lows of the cricketer’s career across a series of interviews.
To be sure, with the success of Bigg Boss and Shark Tank on Voot and SonyLiv, respectively, a growing number of streaming services are tapping the non-fiction genre to widen their audience base. They are drawing viewers through original non-fiction shows as well as by onboarding television reality shows.
Sony’s Shark Tank India and Viacom18’s Bigg Boss notched impressive viewership online, aided by exhaustive marketing campaigns.
ALTBalaji and MX Player had, more recently, come up with Kangana Ranaut’s Lock Upp which garnered significant viewership. Viacom18 itself had a new comedy game show The Khatra Khatra Show that premiered on its OTT platform Voot ahead of television. Netflix, which created a special Kapil Sharma show, is betting on reality to launch a dating show IRL: In Real Love, this year.
Industry experts say non-fiction could see newer formats on streaming platforms and marquee properties could draw audiences sitting on the fence to subscribe to these services.
About 76% of Netflix’s Indian subscribers watched a documentary title between the September quarter of 2020 and the June quarter of 2021 and they also watched over 50% more Netflix original documentary content on average over the same period in 2018. The reality show Indian Matchmaking has featured on the top 10 list of countries such as the US, India and the United Arab Emirates.
Earlier in March, Sony Pictures Television said it is looking to introduce some international show formats, building on the success of Shark Tank India.
