New movies should be premiered online for mass reach - Mohnish Bhatia

When looking at the Indian market, I disagree strongly that online can even serve as a mass reach media. Let me tell you why. India may be the 3rd largest internet market, but its internet density is a mere 17%.  Compare that to the teledensity of television at 47%, and telephones at 63% and you will surely agree that the online medium in India is nowhere close to being mass reach.

MODE	Density in India
Internet	~17%
Television	~47%
Telephones/Mobiles	~63%
Movie screens	~12000 screens  across India

Further, IAMAI's optimistic numbers suggest there are ~200mn Indian internet users in Oct 2013, of these 165 mn are active users, and only 10% of these users participate in online transactions. So that makes our addressable market size 16mn, hardly qualifying as mass reach. Add to that the effect of piracy on the Indian movie business and you will see why I feel premiering movies online in India will not work. 

There are ~12000 screens in India which provide a much better distribution channel, and 'Chennai Express' was able to reach 3500 of them and grossed more than Rs 300cr. Can anybody truly suggest that releasing it online would have brought in even a fraction of those kinds of numbers for the Indian market ?

Premiering new movies on the online medium might work in the following cases:

1) Countries where internet density is high, and % of users who engage in online transactions is high

2) Niche movies in India who are targeting a limited Tier 1 Urban audience

The online distribution medium will grow and may even become viable in the future, but in 2013 and 2014, movies should continue increasing distribution via movie screens and would do better to look at alternately  premiering on TV in India, if mass reach is their final objective.

(Data from: IAMAI, Comscore, India Houselisting and housing Census 2011, KPMG-FICCI report)