Food firms feast on binge watching

Streaming services Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Hotstar are helping to drive a sharp spike in sales for online food delivery entities, ready-to-eat products and single-serve snacks, led by orders from ‘screenagers’ binge watching shows on these over-the-top (OTT) platforms even as dining-in slows.

“OTT platforms with video on demand are driving up ordering-in and ready-to-eat consumption at home,” said Ashu Phakey, vice president and business head (frozen foods) at ITC. “Clearly, the proliferation of OTT is playing a role in driving up the ready-to-eat category.”

With cheap data plans, viewership of online videos has proliferated to an estimated 300 million-plus users in India, a number that’s forecast to touch 550 million by FY23, according to a KPMG-Eros report released three months ago. Indians spend as much as 70 minutes every day on OTT platforms and typically watch a web series in three days as against the global average of four days, the report showed.

“Studies have shown spikes in ordering on weekends between 10 pm and 1 am, which is also the time for binge watching on OTT platforms. This has extended the traditional prime time that ended around 10 pm,” Phakey said.

The surge is even more evident for restaurants, with fine-dining and quick service outlets reporting faster growth in home delivery, which has resulted in aggregators Swiggy and Zomato also reporting swift growth.

While Zomato’s latest reported numbers are 1.25 million orders a day, Swiggy’s is estimated at between 1.4 million and 1.6 million.

It’s an unexpected development for restaurateurs who have been trying to improve the dine-in experience to lure customers back to their outlets and now have to tweak their strategies.

“It’s true that Netflix and other such platforms are our biggest competitor now and these are rapidly redefining changing consumer preferences of dining,” said Priyank Sukhija, chief executive officer of First Fiddle Restaurants, which runs Lord of the Drinks and Tamasha. “Many consumers prefer staying indoors and ordering in since they are watching shows on OTT platforms.”

Speciality Restaurants, the operator of Mainland China and Oh! Calcutta, has stepped up focus on delivery, as has Impresario Entertainment & Hospitality.

“OTT platforms are surely one of the factors driving delivery of food. In metros and tier-1 cities, this change is clearly visible,” said Speciality Restaurants managing director Anjan Chatterjee.

Impresario Entertainment & Hospitality, the owner of Smoke House Deli and Social, has started delivery-only brands such as Boss Burger, Hung-Li and Del Italia.

“OTT provides an alternative for home entertainment and is among the key factors that have triggered a spike in delivery, the others being convenience and traffic,” said Riyaaz Amlani, Impresario’s managing director.

Another category that’s benefiting from binge-watchers is packaged foods in single serves or multiple singles or bigger food packs.

“Screenagers (teenagers and other consumers glued to screen devices) are driving a good amount of consumption on account of such viewing,” said Mayank Shah, category head at biscuits giant Parle Products. “Such consumers, even on multiple screens at the same time, are consuming food at home instead of going out, as a result of which our premium brands are picking up.”

He said multiple single-packs of brands such as Milano, Black Bourbon and Choco Rolls are growing 1.5 times that of regular packs of the same brands, which he attributed to being directly proportional to screen time.

Source:- https://retail.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/food-entertainment/food-services/food-firms-feast-on-binge-watching/72576690