"Regional Language Content is Gaining Popularity"

Media gurus and professionals say, “Regional language is gaining immense popularity in the current times”. Content promotion is a lot more than advertising. It focuses on connecting with the audiences via storytelling or sharing information. This mere factor has transformed how big media brands deliver content to consumers.

Our country is the land of diverse cultures, ethnicity and languages. This cultural multifariousness has created specialised digital content in various local languages.

Creating valuable and engaging matter for a wide array of audiences is at the heart of media house marketing. Television has played a big role to propel content consumption in own language and now the regional OTT players have also joined the bandwagon. OTT players have the advantage of pushing the envelope and present more realistic content which is far more relatable.

The continuous content mutation in different regional languages is gathering momentum by inspiring audiences from the non-metropolitan areas. Hence in a country with more than 100 languages and 1600 regional dialects, regional content is the way to go – the journey has just begun! It drives forward salience and cultural relevance, besides promoting audience resonance for mass content consumption.

Regional Content Navigating Media Growth

According to FICCI-EY Media and Entertainment sector research, regional language will cover almost 60% of television consumption in 2025. It will see a significant rise from the 55% calculated in the year 2020 and the 50% of audiences who streamed regional media content throughout the year 2019.

These channels have catered to the requirements of the vast native speaking population in this country. Hence, in a bid to develop a culturally inclined environment, media houses focus on producing digital content in regional languages. The entertainment industry comprising television, films, music, and OTT platforms are some of the best examples you can refer to. It is further aggravated by the power of social media and the boom of the Internet.

He says that regional markets have tremendous potential and scope for growth. There are a lot of viable opportunities for the media houses to expand to different networks with their regional content. To gain insights into the emerging patterns of content consumption, the experts analyse the variations in content preferences among the audiences. Some years of research and surveying has culminated into hyper-localisation of content through modifications in the content strategy.

Content production in regional language is a coming of the age revolution. In the Covid 19 pandemic, we saw the online streaming platforms ramping up their libraries with content in regional languages. This stresses the importance of language nuance in content delivery.

The growth in TV consumption in regional language consumption in the year 2019 stood as follows:-

· Gujarati (157 %)

· Assamese (125 %)

· Bhojpuri (200 %)

· Marathi (128 %)

· Urdu (179 %)

· Odia (111 %)

· Bengali (83 %)

Regional Languages Take the OTT Spotlight

OTT platforms are leaving no stone unturned when delivering content in the regional language. They are leveraging distribution deals by consulting with the right collaborators. It is fueling next-level growth in viewership over a global diaspora.

Language OTTs offer a deep understanding of audiences while providing other offerings like entertainment content, regional news, games etc. Approximately 84% of the viewers prefer to watch non-English content. So, while mainstream language content is available on most online platforms, consumers want to watch them in their local language. Media professionals tend to produce linguistically diverse online content to satiate this need.

Why is Localisation of Digital Content Important?

• Taking pride in one’s language/Cultural relevance

Language is a matter of pride for the people. When people watch content in their own language, they find it easy to understand. They can communicate better in their local dialect and connect with others. This way, it promotes cultural togetherness too. As we all notice, how language plays an important role even in human connections.

• Building Trust

When media brands devote their precious time to crafting content in regional language, the audiences start appreciating this commitment. This is how localising content builds trust to create a successful business.

• Better Response and High User Engagement

You can create genuine brand connections by delivering regional content to the targeted audiences. This helps amplify user engagement, and brands can gather better responses.

“Everyone today wants to consume content in their language. They take pride in this factor to watch content in a dialect that reflects a feeling of belongingness and oneness. People today are not shy to communicate in their regional language. This is getting reflected in media consumption behaviour. Localisation of content is important. It also becomes an advantage for the brands by enhancing regional centric brand awareness through creative content production in regional language.”

The journey in regionalization has just started and we will see a sharp velocity with which it will expand. Content is like water which has started flowing across boundaries with greater speed and acceptability. This will be the the most exciting decade for content creators and marketers.