The Binge Problem: Cracking OTT strategy amid content fatigue
How data-driven creativity and character-led storytelling can win the digital content game.
ADVERTISEMENT
When Aditi Shrivastava, co-founder and CEO of Pocket Aces, reflects on the Indian OTT space, it’s not from a position of speculation but from a front-row seat to its evolution. Pocket Aces has been a defining force in digital storytelling over the last decade, shaping audience habits and navigating the choppy waters of algorithm shifts, changing formats and ever-looming questions about monetization.
Speaking with Storyboard18, Shrivastava dives deep into the current OTT transition, where platforms are working overtime to fine-tune their business models. She explains how there’s now a clear bifurcation in how streamers think about content: user acquisition versus user retention. Big stars and headline shows draw people in, while smaller, consistent storytelling efforts keep them from churning. The weekly release format is part of this recalibration—designed to make users stick around longer rather than subscribing for a month, bingeing a show, and disappearing. The strategy makes business sense: weekly drops increase the number of touchpoints a user has with the app, offering more chances to hook them with other content. “In a weekly release, the user comes back eight times for an eight-episode show. That means eight opportunities to scroll, browse, and discover something else,” she says.
But amid talk of fatigue and saturation, Shrivastava dismisses the idea of content overload being a real challenge—at least in the long form. “Content fatigue is real maybe in short-form video apps, but long form? Absolutely not,” she argues. According to her, Indian audiences still have limited quality content to engage with consistently, especially in web series that fall between the extremes of blockbuster films and short viral videos. In fact, platforms like YouTube—which still dominate viewership—host only a handful of quality scripted series creators. “Free web content is a huge gap,” Shrivastava notes. And despite the growing visibility of global hits like White Lotus or Succession, they remain niche in India. What truly drives mass viewership here are K-dramas, Turkish series, and anime—genres that are increasingly available on Indian OTTs.
For Pocket Aces, which operates across YouTube, OTT platforms, and social channels, audience understanding begins with testing. Shrivastava shares how short-form videos, particularly on FilterCopy, have long been their R&D lab. “Only the concepts that worked in 3-to-5-minute videos got converted into web series,” she says, naming hits like Little Things, What the Folks, and Adulting that were all born from audience reactions to short-form formats. Platforms like Instagram and YouTube Shorts now serve as feedback loops. But she also calls out a broader industry blind spot: “Large filmmakers don’t test anything. They go by gut, by what their buyers say, or by relationships. It’s criminal in today’s day and age to not test, especially when you're spending so much money.”
Diversity—on-screen and off—has become another cornerstone for the Pocket Aces team, but not in a checkbox sense. The company practices what Shrivastava calls “meritocratic inclusion.” “48% of our team are women, which naturally reflects in the decisions we make,” she says. It goes beyond gender to include socio-economic and regional diversity. From a Tamil family-centered show made with Viacom to an upcoming Sikh family drama, Pocket Aces has intentionally collaborated with creators from those communities to maintain authenticity. “We don’t force diversity. But if you’re striving to tell the most authentic story, it will reflect diversity by default,” she adds.
Still, in the pursuit of universal stories, the question of relatability looms. How does a show based on a specific region or character connect with the pan-India audience? Shrivastava says the key lies in storytelling rooted in the intricacies of everyday life—aspirations, familial relationships, emotional complexities. “We’re yet to do a rural India show, but we’ve developed one and it’s beautiful. At the end of the day, everyone connects with the simplicity of life and relationships,” she explains.
Looking back, Shrivastava credits Pocket Aces’ outsider status as one of its biggest strengths. “We knew nothing. We knew no one. So we thought in first principles,” she says. This outsider lens allowed them to study both Indian and global markets with detachment—from WeChat and TikTok in China to BuzzFeed in the U.S.—and gave them the confidence to take bold bets. They were the first in India to lean into Facebook video when everyone was still focused on YouTube. “It was because we didn’t know anyone at YouTube or Facebook. But I’d gone to Princeton, the second university to get Facebook after Harvard, so we knew the product,” she recalls.
That ability to read shifts early helped Pocket Aces partner with Netflix even before it had formally launched in India. It also helped them find the right long-term partner in Saregama. “Media is not like tech—it doesn’t scale overnight. Every product is handcrafted. Relationships matter,” Shrivastava says. With music becoming increasingly central to content strategy, aligning with Saregama has strengthened their footing. But more than anything, Shrivastava believes it’s Pocket Aces’ blend of financial prudence and creative agility that continues to set them apart. “We’ve always tried to see where the macro is headed, not just the mood of the moment.”
