India’s OTT market continues growth

India’s over-the-top streaming (OTT) market remains one of the fastest growing markets in the world. Over the past twelve months, spurred on by the Covid-19-induced lockdown, total domestic OTT consumption increased from 181 billion minutes to 204 billion minutes.

Monthly OTT consumption however showed significant variation over the twelve months, according to an analysis by RedSeer. The differences not surprisingly followed the pattern of the lockdowns imposed by the government, dipping to 195 billion minutes of OTT consumption in June, and then jumping to 231 billion minutes in October.

Fourth quarter consumption was however also lifted by a number of major OTT releases, including sporting events, new movies and a campaign from Netflix to ramp up its following in India.

Monthly Consumption
According to a Boston Consulting Group report from two years ago, India’s OTT market is poised to reach $5 billion in size by 2023, although this number should likely to be revised upwards on the back of the rapid uptake seen during Covid-19. More systematic drivers of growth are rising affluence, increase in penetration of data into rural markets and adoption across demographic segments including women and older generations.

The first dependent OTT platform in India was BIGFlix, launched by Reliance Entertainment in 2008, however, today US giants Netflix and Amazon Prime Video are among the largest players. In terms of customer satisfaction, the subscription video on demand platforms Netflix and Amazon Prime Video also lead the way with scores of over 50%, meaning that a majority of users would recommend buying the streaming service to peers.

Player NPS, OTT Video Players
However, in terms of the number of subscriptions, Hotstar (now Disney+Hotstar) is the most subscribed to OTT platform in India, with around 300 million active users and over 350 million downloads. For many middle-class Indians, Hotstar is more attractive due to its lower subscription rate.

Across the landscape, India is home to around 40 providers of over-the-top media streaming providers, including Eros Now, Voot, JioCinema, JioTV, MX Player and Asianet Mobile TV.

OTT is a segment of the media & entertainment sector, which is according to PwC poised to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of more than 10% in the years up to 2024, which will see it pass the $55 billion mark. Consultancy