Over-the-top media service in India

There are currently about 40 providers of over–the–top media services (OTT) in India, which distribute streaming media over the Internet. In fiscal year 2018, the OTT market in India was worth ₹2,150 crore (₹21.5 billion, US$303 million as of 2018), and its value grew to ₹35 billion in 2019.

According to a KPMG report, the average time spent by Indian subscribers on various OTT platforms is 20–50 minutes.

History and growth

The first dependent Indian OTT platform was BIGFlix, launched by Reliance Entertainment in 2008.[1]

In 2010, Digivive launched India's first OTT mobile app called nexGTv, which provides access to both live TV and on–demand content. nexGTV is the first app to live–stream Indian Premier League matches on mobile phones and did so during 2013 and 2014.

OTT gained significant momentum in India when both DittoTV (Zee) and Sony Liv were launched in the Indian market around 2013. DittoTV was an aggregator platform containing shows across all media channels including Star, Sony, Viacom, Zee, etc.

Rise of OTT in India

Rise of Hotstar

Hotstar, (now Disney+ Hotstar), is the most subscribed–to OTT platform in India, owned by Star India as of July 2020, with around 300 million active users and over 350 million downloads.[2] According to Hotstar's India Watch Report 2018, 96% of watch time on Hotstar comes from videos longer than 20 minutes, while one–third of Hotstar subscribers watch television shows.[3] In 2019, Hotstar began investing ₹120 crore in generating original content such as "Hotstar Specials". 80% of the viewership on Hotstar comes from drama, movies and sports programs.[2]

Netflix in India

American streaming service Netflix entered India in January 2016. In April 2017, it was registered as a limited liability partnership (LLP) and started commissioning content. It earned a net profit of ₹2020,000 (₹2.02 million) for fiscal year 2017. In fiscal year 2018, Netflix earned revenues of ₹580 million.[4] According to Morgan Stanley Research, Netflix had the highest average watch time of more than 120 minutes but viewer counts of around 20 million in July 2018.[3] As of 2018, Netflix has six million subscribers, of which 5–6% are paid members.[5]

India was not affected by Netflix's July 2018 increase in subscription rates for the US and Latin America. Netflix has stated its intent to invest ₹600 Crore in the production of Indian original programming.[6] In late 2018, Netflix bought 150,000 square feet (14,000 m2) of office space in Bandra–Kurla Complex (BKC) in Mumbai as their head office. As of December 2018, Netflix has more than 40 employees in India.[4]

Netflix faces tough competition with other OTT platforms in India such as Amazon Prime, Hotstar, Voot and Eros Now, each of which charge lower subscription rates than Netflix.[5]

Other OTT providers

Sony LIV, the OTT platform from Sony India, has 30 million viewers with an average watch time of around 60 minutes.[3]

nexGTv is the flagship product of Digivive, a company of Media Matrix Worldwide. Its app offers users entertainment across multple devices. It streams over 200 live TV channels and on–demand content, including movies, TV Shows and videos. In 2015, nexGTv launched India's first mobile talent discovery platform, called "SPOTLight", with director Imtiaz Ali. In 2016 nexGTV, launched its first original series ‘’Ïn My City" with Priyanka Chopra making her mobile series debut.

Amazon Prime Video was launched in 2016. The platform has 2,300 titles available including 2,000 movies and about 400 shows. It has announced that it will invest ₹20 billion in creating original content in India. Besides English, Prime Video is available in six Indian languages as of December 2018.[7] Amazon India launched Amazon Prime Music in February 2018.[8]

Olly Plus, Was launched in 2020, By Sk Line Production Olly Plus is Odisha's new online Odia OTT platform where you can enjoy unlimited Odia Videos, Albums, Movies, Comedy Videos, Short Films, Audio Storys and Romantic videos on the go. Olly Plus has passionate plans to make the Cinema of Odisha touch a new height. Hope it will make its dearest dream of making cinema & Short Films globalized come true!

Eros Now, an OTT platform launched by Eros International, has the most content among the OTT providers in India, including over 11,000 films, 100,000 music albums & tracks, and 100 TV shows. Eros Now was named as 'Best OTT Platform of the Year 2019' at the British Asian Media Awards. It has 128 million registered users and 13 million paying subscribers as of February 2019.[9]

Apart from these, Balaji Telefilms–owned ALTBalaji and Viacom 18–owned Voot and some very popular because of unique content they provide are Fliz Movies and Ullu_App. These are the most–viewed OTT platforms in India. Reliance Jio–owned JioCinema and JioTV, and Times Group–owned MX Player are other OTT service providers in India.

Rise of regional content OTT players

Hoichoi is the first dedicated regional–language OTT service in India. It has launched 30 new shows and 12 original films in Bengali and has acquired about 200 Bengali films and dubbed content from English, Hindi and Arabic. In 2018 it entered Bangladesh as well as the United Arab Emirates, adding a prospective customer base of 180 million.[7]

In June 2017, Sun TV Network launched their Sun NXT regional OTT service in four South Indian languages namely Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada.[10]

In February 2020, Aha OTT platform is launched, which broadcasts exclusively Telugu content.[11]

Future predictions

According to KPMG Media and Entertainment Report 2018, the Indian OTT market is expected to grow 45 percent to reach ₹138 billion by the end of fiscal 2023.[3] According to a report by Ernst & Young, the number of OTT users in the country will reach 500 million by 2020, making India the second–biggest market after the US.[7]

List of OTT platforms in India
NameParentActive yearsNotes/Ref.
Amazon Prime Video Amazon2016–present[12][13]
Mubi Mubi Inc.2019–present[14]
Netflix Netflix Inc.2015–present[15]
Viu HK Television Entertainment2015–present[16][17]
Vuclip PCCW2008–present[18]
YuppTV YuppTV2007–present[19]
Aha Arha Media & Broadcasting Pvt. Ltd.2020-presentTelugu OTT[20]
ALTBalaji Balaji Telefilms2017–present[21]
Arre UDigital2015– present[22]
BIGFlix Reliance Entertainment2008–presentIndia's first movie on demand service[1]
Disney+ Hotstar Star India (The Walt Disney Company India)2015–presentIndia's most subscribed OTT platform[23][24]
DittoTV Zee Entertainment Enterprises2012–2018Integrated to Zee5 on 15 February 2018[25]
Eros Now Eros International2015–presentTittled as 'Best OTT Platform of the Year 2019' at the British Asian Media Awards[9]
Hoichoi Shree Venkatesh Films2017–presentBengali OTT[26]
MX Player Times Internet2018–present[27]
Sony Liv Sony Pictures Networks India2013–present[28][29]
Spuul Independent2012–present[30]
Sun NXT Sun TV Network2017–presentRegional OTT Platform[31][32]
The Viral Fever Independent2012–present[33]
Voot Viacom 182016–present[34]
ZEE5 Zee Entertainment Enterprises2018–present[35]
Ullu_App Ullu_App2018–present[36]
AK Online InfoPluto Media Works 2019-Present OTT Platform exclusively for Independent Films, Short Films, Music Videos and more.
Defunct
HOOQ Sony Pictures, Warner Bros. and Singtel2015–2020Dissolved in 2020[37]

List of podcast platforms in India
Name Free access Selective streaming Lossless (Hi-Fi) Track download Tracks (millions) Active users (millions) Paying users (millions) First launched Login required
Amazon Music Yes Yes Yes[38] Yes[39] 50 (Unlimited), 2 (Prime Music)[40] 16[41] Yes
Apple Music No Yes No Yes 60 60[42] 60[43] June 2015 Yes
Gaana Yes Yes No Yes Yes
Google Play Music No Yes No Yes[44] 40[45] November 2011 Yes
Hungama Yes Yes No Yes Yes
JioSaavn Yes Yes No Yes 30[46] 20[46] Yes
SoundCloud Yes Yes Partial Limited 200+[47] 175[48] No
Spotify Yes Yes No Yes 50[49] 289[50] 130 October 2008 Yes
Wynk Yes Yes No Yes Yes
YouTube Music Yes Yes No Yes 50[51] November 2015 No

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