The consumption share of Indian languages, other than Hindi, on OTT platforms in India is expected to cross 50% threshold by 2025 from 30% held in 2019. The leader so far, Hindi, is expected to hover around 45%. In other words, Bollywood, which is already losing its dominance in the national discourse, will find it even more elbowed out.
This was revealed in the India edition of Deloitte’s 2022 Global TMT (Technology, Media, and Entertainment, Telecom) predictions.
"Greater adoption by audiences, the popularity of international content (such as Korean, Israeli, or Spanish) in India, and the ability to attract a wider audience through subtitles and dubbed content, have broken previously held views on the characteristics of the Indian market. These trends have forced many streaming companies to revise their original strategies," Deloitte said.
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Boom in regional content
The report said that India currently has about 102 million SVOD (Subscription Video on Demand) subscribers and this number is estimated to increase at a CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) of 17% to reach 224 million by 2026.
Further India’s AVOD (Advertising-based Video on Demand) market is expected to continue to pull in more revenue than SVOD, increasing its current rate from $1.1 billion in 2021 to $2.4 billion in 2026. In the same period, SVOD is expected to grow from its current $0.8 billion to $2.1 billion in 2026.
The OTT market currently makes up only 7−9% of India’s entertainment industry. However, the OTT space is expected to grow at a CAGR of more than 20% to reach $13-15 billion over the next decade, the TMT report said.
OTT platforms invested an estimated $665 million in content in 2021, with Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Disney+ Hotstar leading the pack with a combined spend of $380 million. Others, led by the Zee and Sony combo, are also gradually scaling their investments as they aim to catch up.
The OTT space is highly competitive with more than 40 streaming players jostling for supremacy. Demand for OTT streaming content based on geodemography is also on the rise, both within India and internationally from the considerable Indian diaspora. The country is witnessing a boom in regional content and platforms created to address this demand.
Aggregation and bundling of apps
The report added that pricing for streaming services will remain competitive as players attempt to stabilise and consolidate their customer base while minimising the risk of churn to other services. Each paying customer in India has, on average, 2.4 subscriptions. However, given the price sensitivity, Indian customers may not continue to pay for multiple OTT streaming services, the report predicted.
"App aggregation and bundling can play an important role in expanding the market by bringing considerable value to consumers in terms of affordability, useability (single sign-on, single-window content discovery, etc), and compatibility with existing devices." Tata has done that with Tata Play while Bharti has attempted with Airtel Xstream Premium recently. Jio has been offering a bundle of OTT apps on its platform for sometime now.
This growth of OTT in India is driven by heavy investment in original content, pricing innovations, low data costs, and the rise of short-form content. However, this progression from the early stage to the mass stage might come at a cost to the broader media industry as subscribers, especially in tier 1 and tier 2 cities, may switch to streaming platforms from traditional linear TV.
Gaming and commerce are important elements contributing to attract, retain and amplify consumer stickiness as the battle within the evolving digital world continues, the report added.
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