October 22, 2020
India is the world’s fastest growing OTT market, and is poised to become the world’s 6th largest by 2024.
The market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 26.8% to reach a revenue of US$ 2.9 billion by 2024.
OTT includes not only video streaming, but also internet advertising, e-sports, games, music, radio, and podcasts.
Boost in OTT consumption can be attributed to the rise in internet subscribers and new subscribers in Tier I and Tier II cities.
According to a report by PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC) Media and Entertainment Outlook 2020, India has emerged as the world’s fastest growing OTT market. Over-the-Top streaming, includes not only OTT videos, but also internet advertising, video games, e-sports, music, radio and podcasts, all of which are expected to see an increase in revenue in the next few years, growing at a CAGR of 28.6% over the next four years to touch revenues of $2.9 billion, and become the world’s 6th largest OTT market.
This sudden rise in the revenue, can be attributed to the pandemic induced 7-month lockdown, which has brought the media and entertainment industry to a screeching halt. While the effects of COVID have been devastating on most industries of the Indian economy, it has been quite severe on the M&E industry, forcing several producers launch their films directly to digital platforms, proving to be a boon for the OTT market. With enhanced networks, stronger internet connectivity and multimedia service-capable mobiles, this boost in the OTT consumption in India can be attributed to the addition of new subscribers emerging from Tier I and from Tier II cities. Furthermore, OTT services like Netflix, Amazon, Disney+ Hotstar and others have made massive investments. Along with these global players, there are several Indian production houses like SonyLIV, Voot, Zee5, ErosNow, ALTBalaji, etc. which are also making a mark for themselves in the market.
According to the report, with the new at-home environment, there has been a rise in direct-to-consumer apps, local ‘bite-sized’ entertainment platforms. In the next few years, it is expected that there will be further increment in internet penetration and digital maturity, leading to a rise in OTT subscribers mostly from Tier II cities. The OTT landscape will get more ambitious in the next 4-5 years and OTT providers will undoubtedly emerge as the favoured platform amongst most people.