The consumption of OTT content has dramatically risen across the world in the last few years. During the Covid-19 lockdown, an increasing number of people began watching content on OTT platforms such as Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+ Hotstar, etc. Interestingly, the number of OTT viewers in India reached 423.8 million (42.38 crore) in Q3 2022. This is a satisfactory figure considering that the country has over 1.4 billion people and over 700 million Internet users. To put things in context, three out of every ten Indians watched online videos at least once in the last month.
India’s OTT audience universe is defined as the number of people in India who watched online videos at least once in the last one month.
According to the “Ormax OTT Audience Sizing Report 2022,” India’s OTT audience universe grew an impressive 20% YoY in 2022. Despite the fact that movie theatres have reopened following the country’s nearly two-year Covid-19 lockdown, this growth has still continued.
Ormax Media conducted the survey from July to September 2022, with a sample size of 13,500 people from urban and rural India.
OTT Segments Based On Usage
The OTT content divided into four categories: SVOD direct, SVOD indirect, AVOD+, and YouTube and Social Media only.
A whopping 184.5 million OTT viewers are watching content on AVOD (Advertising-Based Video on Demand) platforms. These are the people who watch videos only on free streaming platforms, including at least one platform besides YouTube. India has seen a 16.4% YoY growth in AVOD users in 2022.
Most people think of YouTube and other social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram when it comes to watching free videos online. A staggering 109.2 million people in India found watching free content on YouTube and/or social media platforms only. When compared to the year-ago period, it is a significant 30% increase.
But the question arises, how many paid subscriptions are currently active in India?
There are currently 119 million active paid OTT subscriptions in India. Nearly 49 million of those belong to SVoD (Subscription Video On Demand) Direct segment. In other words, only 11.6% of all OTT viewers in India paid directly (not via telecom bundles) for at least one streaming service. The number of paying SVOD subscribers has increased 20% YoY, from 40.7 million in 2021 to 49 million in 2022.
In comparison, approximately 81.2 million or 19.2% of all Indian OTT viewers watch content on SVOD platforms, either using a family/friends membership or via telecom bundles only. This represented a 16.3% increase year on year.
The report also highlighted that the top six metro cities contribute only 10% to India’s OTT universe, but 33% to total paid subscriptions in India.
