India’s Leading OTT Players Surge Amid Digital Entertainment Boom

SUMMARY

• High internet penetration, an increase in the number of internet users, and rising adoption of digital payments have led to a boom in the popularity of homegrown OTT players
• The subscription video on demand (SVOD) market in India is projected to grow at a CAGR of 11.1% to become a $2.77 Bn opportunity by 2027
• The Indian OTT market is seeing a surge of both international and homegrown players, with platforms like JioCinema, Zee5, and TVFPlay gaining significant traction alongside global giants such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video.

Entertainment consumption trends in India have swung like a pendulum in the past five years. While the Covid-induced lockdowns put a dampener on India’s flourishing movie theatre businesses, it proved to be a blessing for over-the-top (OTT) streaming platforms.

While many of these platforms were already operational in the country for some years by then, what exacerbated the influx of users to these streaming platforms were strong tailwinds such as affordable high-speed internet, a sharp uptick in the number of internet users and increased adoption of digital payments.

Since then, these players have barely looked back. The OTT streaming market in India reached an all-time high in 2023, with about 707 Mn internet users having been actively engaged in OTT audio and video services, as per ‘Internet in India Report 2023’.

Realising that there was a huge pent-up demand for such services, global giants such as Netflix, Amazon and Disney+ Hotstar aggressively poached users with expansive content libraries, discounted pricing (in some cases 70-90% lower than their US plans), and bundled plans in partnerships with telecom operators.

On the other hand, homegrown platforms like Zee5, TVF Play and Stage tapped into the growing demand for vernacular content that catered to India across the board. 

Later on, the entry of JioCinema disrupted the ecosystem to such an extent that Disney+ Hotstar had to set in motion its $8.5 Bn merger with the Reliance-backed streaming platform.

And this dogfight in the Indian streaming market is not without reason. As per reports, the Indian subscription video on demand (SVOD) market in India is projected to grow at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11.1% to become a $2.77 Bn opportunity by 2027.

Glaring at this huge market, we thought of curating a list of the top OTT players shaping the Indian streaming landscape. So, without further ado, here is the full list:

Note: This is not a ranking of any kind, and the companies are listed in alphabetical order.

Aha!

Founded by film producer and distributor Allu Arvind in 2020, Aha streams content in two regional languages – Telugu and Tamil. The platform is owned by Arha Media and Broadcasting Private Limited, which is a joint venture between Geetha Arts and My Home Group.

The platform claims that it has a paid subscriber base of 2.5 Mn. Its app has over 1 Cr downloads on the Google Play Store. The platform’s subscription plans vary from INR 99 for three months to INR 899 a year.

In 2023, Aha’s promoter Allu Aravind and CEO Ajit Thakur said that the platform would receive an investment of over INR 1,000 Cr in the next three years. Aha will be deploying the fresh capital towards consolidation of its current languages and expansion into new languages and genres.

Addatimes 

Addatimes, an OTT platform that primarily streams Bengali content, was launched in 2016 by Rajiv Mehra. The platform expanded to Bangladesh in 2020 and was later acquired by Surinder Films, a production house focusing on Bengali content, in 2023. 

The platform produces original series as well as full feature films adding to its 6000 hours of content, which is available in over 170 countries.

Although popular with its Bengali audience, the platform also offers content in Hindi and Odia. The current subscription plans are 799 and 1199 per year  for one and two screens respectively. 

ALTBalaji

ALTBalaji, a subscription-based video-on-demand platform launched in 2017 by Ekta Kapoor’s Balaji Telefilms, primarily caters to the Hindi-speaking audience in India. With an annual subscription fee of INR 693, it competes with both domestic rivals like MX Player, SonyLiv, Disney+ Hotstar, Zee5, and international giants like Amazon Prime Video and Netflix.

Despite facing stiff competition, ALTBalaji’s parent company, ALT Digital, has shown signs of improvement. In the first nine months of FY24, the platform’s EBITDA loss narrowed by 69% to INR 17.2 Cr compared to INR 56.1 Cr in the same period of the previous fiscal year.

Amazon Prime Video

Amazon entered the Indian ecommerce market in 2013 but later diversified its business and launched Prime Video, its video-on-demand and OTT platform, in India in 2016.

Prime Video has over 230 Mn subscribers worldwide, with 59.8 Mn users in India. To the Indian audience, the platform offers movies, TV shows and original series in multiple Indian languages.

Akshay Sahi heads Amazon Prime, delivery and returns experiences for India and emerging markets. Earlier this year, Prime Video and Amazon Studios Senior VP, Mike Hopkins, said that for the last several years India has given Prime the highest number of subscribers and signups outside the US.

More recently, Abhinav Agarwal, director and head of Amazon India Prime, told Inc42 that the company will launch two new cheaper annual membership plans — Prime Lite and Prime Shopping Edition.

Apple TV+

Tech major Apple launched its OTT service Apple TV+ in 2019 in India. Apple TV+ offers three subscription options which include a three-month free subscription on the purchase of an Apple device, a INR 99 per month plan after a 7-day free trial or a free 1-month trial with Apple One, bundling Apple TV+ with three other services at a low monthly rate.

Since its launch, Apple TV+ has bagged many awards and generated hits but hasn’t launched any original content in the Indian market. To compensate for this, the company has been partnering with other entities to piggybank its platform in the country. 

In 2023, Apple TV+ partnered with Tata Play Binge to make its content accessible across mobile devices, smart TVs, desktops, laptops and tablets, the web, connected to Binge+ set-top box, Tata Play. 

Earlier in August, Apple partnered with Airtel to bring exclusive offers of Apple TV+ and Apple Music to its customers. The partnership will see Airtel Xstream customers gain access to Apple TV+ content as part of Airtel’s premium Wi-Fi and postpaid plans. The Apple Music and Apple TV+ offers will be available exclusively to Airtel customers in India soon.

Arre

Launched in October 2015 by former Network 18 and TV 18 executives B Sai Kumar, Ajay Chacko, and Sanjay Ray Chaudhari, Arre creates original content for its own platforms and for other video streaming services, including Netflix.

Arre Studio, a dedicated wing within the company, creates large format shows and mini-series for leading OTT platforms in India. It offers content across video, audio, text, formats and across various genres, including fiction, factual entertainment, documentaries, social experiments, and more.

The Mumbai-based startup earns revenue through a mix of branded content, advertising and syndication to other platforms.

Chaupal

Chaupal is a multi-regional OTT platform launched in 2021, offering content in Punjabi, Haryanvi, and Bhojpuri languages. It was founded by Sandeep Bansal, who is also the CEO of the platform.

The platform produces original films and web series, and acquires theatre-released films. Chaupal is accessible in 244 countries on smartphones, PCs, and smart TVs.

Just like other OTT platforms, it also operates on a subscription model. The platform focuses on high-quality production and collaborates with known actors. By targeting regional content, Chaupal has established itself in the competitive Indian OTT market.

Disney+ Hotstar 

Launched in 2015, Disney+ Hotstar is an online video streaming platform owned by Novi Digital Entertainment Private Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Star India Private Limited.

The platform houses 1 Lakh hours of content and movies in nine languages.

Its Mobile (Ad-Supported) plan costs INR 149 for 3 months or INR 499 per year and allows access on one device. The Super (Ad-Supported) plan, at INR 299 for 3 months or INR 899 per year, supports two devices. The Premium (Ad-Free) plan, priced at INR 299 per month, INR 499 for 3 months, or INR 1499 per year, permits access on four devices.

Parent Walt Disney is set to merge its India unit with Reliance as part of a joint venture (JV). Pegged at over $8.5 Bn, the deal will create India’s biggest media conglomerate spanning properties of Star India as well as Viacom18. 

The OTT platform shed 5 Lakh subscribers in the June quarter of 2024 (Q3). As per parent Walt Disney’s financial statements for the quarter, the OTT platform saw its paid user base decline nearly 1.4% to 3.5 Cr in Q3 from 3.6 Cr in the previous quarter. 

Hoichoi

Hoichoi, a subscription-based OTT platform focussing on Bengali content, was launched in 2017 by SVF Entertainment. It was co-founded by Shrikant Mohta, Mahendra Soni, and Vishnu Mohta.The platform hosts over 600 Bengali movies, 150+ original web series, short films, and documentaries. Popular original series include Eken Babu, Byomkesh, and Mandaar.

Hoichoi has approximately 13 Mn subscribers in over 100 countries. It aimed for a 50-75% revenue increase in FY23, with about 40% of its direct revenue coming from international markets.

In 2023, Vishnu Mohta said that the Bengali OTT platform had seen a 40% year-on-year increase in direct subscriptions and a 60% rise in individual watch-time per subscriber.

The company has partnerships with Vodafone and smart TV brands such as Samsung, Amazon Fire Stick and Roku. Moving forward, it plans to expand its content library and explore other regional languages like Tamil, Telugu, and Malayalam.

Hungama OTT

Launched in 2011, Hungama OTT app provides users with a combination of songs, movies, original shows, music videos, online radio, audio books, games and podcasts. Its music library contains over 3 Cr songs in English, Hindi, Punjabi, Kannada, among 13 languages. The app is available in India, US, Pakistan and has over 5 Cr downloads on the Google Play Store.

Its Gold subscription comes with price tags of INR 99 for one week, INR 199 for a month, INR 299 and INR 449 for quarterly and annual membership. With the subscription, users get ad free music streaming, movies, among other aforementioned offerings.

Users can still stream music and other audio offerings with ads for free. Besides, it also has a library of rental movies as well priced at INR 179 for one time watch.

JioCinema

Reliance Industries Limited (RILforayed into the OTT arena in 2016 in conjunction with Viacom18. It operates on a freemium model, offering a free tier with ads and a premium tier at INR 999 annually.

To capture public interest, the platform has been introducing a slew of mass IPs that garnered it a subscriber base of over 421 Mn as of September 2023. Popular content hosted by JioCinema includes Indian Premier League (IPL), Bigg Boss, Splitsvilla, and a host of foreign content from HBO, Paramount Plus, and American streaming service provider Peacock, among others.

As of now, the platform is all set to merge with Disney+ Hotstar to become the leading OTT platform in India in terms of content library.

In March this year, JioCinema joined hands with short-video social media platforms Sharechat and Moj to showcase its sports content, including the Indian Premier League (IPL), the Women’s Premier League (WPL), the Indian Super League (ISL), and the 2024 Olympics.

Manorama Max

Marking its foray into the OTT space, regional Malayali network Manorama TV launched ManoramaMAX in 2019. The app combines the offerings of Mazhavil Manorama and Manorama News.

It hosts a collection of over 400 Malayalam films, daily news shorts and exclusives.

It is available on Android, iOS, LG Smart TV (WebOS), Samsung TV (Tizen) , Apple TV, Fire TV and Google Chromecast.

ManoramaMAX’s annual combo plan is priced at INR 1,299 and gives unlimited access to all premium and non-premium articles and exclusive content with an ad-lite experience.

Netflix

One of the biggest names in the OTT arena globally, Netflix entered the Indian market in 2016. On the back of a robust content catalogue in the country, India emerged as the second biggest market for the streaming giant in terms of paid subscriber additions for the quarter ended June 2024. Indian shows and movies clocked more than 1 Bn views on streaming platform Netflix between July and December 2023.

Fuelling the surging numbers has been the growing subscriber base of the OTT streaming platform globally. In addition, Netflix’s diverse content library, spanning multiple countries, has also been an attractive proposition to woo new users, amid mounting competition.

Netflix has been strategically cutting subscription prices, cracking down on password sharing, and expanding its library in India over the past few years. As a result, the company’s India arm was able to register a 75% year-on-year (YoY) increase in profit to INR 35 Cr in its last disclosed financial results for the financial year 2022-23 (FY23).

Planet Marathi

Founded in 2020 by Akshay Bardapurkar,  Planet Marathi bids to fill in the gap of high quality Marathi language content in the bustling Indian OTT ecosystem. Since launch, the OTT platform offers Marathi content, from original web series, to short films, talk shows, events, music videos. It claims over 24 Mn video plays since launch.

Planet Marathi is available on Android and iOS platforms globally. It has over 1 Mn downloads on Google’s App Store.

The startup has diversified into brand and celebrity management through Planet Talent. It has also launched initiatives like Planet Bharat and Planet Goem to expand into different languages and regions.

Saina Play

Saina Play, launched in January 2019, is an Indian OTT streaming platform specialising in Malayalam content. Founded by P.M. Bava and his son Aashiq Bava, the platform evolved from Saina Audio & Video, a video distribution business established in 1985 in Chennai.

It offers a diverse library of movies, web series, and music, available in resolutions up to 1080p. The service is accessible across multiple platforms, including Google Play Store, App Store, Android TV, and Fire TV. Since its launch, the platform has gained substantial traction, surpassing 2 Mn app downloads.

With a focus on making regional content more accessible, Saina Play provides both free and premium content. Subscription plans were initially priced at INR 119 per month or INR 999 per year. The platform aims to support regional content creators while catering to a global audience interested in Malayalam entertainment.

SonyLIV

SonyLIV was launched in 2013 by Sony Pictures Networks India. It quickly became popular for its live sports and original content in multiple Indian languages.

 As of 2023, SonyLIV enjoyed a global user base of 33.3 Mn paid subscribers, which has grown substantially from 700K in 2020.

SunNxt

SunTV Network launched OTT platform SunNXT in June 2017, quickly gaining traction in the Indian OTT market. The platform acquired 1.1 Mn users within four days and reached 7 Mn users by November 2017. The platform streams content in six Indian languages.

Its library of 4,000 movies and 30 live TV channels appeals to viewers of multiple languages. The platform’s focus on regional content sets it apart in the competitive OTT landscape.

With 3.73 Mn monthly active users and 8.4 Lakh+ daily active users, the platform garners strong engagement. Kalanithi Maran leads Sun TV Network with a 75% stake.

Stage

Launched in 2019, Stage focuses on regional content. It was founded by Vinay Singhal, Shashank Vaishnav, and Parveen Singhal.

In 2021, Stage raised $2.5 Mn in a Series A round led by Blume Ventures, valuing the company at $10 Mn. The platform offers web series, comedy shows, poetry, and user-generated content in regional languages.

Operating on a subscription model, Stage also monetises through ads and brand partnerships. The platform’s key features include regional content focus and user-generated content capability.

The founders’ background in content creation guides the platform’s strategy. By targeting regional audiences, Stage has carved a niche in the Indian OTT market.

Ullu Digital

Founded by Vibhu Agarwal and Megha Agarwal in 2018, Ullu Digital is a Mumbai-based OTT platform that is engaged in the distribution, promotion, exhibition, marketing and delivery of various content on its digital platform and app.

Its membership plans are priced at INR 693, INR 396, INR 225, and INR 99. The platform filed its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) in February this year. Via the IPO, Ullu Digital plans to raise INR 135-INR 150 Cr, which, if approved, would become the biggest SME IPO to date.

Ullu posted an operating revenue of INR 93.1 Cr in FY23, which doubled from INR 46.8 Cr in the previous fiscal year. Its profits also jumped to INR 15.1 Cr from INR 3.9 Cr in FY22.