OTT viewers increase in double digits in 2022, rural markets drive growth: Report

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Audience of over-the-top (OTT) platforms have grown in double digits in 2022 versus last year, said Ormax OTT audience report released on December 7.

Viewers of streaming platforms have increased by 20 percent to 423.8 million this year from 353.2 million in 2021.

OTTs have penetrated 30 percent of the total Indian population which means that three out of 10 Indians watched online videos at least once in the last one month, the report said.

"India’s OTT audience universe has grown rapidly since 2018, with a boost during the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021. In 2022, a large share of the 20 percent growth in audience base has come from rural India and small towns. The metro cities have reached saturation levels, with more than 79 percent OTT penetration," said Shailesh Kapoor, Founder & CEO, Ormax Media, a media consulting firm.

He said that platforms will have to rely on the smaller markets for the next phase of growth. "From an SVOD (subscription video-on-demand) perspective, the average number of subscriptions has remained static at 2.4 per paying user. This data suggests that subscription growth will come from more people paying for subscriptions, than the same people paying for more subscriptions,” Kapoor added.

Currently, there are 119 million active paid OTT subscriptions in India, across 49 million paying (SVOD) audiences which is an average of 2.4 subscriptions per paying audience member. And 65 percent of these paid subscriptions are with the male audience.

The top six metros contribute only 10 percent to India’s OTT universe but 33 percent to total paid subscriptions in India. Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru are the top three markets with more than 8.5 million active paid subscriptions each.