Sport Dominates as India’s Premium Streaming Market Recovers

Revenues from India’s premium video-on-demand sector surged by 38% to generate $1.04 billion in the first half of this year, compared with $760 million in the first half of 2023. Local content, especially live sports, were the dominant programming categories, across the country’s ad-supported (AVOD), freemium and paid subscription (SVOD) services, according to a new report.

Using data collected by the AMPD passive measurement system, consultancy firm Media Partners Asia, said that 8 trillion minutes of content were streamed in India between January and June.
YouTube dominated the Indian streaming landscape, capturing 92% of all online video consumption, while premium platforms accounted for the remaining 8%. Within that premium video segment, with its 645 billion minutes streamed, freemium platforms led with 92% segment viewing time share.

In India’s vast and price sensitive market, premium and SVOD platforms, in particular, still have a tiny market share, but enjoy a high profile due to their disproportionately strong revenues.

Sports content attracted the highest number of unique viewers, with nine of the top 15 titles belonging to the sports genre. Cricket was the standout, as IPL 2024 and the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 were the top two sports properties, driving significant viewership.

This underlines the importance of the dispute between Disney India and Zee Entertainment Enterprises over a collapsed cricket rights deal, and also the regulatory interest in the pending merger between Reliance Industries Limited’s media businesses and those of Disney India.

Reliance’s Jio Cinema, Netflix, and Disney+ Hotstar led premium VOD category monetization, contributing some 70% of the total revenues garnered by the category. Jio Cinema was the category leader in the first half of 2024, with 36% revenue share while Netflix led pure-play SVOD monetization with a 38% share, said Media Partners Asia’s new report.

“After a turbulent 2023, total SVOD subscriptions rebounded from 110 million to 120 million in the first half of 2024. India’s total addressable market of affluent audiences continues to expand, with Netflix and Prime Video capitalizing on this trend through investments in local originals and films. Together, these platforms accounted for nearly 70% of SVOD revenue in the first half of 2024. Meanwhile, Jio Cinema’s launch of an affordable plan has further broadened the SVOD audience, incentivizing more users to pay for streaming content,” said Media Partners Asia.

(In a report on the Indian streaming sector published last month by another consultancy firm, Ormax calculated a 14% year-on-year increase in the number of streaming users, to 547 million, and said that growth was “entirely driven” by the AVOD segment.)

“Subscriber growth momentum will continue in 2H 2024, driven by aggregation and deeper partnerships with telcos, pay-TV operators, and OEMs. In addition, with the onset of the festive season, advertising spending should be robust in Q4 2024. However, with no major sports events, spending will shift toward tentpole non-fiction shows on premium VOD platforms, with a significant portion moving back to high-reach UGC platforms,” said MPA India vice president Mihir Shah.

“Netflix and Prime Video have a steady stream of content planned for 2H 2024. For freemium platforms, entertainment spends have started to come back under new advertising-friendly formats like TV++, which are similar to daily TV soap operas with 40-120+ episodes per season. These formats have proven to attract new users and drive engagement with lower budgets.”