India's OTT usage grows 20% year on year

New research from media consultancy Ormax Media suggests that India’s OTT – online video services – continue to grow, with the audience swelling by a fifth in the past year and much of that coming from rural areas.

The research

Ormax Media’s study surveyed 13,500 people across both rural and urban India, indicating that the country’s OTT penetration now stands at 30% – roughly 420 million people.

“India’s OTT audience universe has grown rapidly since 2018, with a boost during the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021,” Shailesh Kapoor, founder and CEO of Ormax Media, said in a statement.

Rural growth

At a penetration level of 79%, large cities are approaching saturation. Therefore, most of the 20% growth comes from rural and small-town audiences, which are key for the next phase of growth.

A focus on subscriptions

While the six largest cities contribute just 10% of the total OTT audience, they account for a third of its paid subscription viewership.

The average number of subscriptions, however, has remained static at 2.4 per paying user, reflecting the need for SVOD (subscription video on demand) services to grow by acquiring more paying users, rather than selling more to existing subscribers or those most likely to sign up.

Sourced from Ormax Media