The Indian OTT audience number (in totality) is currently pegged at 353.2 million (35.32 crore) and this translates into a penetration of 25.3%, which means that one in four Indians watched online videos at least once in the last one month.
There are currently 96 million active paid OTT subscriptions in India, across 40.7 million paying (SVOD) audiences — on an average of 2.4 subscriptions per paying audience member.
These numbers emerged in a research survey carried out by the consulting firm Ormax Media. It was based on a sample size of 12,000 people across urban and rural India, and was conducted between May and July 2021.
6 metros contribute only 11% to India’s OTT universe
The research, titled ‘The Ormax OTT Audience Report 2021’, said 66% of these paid subscriptions are with male audience. The top 6 metros contribute only 11% to India’s OTT universe but 35% to total paid subscriptions in India. Bengaluru, Delhi and Mumbai are the top 3 cities in this regard, with more than 8 million active paid subscriptions each.
Shailesh Kapoor, Founder & CEO – Ormax Media, said: “OTT is no longer a niche category, but at 25% penetration, there is still a huge potential to grow the market, especially outside the top cities.”
Interestingly, the report said only 110.5 million out of the 353.2 million OTT audience watch paid content online.
Further, only 40.7 million are actual paying audience (subscribers) while the rest make do with subscriptions taken by family or friends or bundles etc.
The report breaks up the 353.2 million OTT universe into four segments: SVOD (Subscription Video on Demand) paying member is a person who has paid for at least one streaming service themselves. It comprises 40.7 million people making up 11.5% of the total.
SVOD non-paying member is one who watches content on paid platforms, but has not paid for subscription themselves. This segment constitutes 19.8% at 69.8 million.
AVOD (Ad-based Video on Demand) category, the biggest category at 158.5 million (44.9%), watches streaming content only on free platforms (YouTube plus at least one platform).
The fourth category is those who watch content only on YouTube and social media platform, and they also form a good 23.8% at 84.2 million.
