As per the Ormax OTT audience report released on December 7, the audience for the over-the-top (OTT) platforms have grown in double digits in 2022 versus last year.
20% Annual Increase in OTT Viewership
From 353.2 million in 2021, the viewers of streaming platforms have increased to 423.8 million, which is an impressive 20% increase in the numbers.
As per the report, with a penetration of 30 percent in the total Indian population, OTT is now seen by 3 out of 10 Indians at least once in the last one month.
Shailesh Kapoor, Founder & CEO, Ormax Media, a media consulting firm said that “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”.
Smaller Markets Shall Drive the Next Phase of Growth
He also said that next phase of growth will come from the smaller markets. Speaking about the same, he added “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”.
As we speak today, across 49 million paying (SVOD) audiences, there are 119 million active paid OTT subscriptions in India. This roughly translates into an average of 2.4 subscriptions per paying audience member. Speaking of the gender, males have 65 percent of these paid subscriptions.
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.
