Cheaper Mobile Data & Streaming Video – The Biggest Digital Transformation of 2017!

With mobile data available at ultra-affordable prices, the influx of digital video consumption has seen a major upturn in the last one year. Jio’s entry brought in massive changes in the telecom industry. Jio’s dirt cheap data prices forced other operators to bring down their prices. As a result, streaming video services have experienced a massive rise in the last one year.

The big drop in prices of mobile data and a sea of new consumers drove up the volume of streaming video consumption giving digital content a vital push.

Mobile Data Consumption On The Rise

Last year, there were around 200 million mobile internet users in India, who on an average, used around 400-500MB of data a month. A little more than a year later there are close to 350 million users and the average data consumption has exploded to around 4GB per month.

This surge in the rate of data consumption will keep growing and as per the industry estimations, this will reach 11GB per month by mid-2020.

The volumes of mobile data consumption and streaming video have increased simultaneously. At present, videos account for around 75% of the total data consumption.

Demand For Digital Content Rising Too!

The increasing demand for video content on handheld devices, especially on streaming apps has seen a major surge in the past one year. Binge-watching TV and web series is currently a popular trend. With a majority of popular TV shows available online, the demand for original video content has also increased dramatically in the last few years. 

YouTube is the most popular free video streaming service. After that follow the TV broadcasters like Hotstar, Voot, Sony Liv, OZEE and Sun NXT. Next, come the international stalwarts Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. In addition to these services, are other popular streaming services like Jio TV, Jio Movies, ALT Balaji and HOOQ.

India & Streaming Video Services

Currently, in India, there are more than 30 video streaming platforms and consumers are spoilt for choice.

In the first two quarters of 2017 (January to June), India saw the biggest growth in the number of average monthly active users for the top video streaming apps, which saw an increase by more than 100%.

YouTube leads video streaming services in the country. It is followed by Jio TV, Jio Cinema, Hotstar, Voot, Amazon Prime, and finally, Netflix.

YouTube has seen a drastic jump in not only the total watch-time but also in the average number of users and Indian regional content.

Among 400 million Indians having access to the internet, more than half of them consume YouTube and have recorded a humongous 225 million monthly active user base.

Among premium video content providers, Hotstar has over 15 billion minutes of content on their platform, followed by Jio TV with 8.8 billion minutes, Voot with 7.5 billion minutes and Amazon Prime Video with 3.5 billion minutes of content. Netflix is consumed in India for close to 2 billion minutes.

When it comes to the time spent by each viewer per day, Netflix has around 51 minutes per day, followed by Voot with 43 minutes, Amazon Prime Video with 42 minutes, Hotstar 33 with minutes and Jio TV with 30 minutes.

Digital Advertising Set To Bloom

With the unbelievable growth and optimism regarding the future of such streaming services, TV still remains the biggest medium for the advertisers. But with increasing watchtime and viewers, the growth of digital advertising will soon overtake many small genres on TV.

As video streaming platforms have the wide reach and more user engagement for the advertisers, digital advertising is going to the next big thing in the internet sector.

With more exclusive content, movies and top sporting leagues, the video streaming platforms are bound to get a larger share of the ad pie, as the digital space will be delivering a more diverse and higher amount of content than other platforms who run basic content.