Sports dominates as India’s premium streaming market recovers

Revenue from India’s premium video-on-demand sector rose 38%, generating $1.04 billion in the first half of this year, compared to $760 million in the first half of 2023. Local content, especially live sports, was the dominant program category. across the country’s ad-supported (AVOD), freemium and paid subscription (SVOD) services, according to a new report.

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

In India’s vast and price-sensitive market, premium and SVOD platforms in particular still have a small market share but are well known for their disproportionately high revenues.

Sports content attracted the highest number of unique viewers, with nine of the top fifteen titles belonging to the sports genre. Cricket was the highlight as IPL 2024 and ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 were the top two sporting events, attracting high viewership.

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

Reliance’s Jio Cinema, Netflix and Disney+ Hotstar led the premium VOD category revenue generation, contributing around 70% of the category’s total revenue. Jio Cinema led the category in the first half of 2024, with a 36% revenue share, while Netflix drives pure-play SVOD revenue with a 38% share, according to the new report from Media Partners Asia.

“After a turbulent 2023, total SVOD subscriptions recovered from 110 million to 120 million in the first half of 2024. India’s total addressable market of affluent audiences continues to grow, with Netflix and Prime Video capitalizing on this trend through investments in local originals and movies. 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, encouraging more users to pay for streaming content” , according to Media Partners Asia.

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

“Subscriber growth momentum will continue in the second half of 2024, driven by aggregation and deeper partnerships with telecoms, pay-TV operators and OEMs. Additionally, with the start of the holiday season, ad spend should be robust in Q4 2024. However, without major sporting events, spend will shift towards non-fiction shows on premium VOD platforms, with a significant portion returning to the high expenditure. -reach UGC platforms,” said Mihir Shah, Vice President, MPA India.

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