India

Co-authored by Amanda D. Lotz and Shubhangi Heda

Updated December 2022

Market brief

India is reasonably regarded as a market with incredible potential. India is also a highly fractured market with many languages and its own strong history of video production that has made it difficult for US-based services to become established. The vast Bollywood library and extensive Indian diaspora make it uncommonly positioned to develop services with multi-territory scale. To date, India has proven a particular and difficult market and it remains very early days even though domestic services launched a decade ago.

Despite the potential scale of India’s possible subscriber base, it generates very little revenue. Data from Media Partners Asia in 2022 identified US$1.4 billion of revenue from “premium” online video in India, half of that generated in much-smaller Australia. Thirty-two percent of that revenue was attributed to Disney+Hotstar; 26 percent to Netflix, and 12 percent to Prime Video. That left an additional 30 percent split among “others.”

Media Partners Asia also offered data about share time spent viewing. Notably, Netflix did not rank among the five most used services, the only Asian market in which it did not rank, and it ranks first in all others except Japan (exc. China). Disney+Hotstar dominates time spent viewing, accounting for 37 percent, followed by two AVODs that attract 30 percent (MX Player) and then Jio with 8 percent. Zee5 and Prime Video then rank with six percent each.

Like other markets in southeast Asia, Indian streaming consumption remains dominated by mobile devices. This owes to the limited cabling of the country. It had only 26 million fixed line connections in 2022, barely ten percent of homes, and it also had comparatively lower levels of pay-TV adoption at 45 percent in 2017, which had fallen to 38 percent in 2022 and expected to stay plateaued according to analysis by Media Partners Asia. The arrival of 5G technology is expected to transform structural dynamics of home streaming.

Media Partners Asia reported local content accounts for 85 percent of consumption and US content just 10 percent in 2022, which suggests the challenges facing US-based services. India is the base of several multi-territory services such as Zee5 that provide a contrast to the US services’ play for global scale, and many of its services have expanded as either regional services (Hoichoi) or with significant niche multi-territory reach. Few pure SVOD options exist; most operate with a SAVOD model or are built from legacy multichannel services that combine ad-funded linear channels with an on-demand offering. Major non-AVOD domestic/regional services include Disney+/Hotstar, Zee5, Alt Balaji, Eros Now, Hoichoi, and SonyLiv.

Hotstar was launched in 2015 by Star India, a wholly owned subsidiary of 21st Century Fox. Hotstar became part of Disney when it acquired 21st Century Fox in 2019. At that point, Hotstar was relaunched as Disney+ Hotstar to also include Disney+ content. Disney+ Hotstar in India is owned by Novi Digital Entertainment, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Star India Pvt Ltd. Disney Star also owns 60 TV channels and produces movies and TV series. The main source of revenue for the parent company in India is advertisements. Disney+ Hotstar offers a range of subscription options and can be categorized as a SAVOD service. It offers an AVOD model through which very limited content is available for free. It also offers a “super subscription” plan through which content is available with advertisements (SAVOD model), and a premium plan for ad-free content (except for sports). Currently, Disney+ Hotstar has the largest subscription base in India, with 8.3 million subscribers (Q1 2022). Even before the acquisition by Disney, Hotstar had a strong subscriber base owing to its popular TV shows from StarPlus a prominent Hindi-language channel in India, along with offerings in 8 other Indian languages, and live sports streaming. Hotstar subscribers were automatically upgraded with access to Disney+ content when both services were integrated. With Star India having the broadcasting rights to Cricket World Cup and Indian Premier League (cricket league), the streaming service has had a competitive advantage.   

Zee5 launched in 2018 in 190 countries from Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEEL). The company also owns satellite channels and owns and produces movies and music. It recently launched an ed-tech company. ZEEL’s primary source of revenue is advertising, the majority of which comes from the linear TV channels that operate in 75 countries. The company claims to have 104.8 million monthly active users globally on Zee5 as of March 2022. It provides both AVOD and SVOD offerings for watching content in India. It has a vast library with content across 12 languages. It also provides live TV service with 90+ channels.  The funding model of the services varies from country to country. Zee5 management claims that their paying subscriber base is split between B2C (direct subscriptions) and B2B (subscriptions from deals with telcos) roughly in the ratio of 60-40. The company is also expanding its service internationally with the US as one of its prominent international markets in 2021. Recently, it has also launched Zeeplex, a TVOD service for watching films based on pay-per-view model on its service. Along with this, in 2022 the company started the Zee spark initiative through which it intends to expand Zee5’s AVOD library to have more original content.

Alt Balaji launched in April 2017 in 70 countries from Balaji Telefilms Ltd, an Indian company that produces Indian soap operas, reality TV, films, comedy, game shows, entertainment, and factual programming in several Indian languages. The service claimed that it has a subscriber base of 35 million in March 2022. It also forms the primary revenue stream of the company. Balaji Telefilms sold a 25% stake to Reliance Industries in 2017, which operates a major mobile service. It also formed deals with Zee5, and Jio Cinema for producing content which could be shown on both services. It started with an SVOD model that offered a few episodes for free, but also launched an AVOD version in 2022 with the reality show Lock-Up. However, the management of the service claims that their primary focus is still on the subscriber-funded service and they are aiming to target audiences from tier 2 and tier 3 cities. In terms of content strategy, Alt Balaji is trying to reach the mass market by focusing on Hindi content, while at the same time dubbing and offering content in other regional languages. It is expanding its programming to include more south Indian language content.

Eros Now was first launched in 2012 by Eros Media World, a screen production and distribution company. The service claims that in 2022 it had 39.9 million paid subscribers globally. Eros Now has an AVOD offering in partnership with Mzaalo and also offers an option to upgrade to Eros Now premium membership which is an SVOD offering in India. Eros also has substantial music holdings, and its content includes music videos and short films, and it uses YouTube for distribution as well. The main source of revenue for the parent company is through sale of film rights and distribution through theatrical releases and television. The streaming platform is considered an auxiliary source of income. In 2020, Eros Now partnered with NBC Universal to expand its offering of English language titles. It offers content in several Indian languages; however, its main offering is Bollywood movie titles.

In contrast to the Hindi priority of SonyLiv and Zee5, Hoichoi has specialized in offering content in Bengali. The service launched in September 2017 and is owned by SVF Entertainment Pvt Ltd, which is based in producing and distributing Bengali films as well as distributing Bollywood and Hollywood films in Eastern India. 

SunNXT launched in June 2017 from Sun TV Network, part of Sun Group, a multimedia conglomerate, and offers content in six languages (not Hindi) with focus on South Indian content. It owns 33 satellite channels, FM radio stations and an India Premier League cricket team. It produces and owns the content. It is claimed that the service had 23.5 million subscribers largely owing to tie-up with third party applications of telecom providers. It has AVOD, SAVOD and SVOD offerings. Through its AVOD offering, content is available for free on third-party mobile applications like Jio Cinema and Vodafone Play. It has a basic plan that has a SAVOD offering and a premium plan which has an SVOD offering for Indian users and an only premium plan for international users. It also offers a live TV option with access to all its TV channels. The main source of revenue for the parent company is subscriptions (consolidated across its offerings). The company plans further investments in its streaming service. It already has a vast library of south Indian language content both movies and TV series.

Sony Liv was launched by Culver Max Entertainment in 2013. It was one of the first streaming services in India after Eros Now. The company also own satellite channels and owns and produces content like TV series, movies, and music. It also underwent a revamp in 2016 and 2020. In 2020, more content including movies from Sony Pictures, originals, and TV series were added to its library. It also expanded its library to produce and acquire content in regional Indian languages. It currently has content in five languages and intends to expand to South Indian languages. The company claims that it currently has 18 million paid subscribers which also includes B2B arrangements (deals with telcos like Airtel, Vodafone Idea). It also uploads some of its TV series and reality shows on YouTube available for free. It has AVOD and SAVOD offerings with separate mobile-only plans in India. The service is currently only available in India. Live sports streaming has become a competitive advantage for the service.

The future market dynamic for SonyLiv is unclear given the recent merger with Zee5. Prior to the merger, SonyLiv expanded to the US (2020) and Canada (2021).