According to the latest report released by Ormax Media, media analytics and consulting firm, there are around 97 million active paid OTT subscriptions, out of which 66 per cent of subscriptions are with the male audience.Outbound links
Lockdown and movies
March 2020, I guess it was the last month when we went out freely without any masks on, enjoyed our outing, social interaction and whatnot.
It feels like ages since the lockdown struck, and everything got limited within the four walls of our houses. But our generation is all about “always being ready to adapt to new things, ” which also happened in OTT platforms.
When the theatres got closed due to coronavirus-led lockdown, the restricted Indian audiences went on a new exploration of the digital world.
The lockdown also resulted in many films going to video OTTs, which helped streaming platforms offer more content to their subscribers.
According to an EY report released last year, the Indian market saw the creation of around 1,200 hours of original content for OTT platforms, which led to increasing demand for OTT subscriptions.
What does the report say?
To know the size of the OTT universe in India, Ormax released a report titled “Ormax OTT Audience Report 2021”.
More than 12000 people have surveyed both urban and rural India. According to the reports’ findings, the Indian audience universe is currently at 353.2 million, which means that one in four Indians watched some online video at least once in the last month.
The report reveals that there are currently 97 million active paid OTT members out of the total 353.2 active viewers, i.e., an average of 2.4 subscriptions.
The tops six metros contribute only 11 per cent of viewers but account for around 35 per cent of the total subscriptions.
In this regard, Delhi, Bengaluru and Mumbai have the highest number of active paid subscriptions- accounting for about 8%.
One aspect of the report that I found exciting is that around 66 per cent of the subscribers are male. The ratio of women having access to digital technology is inferior in comparison to their counterparts.
The situation makes an essential observation towards gender discrimination when it comes to having access to new technologies or even exploring the world of entertainment.
While presenting the report, Shailesh Kapoor quoted some crucial facts about today’s OTT era, said: “OTT is no longer a niche category, but the penetration is only at 25% penetration, which means there is still a huge potential to grow the market, especially outside the top cities”.
We have seen the OTT platform emerge between the audiences, we have seen it gaining immense popularity, and I think we will see its full-fledged growth soon.
While streaming companies have data on the usage and subscription of their platform, there was no industry-level research available until now.
This data will eventually boost the companies to understand the Indian market size better and make it easy to enhance the present opportunities in a much better way.
