India's OTT market likely to touch $7 billion by 2027, says report

In India, new local and wealthy players are now gearing up to grab the market share, which is led by a newly recapitalized Viacom18, backed by Reliance, Bodhi Tree and Paramount

India's over-the-top or OTT streaming video market is expected to touch $7 billion mark by 2027, a media report said on Monday.

According to Livemint, quoting a report released by Media Partners Asia (MPA), OTT streaming video market in India is currently in its second growth phase with total revenues of $3 billion in 2022.

In India, new local and wealthy players are gearing up to grab the market share, which is led by a newly recapitalised Viacom18, backed by Reliance, Bodhi Tree and Paramount. Whereas, incumbent players like Sony and Zee are planning to merge and create a strong online video and television business, the report said.

By the end of March, India had 97 million OTT subscribers, said MPA data. It is one of the fastest growing OTT markets with revenues of over Rs 17,000 crore in 2021. Of this, subscriptions accounted for roughly Rs 5,200 crore. Its turnaround makes SonyLIV a serious player in this market. 

Competition is likely to grow between global giants and newly capitalized domestic players in the Indian market. Telcos' reach, however, continues to be critical in the market along with advertising video-on-demand (AVoD) business and low- average revenue per user (ARPU), high volume subscription video-on-demand (SVoD) services. 

According to another report published by MPA,  Asia Pacific Online Video & Broadband Distribution 2022, the revenue for Total Asia Pacific's online video industry will grow by 16 per cent year-on-year (YoY) in 2022 to stand at $49.2 billion. While SVoD will contribute 50 per cent, UGC (user-generated) AVoD will contribute 37 per cent and premium AVoD, 13 per cent.

Asia Pacific's largest market, China, will generate $11.2 billion in revenue in 2022, representing 48 per cent of the APAC online video revenue pie. According to MPA's analysis, 20 online video platforms will account for 67 per cent of the total APAC online video revenue share.