India will have 500 Mn online video subscribers by 2023: KPMG India

With the increasing internet penetration and access to digital infrastructure, India has emerged as an important market for over-the-top (OTT) segment. 

There has been a shift in the Indian’s appetite for binge-watching online videos as the total OTT players in the country has increased from 9 to over 30 in the last five years.

According to the latest report published by KPMG India, India will have around 500 million online video subscribers by the financial year 2023, making the country the second-biggest online video market in the world after China.

At present,  India online video market has around 300 million user-base. The growth has mainly been driven by original and exclusive content offered by multiple players.

About 80% of OTT subscribers believe that their entertainment needs are fulfilled through online content and close to 40% viewers are considering giving up traditional content viewing medium like television, added the report.

The report further explained about various drivers for the rise of online video in the country, including the availability of cheaper data, growth in rural internet penetration and average mobile data download speed.

About 87% of consumers prefer to consume content through mobile and about 5% watch content on their internet-enabled smart TVs which can be an important growth avenue in the future, the report stated.

The significant OTT players operational in the country include Hotstar, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Zee5, Alt Balaji, Voot, and MX Player.

After throwing content for free, these platforms have now devised different subscription plans for accessing the original content. While monthly packs are a part of the monetisation strategy by most players, sachet pricing is also working well for Zee5, Sony Liv and a few others.

According to Statista data, revenue in the Video Streaming (SVoD) segment amounts to $116 Mn in India at the moment. It is expected to show an annual growth rate of 3.9%, resulting in a market volume of $135 Mn by 2023. 

On an average in India, a user is spending 70 minutes per day on an OTT platform with 40 minutes of average single session duration which clearly shows the consumption evolution and how online video could potentially disrupt traditional distribution in the coming years. 

Each year, close to 40 million people are joining internet bandwagon. As per last Google report, India is witnessing the fastest growth in numbers of online users to 650 million in one year. This represents the large opportunity for platforms to tap into the ever-expanding universe of digitally connected Indians.

The findings in the report are based on a survey of 1,458 OTT users across 16 states.