India's video OTT market to touch $12.5 billion by 2030: Report

India’s video OTT market is expected to touch $12.5 billion by 2030 from about $1.5 billion in 2021 on the back of access to better networks, digital connectivity and smartphones, according to a report by RBSA Advisors.

The report noted that the next wave of growth in the OTT landscape will come from tier II, III and IV cities and the Indian language speaking population.

“OTT industry is poised for aggressive growth prospects with access to better networks, digital connectivity and smartphones. OTT platforms in India have been increasingly attracting subscribers on a daily basis. Apart from top favourites Disney+ Hotstar, Amazon Prime Video and Netflix, the space is seeing a plethora of local and regional OTT players,” it added.

These include players like SonyLIV, Voot, Zee5, ErosNow, ALTBalaji, Hoichoi and Adda Times among others.

The report said the Indian video OTT market in India is expected to grow from $1.5 billion in 2021 to $4 billion in 2025 and further to $12.5 billion by 2030.

The audio OTT market – which sees participation from players like Gaana, Jio Saavn, Wynk Music, Spotify and others – is also poised to grow from $0.6 billion in 2021 to $1.1 billion in 2025 and further to $2.5 billion by 2030, it added.

“The OTT market in India is expected to grow at a CAGR of 28.6 per cent over the next four years. RBSA believes that this industry has the potential to grow to be $15 billion industry over the next 9 to 10 years,” it said.

The report highlighted that Covid-19 pandemic has been a game-changer and OTT video streaming platforms including Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ Hotstar, Voot, SonyLIV and others had gained immense popularity in India.

It added that the OTT landscape is expected to get hyper-competitive in next 4–5 years, and the OTT service providers will strive to emerge as the preferred platform among the consumers.

The massive investments made by OTT services like Netflix, Amazon, Disney+ Hotstar and others in originals as well as acquired content will help subscription video-on-demand make up 93 per cent of the total OTT revenue (as compared to 87 per cent globally), increasing at a CAGR of 30.7 per cent between 2019-2024, it said.

The report said the ARPU (average revenue per user) in the OTT video segment in India is projected at $7.2 (about Rs 537.25) in 2021. Also, the OTT userbase is expected to be at 462.7 million by 2025.

“The viewing habits of Indian consumers have evolved a lot in the last few years. While on the one hand, short-form video content consumption on smartphones and social platforms has been on the rise, binge-watching shows on various OTT platforms have also become more common on the other hand,” it added.