Netflix, Disney+ Hotstar Take 50 Percent Share of Indian SVOD Market

New data from Omdia indicates that Netflix and Disney+ Hotstar account for half of all SVOD subscribers in India.

Omdia’s 2021 Online Video Market and Consumer Trends Report also states that online video subscription revenues in India soared by 142 percent last year, largely due to the pandemic, to $639 million. Disney+ Hotstar and Netflix accounted for 78 percent of those revenues.

Per Omdia, Disney+ Hotstar has 25.6 million subs, driven by the Disney+ and Hotstar bundle, IPL, competitive pricing and exclusive foreign content such as Game of Thrones. Netflix has 4.4 million subs in the market.

Mobile-only subs are expected to continue to grow in India, Omdia notes. Also key to the sector is original content, with Omdia indicating that Amazon Prime and Netflix will spend about $340 million this year, more than half of the country’s total original content spend. Omdia expects that close to 400 original titles will be produced by the global and Indian OTT services this year. About 65 percent of those series will be in Hindi.

“The online video market of India is steadily growing its foothold in every direction,” said Constantinos Papavassilopoulos, principal analyst for TV and online video, consumer. “The Covid-19 pandemic accelerated the growth rate of an already dynamic and robust OTT market. The basic elements that will propel the market to further growth in the near future are already there: very affordable mobile broadband prices, high penetration of smart-phones, a population eager to consume more content, an ever-growing investment in Indian originals and a plethora of choices with more than 40 OTT services operating in the country.”