India has 547 million OTT users but active paid subscriptions remain stagnant at 100 million: Report

The audience universe for video streaming in India currently stands at 547.3 million people, but active paid subscriptions have stagnated at 99.6 million, according to a report by media consulting firm Ormax.

The Ormax OTT Audience Report: 2024, based on a sample size of 12,000 people surveyed across urban and rural India in June and July, said OTT (over the top) penetration in India stood at 38.4%.

The 13.8% growth in the universe vis-à-vis 2023 was entirely driven by the AVoD (advertising video-on-demand) audience, which grew by 21%, while the SVoD (subscription video-on-demand) segment declined 2%.

The report defined the OTT audience as those who watched at least one online video (free or paid) in the past one month. It stated that India has 99.6 million active paid OTT subscriptions, a number very similar to last year.

The average number of platforms subscribed to per paying audience member fell from 2.8 to 2.5 in 2024, highlighting the waning need among audiences to pay to watch too many streaming services.

Smartphones emerged as the most preferred device to watch online video content, with 97% of the audience using it and a sizeable 81% watching OTT content only on their smartphones. The connected TV audience base was estimated at 69.7 million.

“This year’s report highlights the significant role of AVoD segment in expanding the universe,” Keerat Grewal, head of business development (streaming, TV and brands), Ormax Media, said in a statement. “The growth is driven by AVoD audiences, with most of the new entrants into the category watching video content only on YouTube and social media. The stagnation in SVOD audience size is also reflective of the trend whereby free content is driving OTT growth in small town and rural India.”