India Records Nearly 423 Mn OTT Users, 65% Male Paid Subscribers: Report

India currently records about 423 Mn over-the-top (OTT) users. Besides, the country sees a 30% penetration of OTT users, which means three out of 10 people watched videos on OTT platforms at least once in the last month. 

These are findings of media consulting firm Ormax Media’s report named ‘The Ormax OTT Audience Sizing Report 2022’. The report is based on the survey of 13,500 users across urban and rural areas conducted between July and September 2022. 

“A large share of the 20% growth in audience base has come from rural India and small towns. The metro cities have reached saturation levels, with more than 79% OTT penetration. OTT platforms will have to rely on the smaller markets for the next phase of growth,” said Shailesh Kapoor, founder and CEO of Ormax Media. 

The report shared that the country presently has 119 Mn active paid OTT subscribers and 49 Mn SVOD (Subscription Video On Demand) subscribers. Of this, 65% of paid subscribers are male OTT viewers. 

It further shared that Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru are the top cities that accounted for more than 8.5 Mn active paid subscribers. Besides, the top six metros also contributed to 10% of OTT audience and around 33% of paid subscribers in the country.

“From an SVOD perspective, the most significant finding has been that the average number of subscriptions has remained static at 2.4 per paying user. This data point holds immense strategic value, as it suggests that subscription growth will come from more people paying for subscriptions, than the same people paying for more subscriptions,” Kapoor added. 

The report has come at a time when there is an ongoing debate about the licensing of OTT platforms and telecom providers. Yesterday, Broadband India Forum (BIF) reportedly wrote to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) critising the idea of OTT platforms paying ‘usage charges’ to telecom operators. 

BIF further said that OTT platforms are not free riders and are responsible for over 70% of traffic seen by telecom operators.

In another instance, earlier, Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) requested DoT to enable OTT platforms to pay ‘usage charges’ to telecom operators. It further asked the Centre to incorporate the definition of usage charges along with constituents of OTT platforms in the draft Telecom Bill. 

Before that, under the Draft Telecom Bill, DoT introduced a provision for users with fake identities who are registered on OTT platforms to be imprisoned for a year or imposed a fine up to INR 50K.