The revenue of Over-The-Top (OTT) video content providers is set to increase at a growth rate of 28 per cent between 2019 and 2024 in India, according to a study by PwC on global entertainment and media outlook.
The OTT video segment revenue in India was $0.8 billion in 2019 and is projected to grow to $2.9 billion by 2024, driven by changing trends of media consumption, emerging device ecosystem and accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic.
US, China, South Korea, Germany and Australia are among the key markets for OTT players such as Netflix and Amazon. But the growth rate in India will surpass the global growth rate over the next four years.
“In the case of OTT, there would be a two times growth in India compared with the global growth rate over the forecast period. In terms of absolute revenue, India would be sixth globally by the end of 2024. The drivers of the growth being smartphones, connected TVs and availability of affordable data,” said Rajib Basu, partner and leader, entertainment and media — PwC India.
He added that the new at-home environment has led to the rise of direct to consumer apps, local ‘bite-sized’ entertainment platforms and user generated contents format. “In tier 2 and tier 3 cities, there is a significant proliferation of OTT mode of delivery,” Basu said.
While the global OTT market revenue is expected to increase at a CAGR of 13 per cent to $86.8 billion by 2024, the growth rate for India is estimated at 28 per cent.
Within the OTT options, subscription VOD (Video On Demand) will be the prime driver of revenue, increasing at a 30.7 per cent CAGR from $708 million in 2019 to $2.7 billion by 2024. In case of subscription VOD, a user pays a recurring fee to an operator that grants them access to all content without limit. This is in contrast to transactional VOD, where users mostly pay per view. There are platforms that also offer both options to the user.
“By 2024, the s-VOD segment in India would be 93 per cent of the market against 83 per cent globally,” Basu said.
PwC in its report also said that OTT revenues are expected to surpass that of box office in 2020, mostly on account of Covid-19 and cinema halls being closed due to lockdown.
