YouTube the most consumed OTT platform in India: MICA study

A study by MICA and Communication Crafts titled ‘India OTT Platforms’ reveals that YouTube is the highest consumed platform in India, followed by Amazon Prime Video and Hotstar, Jio Cinema, and Voot.

With new players such as Zomato and Flipkart entering the space — it’s safe to say that the Indian OTT ecosystem has had an eventful year. The past year also saw the entry of new platforms such as Ullu, Shemaroome, MXPlayer and more. To study the growth and progression of different players in the OTT space, the Mudra Institute of Communications (MICA) Ahmedabad has published a report titled 'India OTT Platforms’, analysing the different aspects of the OTT industry in India.

Consumer spends on subscription based services grew 285 per cent among the top five video streaming players. Netflix was the top app by annual consumer spend in nearly every country where it has presence and nearly every time period from 2016 to 2018. The launch of Disney’s streaming service Disney+ is set to disrupt the market in 2019 across the globe. As compared to the other countries the capacity of spending among Indians has been the highest.

2018-19 has been an exciting year for India as far as the OTT content industry is concerned. There has been a growth of platforms, with more investments, more content, more consumers and more revenue. Television content has been the biggest consumption category over the past one year. The viewers appreciated Indian soap operas and long form narratives. There is no negative growth in television viewing over the last year, thus catch up viewing is one of the strongest promises of OTT offerings.

Live streaming has been a strong promise in the past year. Cricketing seasons, news content or shows such as ‘Game of Thrones’ streamed live was a strong attraction for consumers. Broadcasters have a new weapon for linear television called live content streamed on OTT platforms. The live promise is expected to push the consumption for informative, newsworthy, timely content ideas. Events such as elections and terrorists attacks created a lot of content, which also did rounds on various OTT platforms.

Consumption of video content on news OTT platforms has increasingly been substituting the need for text content consumption. The domain being a personal medium OTT content also includes sex and violence; something that the mainstream is unable to provide on Indian television. Indian platforms such as ALTBalaji and Ullu played to the promise and attracted eyeballs. International platforms such as Netflix and Amazon too, kept Indian viewers engaged with their promise of ‘non-family viewing content’.

YouTube rose to be one of India's fastest growing markets with 265 million users. Netflix announced 10 new Indian original films to be made in the genres drama, science fiction, thriller, horror, comedy and romance. One of the collaborators is Shah Rukh Khan-owned Red Chillies Entertainment, which will be producing Class of '83.

Read the full report here.