India has 481 million OTT users & 102 million paid subscriptions: Ormax Report

Media consulting firm Ormax Media has released the latest edition of India’s audience research to size the OTT universe in the country, titled The Ormax OTT Audience Report: 2023. The research, based on a sample size of 12,000 across urban and rural India, was conducted from July to September 2023.

Ormax Media released select findings of the report, which reveal that the Indian OTT audience universe is currently at 481.1 million (or 48.11 crore) people. This translated into a penetration of 34%. The report defines an OTT audience who watched at least one online video (free or paid) in the last month. The report breaks down this universe by gender, age, NCCS, pop strata, states, and cities.

The report also reveals that there are currently 101.8 million active paid (B2C) OTT subscriptions in India, across 36.4 million SVOD (B2C) audiences, i.e., an average of 2.8 subscriptions per paying audience member. B2C subscriptions in the report refer to subscribers who have taken a membership directly with the OTT platform, in contrast with B2B subscriptions, which are via telecom packs offered by various operators. Mumbai, Delhi, and Bengaluru are the top three cities on paid subscriptions, with more than six million active paid subscriptions each. 

Speaking about the significance of the report, Keerat Grewal, Head of Business Development (Streaming, TV & Brands), Ormax Media, said, “The latest edition of our annual report reveals that after the upsurge in the Indian OTT market during the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021, the growth has settled down at more moderate levels. The Indian OTT audience base grew 20% from 2021 to 2022, but has grown only 13.5% over the last year, highlighting that the category is now past the peak growth phase it witnessed in the two preceding years."

Elaborating on the findings, Grewal said, “The extensive data in this report can help OTT platforms and associated agencies take more informed strategic decisions in areas like pay vs. free strategy, TG and market selection, content and communication strategy, revenue planning, etc. Ormax Media continues to stay committed to the idea of helping the Indian media & entertainment industry use data and analytics towards building more profitable and consumer-centric businesses.”

The full report is available by subscription for streaming platforms, production companies, media agencies, and other companies associated with the OTT category in India.

Here's the full report: