Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The premium end of the streaming video sector in India is poised for shake-up, with Reliance Industries’ JioCinema challenging the SVOD dominance of Disney+ Hotstar, new research suggests. “The India Online Video Report: Analysis of Consumption, Content & Investment Trends,” from Singapore-based Media Partners Asia, shows total consumption across the online video sector reached 6.1 trillion minutes for the 15-month period from Jan 2022 to Mar 2023.
Within that period, the SVOD, AVOD and freemium platforms accounted for some 12% of viewing time, up from 10% in 2021. Social services such as YouTube and TikTok accounted for 88% of viewing time.
That positions India behind Australia, the most developed market in Asia where premium services enjoyed 35% of viewing time, but close to Japan and Korea (15% of viewing time) and ahead of emerging markets in Indonesia, Thailand and Philippines, where the norm for premium VOD share is below 10%.
Disney+ Hotstar dominated premium VOD over the 15-month period to end of March 2023, with 38% of the sector viewing time. “Its success was driven by sports as well as the depth of its Hindi and regional entertainment,” the report said.
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