Counterpoint Research firm today released the December 2017 numbers of content players in India. In the report, the research firm said that Netflix had grown significantly in the Indian OTT video streaming market, however, it is far behind other OTT players. Currently, Netflix is the fifth largest player in India, behind players such as Hotstar, Voot, Amazon, etc.
As per the estimates, the Indian content market is currently valued at USD 280 million with nearly 100 million subscribers, and it is poised to grow at 35% YoY. "As the industry moves forward, global OTT players will face many challenges in capturing significant mindshare among Indian consumers," said Counterpoint in the report.
At the moment, Star India's Hotstar is the leader in the industry with 75 million subscribers, followed by Viacom18's Voot with 15 million subscribers. Amazon Prime Video is also doing good in the Indian market with 11 million subscribers. Sony LIV and Netflix are fourth and fifth on the list with 5 million subscribers.
The report added that players such as Hotstar and Voot have higher access to Star India and Viacom18 media liberties, which is the reason why they're topping the chart. So far, Netflix has focused on pushing its global content such as House of Cards, Orange is the New Black, Master of None, Stranger Things, Narcos, Daredevil, etc., to Indian subscribers. While it has made significant progress in adding regional content, it still has a lot of ground to make up for competitors added the report.
Furthermore, it is said that only 2-3% of the total subscriber base of Hotstar actually pays for the subscription charge, with the rest sticking with the freely available content. This is comparatively better in Netflix’s case with around 6% of subscribers paying for the service and the rest taking advantage of ‘free first-month’ trials through multiple credit and debit cards. A higher percentage of subscribers paying for the service also reflects that Netflix is more targeted towards the premium category consumers.
Also, when it comes to subscription cost per month, Amazon Prime Video is the cheapest one as it costs close to USD 1 (Rs 63) per month. Hotstar offers a variety of local as well as global content at a much lower price of ~USD 3 (Rs 199) per month subscription plan gives access to TV Shows, Movies, Sports and News. Having said that, Hotstar also has the rights of Games to Thrones under the premium content category.
Counterpoint research concluded that the content market in India is expected to see tremendous growth with increasing smartphone penetration across India. Also in 2018, more players would join the suit too. Reliance Jio is planning to launch its own exclusive shows to gain some market share in the content space.
