According to a report by Hong Kong-based firm Counterpoint, Netflix although has a blazing start in India, is yet to make a mark in the Indian digital industry. As per the report, Netflix currently lies at the fifth spot well behind the established players such as Star TV backed Hotstar and Viacom’s Voot. The fourth and fifth spot is occupied by Amazon Instant Video and SonyLiv respectively. Star India and Voot have a blend of both local and western content gracing their content catalog which is a major highlight of their firm standing. Currently, Hotstar follows freemium subscription and ad service while Voot has an entirely ad-based model.
The research said that only 2-3% of Hotstar’s user base pay for the service with the vast majority accessing free, ad-supported content.
Hanish Bhatia, a senior analyst at Counterpoint said, “While it has made significant progress in adding regional content, it still has a lot of ground to make up on competitors. Players such as Hotstar and Voot have higher access to Star India and Viacom 18 media libraries. It, therefore, makes more sense for them to leverage their strength to penetrate the Indian market.”
According to Counterpoint report, India OTT video market is currently valued at US$280 million with 100 million customers and will grow at a rate of 35% year-on-year.
