Sports streaming saw highest consumption on OTT in 2020: Redseer

The OTT video market, which already was in the upswing in the pre-COVID-19 times, saw a steep growth in the COVID-19 and lockdown period. With cinema halls shut and fresh content drying up on television as shootings remained cancelled, OTT became the primary source of entertainment and content consumption.

Redseer, one of the largest management consulting companies in India, takes a look at the growth in the Indian OTT video market during 2020 in its latest study. According to the report, OTT video consumption in the country saw a growth of 13% in 2020.

Sports streaming saw the highest consumption in 2020. September onwards, with the IPL 2020 being held in the UAE, sports streaming saw growth. In September 2020, OTT consumption grew to touch 228 billion minutes, which further rose to 231 billion minutes in October 2020 when the streaming of IPL began. Apart from cricket, the other factors that kept OTT consumption high in the September 2020-January 2021 period was that the new movies released in the theatres didn’t perform well. Moreover, the free StreamFest by Netflix also led to growth of consumption. There has also been a steady growth of Originals. Besides, more releases in the pipeline for January-February-March 2021 period.

The OTT consumption growth during the lockdown, though it saw a spike it was still below the September-December period. The growth was primarily due to new movie premieres on OTT and release of new Web series. Moreover, users also watched their favourite content on repeat. There was a dip seen on OTT consumption in the post-lockdown period (June-August) due to less OTT engagement as users started moving out, with their favourite TV soaps returning on television.

Higher releases leading to strong growth for Originals & movies consumption on OTT

Originals

• Increased Investments: Both International and homegrown platforms have been heavily investing in creating and promoting more quality Originals.
• Rise of regional OTT Platforms: Smaller OTT platforms have only focused on creating relevant Original content & have gained massive traction over the last year.

Movies

• Mainstream movie releases: Higher number of mainstream releases of popular Bollywood and South Indian movies on Hotstar and Amazon Prime Video.
• Dubbing of content: Increased dubbing of International movies into vernacular languages led to increased movies consumption.

SVOD platforms have the highest NPS in OTT Video

Key highlights:

• OTT video consumption saw 13% growth.
• Sports streaming saw highest consumption in 2020.
• Subscription video on demand (SVOD) platforms have the highest NPS scores.
• Higher number of releases is leading to strong growth for Originals & movies consumption on OTT.
• The consumption increased from 181 billion minutes in January 2020 to 204 billion minutes in January 2021.