Building a case for online premiere of films on YouTube
Eight weeks after its release in theatres in June, Aamir Khan Productions' new feature film Sitaare Zameen Par will be available for pay-per-view on YouTube, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The film will skip its debut on traditional OTT streaming services (Netflix, JioHotstar or Prime Video) after its release in cinemas -- a route Bollywood has been taking so far.
Aamir Khan has often red-flagged Bollywood's broken business model and the shrinking window between theatrical and streaming debut of new films that keeps audiences away from theatres.
Besides, OTT platforms are no longer paying dearly for buying new films on account of cost cuts and fiscal discipline. They are also shy of sharing viewership data which makes an even greater case for Bollywood to give YouTube a shot, said media and content strategists.
India has the largest number of YouTube users in the world at 491 million, according to Statista, an online portal providing statistics and business intelligence data across industries. 'It enjoys unparalleled reach among all video streaming platforms. On any other OTT service, a film would reach 20 to 50 million users. On YouTube that number could be 400 million,' said Siddharth Jhawar, country manager at global adtech company Moloco.
A March 2025 Ficci-EY report on media and entertainment said that in 2024 YouTube dominated the landscape, capturing 92% of all online video consumption, while premium platforms—comprising ad-based video-on-demand (AVOD), freemium, and subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) services—accounted for the remaining 8%. However, 89% of time spent on YouTube was on mobile devices, while 9% was on connected TV (CTV).
But that may change as CTV penetration increases. YouTube consumption on CTVs grew 132% between August 2022 and August 2024, the report added.
YouTube's strength lies in its simplicity, discoverability, and omnipresence, said Vikram Malhotra, founder & CEO, Abundantia Entertainment. 'Media reports suggest, in FY 2024-25, it accounted for approximately Rs14,300 crore in revenue, capturing 37.7% of the total digital media revenue in the country,' Malhotra said. Jhawar added that YouTube's monetization models are far superior to other streaming services. It is evolving from a user-generated content hub to a platform for premium storytelling with strong stickiness and engagement, Malhotra said, highlighting its unmatched reach, data-backed insights and monetization models.
So, will others use YouTube for film releases too? 'If it can offer reach, relevance and revenue for a particular title, we'd definitely evaluate it,' Abundantia's Malhotra said. However, he added that the OTT ecosystem remains relevant both for serialized, binge-worthy content and as a destination for movies. But the pay-per-view model allows for more flexibility and instant audience-led validation, he said. Jhawar said OTT platforms must add the TVOD (transaction video-on-demand) or pay-per-view layer to their AVOD and SVOD models which is currently being offered only by Amazon Prime Video and YouTube.
Harikrishnan Pillai, CEO and co-founder of digital agency TheSmallBigIdea, spelled out the advantages of YouTube debut of films. First is the control a producer has over his film as it is reintroduced to the audiences after its run in the theatres. 'OTT services buy films but do not always prioritize them. On YouTube, you are in-charge of the release,' he said. Secondly, you can price it in a manner that is viable to you, Pillai said. However, he cautioned that premium subscriptions on YouTube is a thin sliver as Indians consume free content. The percentage of paying subscribers for OTT, too, is less than 15% of the total audience base.
Malhotra said any new distribution model comes with its own set of challenges—foremost among them being consumer behaviour. In India, audiences are still transitioning from free and subscription-based viewing to paying for individual titles. 'The key will be in how the value is communicated—what makes a film worth that single transaction—and how seamless the user experience is,' he said.
The Ficci-EY report said the TVOD opportunity has expanded with Amazon Prime Video enabling TVOD for its huge library and catalogue. Prime Video claimed that 60% of its 8,500 titles got rented each month. 'Smaller ticket sizes for pay-per-view content may be a model waiting to explode,' Pillai said.
As for Aamir Khan's experiment on YouTube, 'the risk-reward pattern will emerge in due course but for now it is a disruptive but viable medium to try,' Malhotra said.
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