Stream Dreams: India becomes ground zero for the global streaming showdown

Economic Times

04-05-2025

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India is powering the next wave of global streaming growth, emerging as a battleground for giants like Netflix Prime Video and YouTube, even as local heavyweights like JioHotstar raise the stakes, top industry executives said at the World Audio Visual and Entertainment Summit (WAVES).Netflix co-chief executive Ted Sarandos and Prime Video's head of international Kelly Day highlighted India's vast potential, citing rising viewership and strong content engagement. Uday Shankar, vice-chairman of JioStar-a joint venture among Reliance Industries , Disney and Bodhi Tree-emphasised the resilience of local platforms in the face of global rivals. YouTube CEO Neal Mohan cited India as a key global hub.Despite challenges like fierce competition, market fragmentation and viewer fatigue, India's rapidly growing digital audience and increasing content consumption continue to attract significant investment. Industry experts noted that both international and homegrown platforms are doubling down on original content and innovation as the competition for viewer attention intensifies.During a fireside chat at the event that wrapped up on Sunday, Sarandos remarked that Netflix has had a profound impact on India's content ecosystem since ramping up investments after Covid. Operating in the country for nearly a decade, Netflix has amassed 15 million paid subscribers and reported a gross turnover of '2,845 crore in FY24."Since 2021, after things started returning to normal post-Covid, we've invested in India in a way that has generated about $2 billion in economic impact. That includes around 20,000 cast and crew jobs from our productions in India," he said.For Amazon Prime Video, India continues to be a major growth engine, both in acquiring new customers and increasing engagement among existing members. It has also emerged as a key hub for content creation, with Prime Video India offering one of the largest slates of original content outside the US. About 25% of the viewership for this content now originates outside India."India is certainly one of our largest countries and one of the largest growth drivers for the business anywhere around the world," said Day during a panel discussion at WAVES.JioStar's Uday Shankar noted that streaming in India is still in its early stages, with the first major initiative, Hotstar, launching just a decade ago. "I think the fact that about 700 million people are watching streaming content in some form or the other, and even for our own company JioStar - today we have half a billion people coming to the platform (JioHotstar) and we have a large number of people subscribing and paying for it - it's an enormously large number," he said.According to Shankar, JioHotstar has challenged the perception that the market for premium video content is limited to 15-20 million subscribers. The platform has achieved 280 million paid subscribers, driven by affordability and accessibility, he said.With its rising viewership, a rich multilingual content base and government support, India offers vast long-term potential for streaming companies, NV Capital managing partner Nitin Menon said, adding: "More players like Apple are expected to enter the market with local originals."