Mumbai: 2024 saw an 18% drop in the number of streaming originals launched across major OTT platforms in India. This year-end analysis from Ormax Media looks at language, platform, and format trends.
This analysis looks at the number of streaming originals in India over the years, and their breakup by platforms, languages, and formats, to build an understanding of how the landscape is shaping up from a content perspective
After peaking in 2023, the category witnessed an 18% drop in the number of originals that launched in 2024. The 2024 number is the lowest across all post-pandemic years, i.e., 2021 to 2023.
The 18% drop in supply in 2024 can be attributed to reduction in number of originals on Prime Video, Ullu, Hoichoi, and ALTT (drop of 10+ nos.), followed by ZEE5, Disney+ Hotstar, Aha, Addatimes, and Discovery+ (drop of 5-9 nos.). Amazon MX Player and Sony LIV launched more originals in 2024 compared to 2023, while Netflix and JioCinema maintained their 2023 count in 2024 as well.
From a format perspective, the content can be divided into four categories: fiction Series, direct-to-OTT films, reality shows, and documentaries.
This highlights a slowdown that Direct-to-OTT films had significant presence in 2021, because many theatrical films took the OTT route during the pandemic. However, since 2022, fiction series continue to be the dominant format, with about 70% share of OTT original
Hindi remains the dominant language, accounting for 65% of streaming originals in India in 2024. Bengali takes the no. 2 spot, ahead of Telugu and Tamil
Format strategies of various platforms vary, with some focussing only on fiction series, while others prioritising direct-to-OTT films as well, and a few also adding unscripted content to the mix.
Amazon MX Player, Sony LIV, Disney+ Hotstar, Ullu, and Hungama Play focussed primary on fiction series for their Hindi content. ZEE5 launched the highest number of direct-to-OTT films in India, prioritising the format over web-series. JioCinema, Netflix, and Prime Video had the most balanced content offerings, with representation from all four formats.
This analysis does not look at another important content type on OTT: Theatrical films. Ormax Media will soon be a publishing a report on this website on which platforms are licensing theatrical films the most, for all major Indian languages.
*Note: The film Red One does not feature in the report due to it being a unique case of a different release strategy followed in US and India, and hence its tracking was missed due to which there is no data available for the film.
