Mumbai: Marking Balaji Telefilms Ltd.’s foray into the digital space, ALTBalaji over three years has established a niche for itself in the originals space and played a vital role in inculcating an individual binge-watching habit amongst Indian audiences. Showcasing tremendous growth year-on-year, the country’s leading homegrown OTT platform raked in 20 million subscribers in the year ending 31st March 2019 and went on to garner 34 million-plus cumulative subscriptions till 31st March 2020.
With viewers now having more time at disposal as they practice social distancing from their homes, ALTBalaji has pooled in a strong uptake of subscribers with an average of 17,000 subscriptions added per day post the implementation of the lockdown. A 60% increase in its subscriber base is a commendable feat as the pre lockdown numbers in March were 10,600. Adding another feather to its cap, the homegrown OTT platform saw a twofold increase in direct subscribers’ growth from financial YOY.
As the one-stop destination, ALTBalaji continues to rule the roost amongst its competitors with regard to the time the audience spends on a respective streaming platform. ALTBalaji with its diverse range of shows has managed to see its audience spend an average watch time of 60 minutes, the highest in its category in 2019 and the trend continues in 2020.
Speaking on ALTBalaji’s market position, Nachiket Pantvaidya, CEO, ALTBalaji and Group COO, Balaji Telefilms Ltd. said, “Right from day one, ALTBalaji, through its originals has made a name for itself in the industry and has gone on from being a new entrant to becoming a force to reckon with. These numbers are a testament to the platform’s growing popularity and exemplify the fact that good storytelling across multiple genres will always reap dividends and earn a special place in the heart of the viewers. That said, this gives us all the more optimism in our endeavor to provide fresh content to our audiences across the country, that keeps them hooked to their screens and provide a value-added service that entertains in abundance.”
ALTBalaji, one of the country’s leading homegrown OTT platforms has not only achieved great volumes in terms of subscribers but also attained value and emerged as one of the top-grossing apps in the country. The OTT platform started the journey with being one of the top 5 and has moved to one of the top 3 in the list of Top Grossing Video Streaming Apps in the country across the app store (Source: App Annie). ALTBalaji also has one of the highest revenue to download ratios in the video streaming category.
