The latest report by FICCI-EY estimated that India’s digital subscription market recorded significant growth, with revenues rising 60% to reach Rs 163 billion. Paid video subscriptions expanded to 216 million across 143 million households, driven by premium content being placed behind paywalls, including major sports and film titles.
Music subscriptions also grew 37% to 14.4 million as platforms introduced measures to limit free usage, while news subscriptions remained limited at around 4 million due to the availability of free alternatives.
The expansion of the OTT ecosystem was further supported by aggregation strategies, with JioHotstar consolidating sports and international content following the merger of Hotstar and JioCinema. This shift contributed to scaling the paid video market, with urban users accounting for 56% of subscriptions and rural markets contributing 44%, indicating future growth potential from non-urban regions.
Bundling emerged as a key driver of adoption, with over 100 million subscribing households accessing services through e-commerce, telecom or aggregator partnerships. Industry estimates suggest that around 71% of subscriptions were bundled, with total paid OTT audiences ranging between 250 and 320 million users. The trend toward bundled offerings is expected to continue, with further expansion of integrated subscription models across platforms.
To keep the momentum active, OTT platforms have introduced new tiering and pricing strategies, including premium ad-free tiers alongside limited-ad plans, regional language packages for price-sensitive audiences, and mobile-only or single-device subscriptions. The growth of connected TV households enabled higher consumption of long-form content, driving investments in premium sports, reality shows and films. This shift also contributed to an increase in TVOD revenues, estimated at Rs 5 billion in 2025, led by Prime Video and Google.
