India’s OTT market is on its rise as international players are launching new shows considering the interest of Indian audience. To compete with popular video streaming platforms such as Netflix India, Amazon Prime and Hotstar, YouTube has rolled out YouTube Originals for India starting with music maestro A. R. Rahman’s show ARRived.
YouTube Originals is a subscription-based ad-free service in many countries, but in India, initially, will be available on the ad-supported platform. Later, the company will launch its ad-free service YouTube Premium in India.
YouTube India entertainment head Satya Raghavan said the company is looking at original content and it currently has 245 million unique users each month who will support them to rule in Originals too. Raghavan said, “We feel this is the right time to bring Originals to India. It will boost the overall online video ad spends and drive more advertisers to connect with consumers through these shows. For instance, 60% of our watch time comes from outside of the six largest metro areas.”
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As per reports from Statista, revenues from video streaming platforms are expected to reach $247 million by 2022 at a CAGR of 27.5% between 2018 and 2022.
Online streaming platforms are gaining popularity as Amazon, Hotstar and Netflix offering a wide range of content. These are bringing in Bollywood movies, popular TV serials and reality shows, live streaming sports tournaments as well as original content to attract viewers. Globally, YouTube is planning 50 originals in 2019.
Apart from these, big names like Xiaomi and Alibaba are also looking to enter this market. Xiaomi has recently partnered with Hungama to bring music and video streaming to the Mi phones. Alibaba’s BABA is trying to make its name in the rapidly growing market of India with its strategic investments and acquisition of content streaming platforms.
