Karnataka government announced in its 2025 budget the launch of a state created OTT platform to promote Kannada movies. The rise of OTTs, more so regional ones, couldn’t have been more relevant than now as governments decide to step in.
Indian OTT market saw a major boom during the COVID-19 pandemic and it hasn’t slowed since. There has been permutations and combinations giving birth to a variety of streaming platforms mostly language specific which encapsulate and promote the language diversity of India.
There’s Aha Video, Hoichoi, Chaupal, ManoramaMAX, Planet Marathi, Oho Gujarati and many more that cater to different regional languages. These platforms help satisfy the growing appetite for content in regional languages specially in tier 2 and 3 cities where the audience has a strong preference for local languages and the content in these languages not only helps them resonate more with the local culture and identity but also fosters a sense of pride in them.
This fact is not unknown to major global players like Netflix, Prime Video, and Jio Hotstar, operating in the country as seen from the growing diverse content slate with each passing year. And unlike smaller regional platforms they have more freedom in terms of budget which gives them an edge in quality of the content.
But with growing relevance and demand, regional OTTs are revamping their game altogether and now that governments are ready to back them it marks the new dawn for regional OTTs which ain’t going to be just a trend but a transformation.