It was all about the Indian film industry achieving a big milestone in the first half of 2024 yesterday and today we are going to focus on the performance of OTTs and its contents in India during the same period.
No second guess is needed to know that it was Prime Video India’s ‘Panchayat’ Season 3 that took the top spot and emerged as the most viewed show in India during the first half of 2024 with 28.2 million viewers, according to a mid-year report by Ormax Media. Such strong viewership data signifies how this rural comedy drama has captured audience’s hearts with its relatable storyline and slice-of-life narrative.
At #2 is Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s epic drama ‘Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar’ on Netflix with 20.3 million viewers indicating the global streamer’s strength in delivering high quality, engaging content.
Prime Video comes back at the third spot with Rohit Shetty’s ‘Indian Police Force’ that raked in 19.5 million viewers. Once again it’s Netflix turn and this time it’s ‘Kota Factory’ Season 3 that secured the fourth spot with 15.7 million viewers. It was followed by Disney+ Hotstar’s ‘The Legend of Hanuman’ Seasons 3 and 4, with 14.8 million viewers.
The above quite clearly indicates the dominance of Netflix and Prime Video India in the Hindi language series category and how they have been vying for viewer attention and are giving a stiff competition to each other. What worth noting here is the diversity in the genres that has attracted the audience.
Coming to Hindi-language direct-to-streaming films category, it’s Netflix that dominates capturing three spots out of five in top 5. At number one is Netflix’s ‘Amar Singh Chamkila’ with 12.9 million viewers, followed by ‘Murder Mubarak’ at 12.2 million. In the third position we have Prime Video India’s ‘Ae Watan Mere Watan’ with 11.5 million viewers. At number 4 and 5 are Netflix’s ‘Maharaj’ and SonyLIV’s ‘Patna Shuklla’ with 10.6 million and 9.8 million viewers, respectively.
Next up in Hindi language category are the unscripted shows where Jio Cinema’s ‘Big Boss OTT’ Season 3 emerged as the leader with 17.8 million viewers. Once agoin Netflix makes entry at number 2 with ‘The Great Indian Kapil Show’ having 14.5 million viewers, while SonyLIV’s ‘Shark Tank India’ Season 3 attracted 12.5 million viewers. Discovery+’s ‘Ram Janmabhoomi – Return of a Splendid Sun’ and Netflix’s ‘The Indrani Mukerjea Story: Buried Truth’ rounded the top five with 10 million and 6.4 million viewers respectively.
For regional content, Prime Video’s Kalki 2898 AD prequel animated series ‘B&B: Bujji and Bhairava’ was the top performer in Telugu-language category with 4.9 million viewers. It was followed by ETV Win’s ‘90’s – A Middle Class Biopic’ at 3.8 million. Disney+ Hotstar’s ‘Miss Perfect,’ ZEE5’s ‘Special Investigation Team’ and Aha Video’s ‘Bhamakalapam 2’ In the top 5.
For Tamil language content, Prime Video India’s ‘Inspector Rishi’ led the list with 4.9 million viewers, followed by Disney+ Hotstar’s ‘Heart Beat’ at 3.3 million. Disney+ Hotstar’s ‘Uppu Puli Kaaram,’ JioCinema’s ‘Pon Ondru Kanden’ and SonyLIV’s ‘MasterChef India Tamil’ Season 2 completed the top five.
Now for the international content, it was Prime Video’s ‘The Boys’ that dominated the charts and emerged as the most-watched international show at 10.5 million viewers. At second position is JioCinema’s ‘House of the Dragon’ Season 2 with 8.2 million. The list is followed by Prime Video’s ‘Fallout’ with 8 million viewers, Netflix’s ‘3 Body Problem’ and “Bridgerton” Season 3 with 6.9 million and 6.6 million viewers, respectively.
From these above mentioned lists we can draw some very clear conclusions and the first one will be that Indian streaming market is showing a strong and promising growth but a closer look reveals some critical insights. There is an unsaid potential monopolisation of sorts going on in the Indian OTT arena with Netflix and Prime Video dominating the most of it, and leaving very little space for others and thus reducing competition to a great extent.
Coming to second insight, the absence of Netflix from regional category shows is quite conspicuous. While its hold is very strong in Hindi and international content, the streamer lacks way behind in original shows in regional languages. In contrast, Prime Video India seems to be taking a very balanced approach in all the categories and in all the languages as well. This broad spectrum strategy is what makes Prime Video a top choice for subscribers.
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