A report by accounting and analytics firm Earnst & Young has provided conclusive data on the fast-rising OTT industry. The data addresses issues Indian OTT platforms have been grappling with since a long time. The issues are related to piracy and password-sharing – the two malaises in the Indian OTT space.
As per the EY report, a bare minimum of India’s total OTT users pay for watching OTT content. A mere 10% of the total OTT users in the country have paid subscriptions to OTT platforms. A whopping 90% of users watch OTT content over piracy websites and apps, or through shared passwords with friends and relatives.
That means, out of a total of 503 million OTT viewers in India, there are a mere 40-50 million paid OTT subscriptions in the country.
Piracy has been a pressing issue for OTT platforms since long. It was the Indian film industries that suffered due to the scourge earlier. Now it is the turn of the over-the-top streaming industry to face the brunt of this menace. No sooner is a show out than it is available on piracy websites or Telegram for viewing for free.
Password sharing is another issue that OTT platforms face. Friends and relatives freely borrow passwords of OTT platforms such as Netflix, Disney Plus Hotstar, ZEE5, SonyLIV and Prime Video from near and dear ones, whenever there’s a new show or movie to watch.
Is it any wonder then that OTT platforms in India are bleeding, with negligible revenues and heavy overheads. While OTT viewership is touching new heights everyday, it is a surprise that the rate of new OTT subscriptions is abysmally low in India.
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