India as a video market to hit $13bn in revenue by 2028, pushed by OTT

India as a video market is projected to attract $13 billion in revenue by 2028, primarily bolstered by the OTT industry that pumps in crores annually to generate new content, research data from Media Partners Asia has revealed. The research adds the economy of India’s video industry is estimated to grow at a rate of 8 per cent till 2028, powered by on-demand streaming.

India is growing at the most rapid pace among all big video markets in the world, with investment in content surging from $3.3 billion in 2018 to $5.8 billion in 2023, a Bloomberg report states quoting the research data. The domestic market of the country has the potential to grow phenomenally, although India is currently behind Japan and South Korea.

Overall, the streaming sector has the potential to create 2,80,000 jobs by 2028, the report estimates.

The Mukesh Ambani-backed Jio Cinema has been spending around $1 billion annually, with special focus on live sports streaming, says MPA managing director Vivek Couto according to a Mint report.

The streaming market is also growing with new alliances being formed. Earlier this year, Ambani’s Viacom18 struck a mega deal with Disney to form a new entity that will launch around 120 TV channels and two OTT platforms. According to the deal, Ambani’s Reliance and Viacom18 will own 63 per cent of the merged entity while Disney has 37 per cent. Reliance will invest an estimated $1.4 billion (about Rs 11,500 crore) in the new company, which is to be valued at around $8.5 billion (Rs 70,352 crore).

Currently, the US-origin streaming platforms Netflix and Amazon Prime Video account for a big part of the growth in India’s video revenues, investing a combined amount of $500 million annually in this country to buy or produce content aimed at the domestic viewer. With a viewership base of around 1.4 billion, India has emerged as the third-biggest source of revenue for Netflix. Prime Video on the other hand plans to launch over 70 films and series, boosted by the platform’s good showing in the country.