By Stephane Le Dreau, SVP Regional GM APAC
As I'm currently preparing for the 2021 edition of APOS India, I wanted to reflect on the landscape of online video in India and think about the challenges it faces in terms of content, piracy, competition, and delivery in such a big country. Whilst I'm sure the discussions at APOS India will shed some light on these key areas, here are my thoughts on the road ahead.
Despite traditional TV still dominating in India, with broadband still being limited in rural areas, the analyst community still expects significant OTT growth. Not only in terms of business model adoption, with SVOD subscribers estimated to increase to 200M by 2025 (Interview with Mihir Shah, MPA VP Analyst at AVIAs Future of Video in India), but also in terms of broadband penetration with 5G's commercial roll-out expecting to increase mobile broadband penetration rates by 66% (as highlighted in the latest Regional Trends - Asia Pacific- IABM).
Combined with demand for local content surging (up to 80% of all content consumed is local in emerging countries), this is also generating opportunities for new local OTT players with most of them also producing their own content. It is therefore no surprise that we have seen the rise of some major Indian OTT players such as Disney+Hotstar, that passed 45 million paid subscribers by Q3 2021, but also Zee5 or SonyLiv amongst the other 40 OTT platforms available in India today. This has created strong competition alongside global OTT platforms such as Netflix or Amazon Prime, that are also heavily investing in premium Indian content and sports rights, to drive adoption and stay ahead of the local competition.
Talking about sports rights, the upcoming Cricket World Cup in 2023, that will be held for the first time entirely in India, should also mark an interesting milestone in terms of business models adoption, as large Internet players like Hotstar are preparing for it, and heavily investing in premium content monetized through AVOD and SVOD. And while SVOD should continue his ascension as predicted by analysts, it will be interesting to see how AVOD will perform during the world cup.
In this seemingly endless race to bring better differentiation against each other's service, these OTT players are also key partners for Telco operators; bringing deeper vertical integration between content creator, provider, and OTT player to ensure they remain competitive. As a consequence of these broader propositions, scalability becomes another key aspect that needs to be considered. Here, Airtel are one of the leaders as we recently described in our Case Study, where they have served an astonishing 50-60 million multi-DRM licenses per week to support a variety of consumer devices.
At such a large scale, it's both easy to understand and difficult to apprehend how scaling and optimizing network delivery is key to ensure quality of service. This is where edge technology is well known for content delivery, but it can also be leveraged to protect content through solutions such as forensic watermarking - such as NexGuard Streaming on Edge (Factsheet) - offering enhanced scalability alongside being able to trace and fight content piracy.
Finally, to finish with a note on piracy, while content is moving to IP, the barrier to piracy is also getting lower, therefore OTT operators need to take these threats into consideration to implement the right anti-piracy solutions to retain their subscriber. While Forensic watermarking is one powerful technology, operators will also need to take the fight one step further with more proactive anti-piracy solutions if they want to retain their audience and limit content redistribution.
The future looks bright for OTT in India, and I am excited to see what will come out of this year APOS event. Key themes I'll be watching are emerging technology, what trends we can expect for the coming year (and beyond), and who are or will be driving the fastest-growing OTT adoption in the country.
I'll be speaking about the Piracy & the Cloud: Securing Online Video in India at APOS India and I'd be delighted if you can join us.
Register here.
For more information on NAGRA NexGuard Streaming on Edge, download our fact sheet.
Most recent headlines
17/12/2025
Investigative journalists across the Western Balkans and T rkiye continue to con...
17/12/2025
Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame Inducts 10 Industry Icons During Unforgettable ...
17/12/2025
ESPN to Debut MNF Playbook with Next Gen Stats, a New AI-Driven NFL Data-AltCastThe series, powered by Adrenaline TruPlay AI, launches Dec. 22 and runs through ...
17/12/2025
Inaugural Optum Golf Channel Games Debut Under the Lights' in Primetime on ...
17/12/2025
The right playlist is essential on New Year's Eve, building the energy as you get ready and keeping it high as you count down to midnight. This year, Spotif...
17/12/2025
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({...
17/12/2025
Audiences Watched Over 103 Billion Minutes of TV on Thanksgiving Day
NFL Games ...
17/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
17/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
17/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
17/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
17/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
17/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
17/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
17/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
17/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
17/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
17/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
17/12/2025
KPop Demon Hunters Stars Visit Berklee for Weeklong Celebration Andrew Choi and EJAE, who voiced the film's main characters and contributed to its soundtr...
17/12/2025
Wednesday 17 December 2025
Heated Rivalry will be coming to Sky and streaming service NOW on 10 JanuaryTurn on cookies to view this content. Go to Privacy opti...
17/12/2025
Back to All News
Inside The Unseen World Of Indian Customs: Netflix Reveals The...
17/12/2025
Back to All News
Netflix announces PAPARAZZI KING: the docu series coming to Ne...
17/12/2025
Back to All News
Netflix Unveils First Look at Jo Nesbo's Detective Hole Pr...
17/12/2025
Back to All News
Netflix Welcomes Warner Bros. Discovery Board Recommendation
Business
17 December 2025
Global
Link copied to clipboard
After Careful Revi...
17/12/2025
RT has announced that Kathy Fox has been appointed Commissioning Editor with re...
17/12/2025
The Hao AI Lab research team at the University of California San Diego - at the forefront of pioneering AI model innovation - recently received an NVIDIA DGX B...
17/12/2025
Editor's note: This post is part of Into the Omniverse, a series focused on ...
17/12/2025
With the new season of Dancing with the Stars shimmering in the not-too-distant future this New Year, the celebrity and dancer pairings of the twelve couples ha...
16/12/2025
Hawkins has landed on Spotify, just in time for Stranger Things Season 5, Volume...
16/12/2025
Wherever you are, your favorite music and audio content should go seamlessly with you. That's why Spotify has partnered with NAVER Corp, Korea's leading...
16/12/2025
2025 Wrapped arrived bigger and bolder than ever. This year's experience is designed to be ultra personal and shareable, with new features like Wrapped Part...
16/12/2025
Three 12-kilowatt Advanced Electric Propulsion System thrusters, supplied by L3Harris Technologies, form the core of Gateway's propulsion system. Pictured i...
16/12/2025
The challenge facing America's defense industrial base is not just about speed - its about rebuilding the foundation that makes speed possible. Our nations ...
16/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
16/12/2025
SEVILLE, Spain Canal Sur, the public broadcasting service for Andalusia, Spain, has completed a total technology refresh based on Pebble's resilient, softwa...
16/12/2025
NEW YORK Teleprompting hardware provider Telescript International has acquired all software code and intellectual property previously owned by Telescript West. ...
16/12/2025
As cable operators face increased competition from 5G fixed wireless access providers, a new report from Ookla Research finds that T-Mobile is the FWA speed lea...
16/12/2025
Apple has announced a major upgrade to the Apple TV app for device owners outside the Apple ecosystem with news that the Apple TV app for Android now supports G...
16/12/2025
Space42 grows Direct-to-Device partner ecosystem through a Memorandum of Underst...
16/12/2025
16 Dec 2025
VEON Announces Release Date for Full Year and Fourth Quarter 2025 R...
16/12/2025
16 Dec 2025
VEON's Kyivstar Invests in Renewable Energy in Ukraine with Acq...
16/12/2025
Back to All News
Emma Appleton, Fares Fares, Frida Gustavsson and Jakob Oftebro...
16/12/2025
Back to All News
Docu-reality My Korean Boyfriend Gets a Trailer and Premiere D...
16/12/2025
Harmonic's XOS Advanced Media Processor Improves Streaming Video Quality and Boosts Viewer Engagement SAN JOSE, Calif. - Dec. 16, 2025 - Harmonic (NASDAQ: ...
16/12/2025
RT Sport Awards 2025 live on RT One and RT Player at 8:05pm on Saturday 20 December.
On Saturday 20 December live on RT One and RT Player at the earlier t...
16/12/2025
Singer -songwriter Brian Kennedy has been announced as the final celebrity dance...
15/12/2025
Harlem Globetrotters Celebrate 100th Anniversary With New Brand Campaign From Th...
15/12/2025
Top L-R: La Tierra Del Valor (The Home of the Brave), Mangittatuarjuk (The Gnawe...
15/12/2025
L3Harris will leverage 15 years of experience supporting the E-4B Nightwatch and...
By Stephane Le Dreau, SVP Regional GM APAC
