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
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
05/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
05/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
05/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
05/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
05/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
05/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
05/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
05/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
05/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
05/06/2026
Frequency, the engine powering many of the world's leading streaming television channels, today announced the launch of In-Scene Advertising, a new monetiza...
05/06/2026
Berklee Study Reveals Video Has Become Essential to Music Careers Survey findings show social platforms have become the primary source of music for video cont...
04/06/2026
Sony Electronics is introducing the SRG-AS10, a 4K 60p-compatible PTZ auto-frami...
04/06/2026
This recent grad from Spring, TX, led creative-video output for the Aggies' men's basketball team last season and has been producing video and creating ...
04/06/2026
For the first time at a women's golf major, every player in the field will r...
04/06/2026
Three Panasonic PT-RQ45 40,000-lumen 3-Chip DLP projectors made their first live...
04/06/2026
Bitmovin and Akamai have announced a collaboration with NRJ Group, a French mult...
04/06/2026
Telestream will exhibit at InfoComm 2026 (Booth N7952), demonstrating media work...
04/06/2026
Sony has announced the development of RIALTO 65, a 65mm format image sensor block for the VENICE 2 digital cinema camera, targeting release in the first half of...
04/06/2026
KOKUSAI DENKI Electric America will exhibit at InfoComm 2026 (Booth N8025, June ...
04/06/2026
Bell Media's TSN and RDS are the exclusive Canadian broadcasters of FIFA Wor...
04/06/2026
The Challenge: Receiving Heavy Media Files From Road Games Quickly and ReliablyT...
04/06/2026
MASV, a managed file transfer platform used in broadcast and live sports product...
04/06/2026
NESN has announced the appointment of Fahad Haider as Vice President of Operations and Engineering. Haider returns to NESN, where he previously served as Vice P...
04/06/2026
David J. Halberstam, who spent almost 50 years in sports as a broadcaster and an executive, died June 2 after a years-long battle with brain cancer.
Over his l...
04/06/2026
Although collegiate production programs are tasked with delivering high-quality ...
04/06/2026
California studio, two production trucks, global distribution system are combine...
04/06/2026
New global program empowers and supports storytellers through scriptwriting course and access to industry experts
TikTok and Sundance Institute today announce...
04/06/2026
Steinberg DAWs now boast in-depth Tonalic integration
Celemony's innovative virtual session musician plug-in has just received an update that brings ARA...
04/06/2026
Get Hands-On With Over 20 Mic Brands
GearExpo UK is fast approaching, and if you've been looking for a chance to check out some new mics, then you'r...
04/06/2026
Combos feature new Amplifier Intelligence engine
Positive Grid's latest release sees the company introduce two new combo amplifiers that promise to offe...
04/06/2026
Is Your Job Making You Work this June?
4 June, 2026
Media releases
SBS Launches the World Cup Watchers' Rights Association to Stand Up For Australians&...
04/06/2026
Statement regarding unauthorised use of SBS logos on third party social content
4 June, 2026
Media releases
SBS has become aware of social media posts in c...
04/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/06/2026
Bitmovin, a leading provider of video streaming infrastructure, and Akamai, the cybersecurity and cloud computing company that powers and protects business onli...
04/06/2026
American Underground (AU), the Startup Hub of the South and a community of mor...
04/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/06/2026
NVIDIA and Microsoft Reinvent Windows PCs for the Age of Personal AI
Brie Clayton June 3, 2026
0 Comments
RTX Spark - a 1-Petaflop Superchip, the Full...
04/06/2026
Inside the Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man Grade
Brie Clayton June 3, 2026
0 Comments
Simone Grattarola discusses shaping the look in DaVinci Resolve...
04/06/2026
Cine Gear Expo Announces 2026 Awards of Excellence Recipients
Brie Clayton June 3, 2026
0 Comments
Ed Lachman ASC, Caleb Deschanel ASC, and M. David M...
By Stephane Le Dreau, SVP Regional GM APAC
