
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...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
02/05/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
01/05/2026
January 5 2026, 18:30 (PST) NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to ...
21/04/2026
Cloud-based production isnt going anywhere, and BitFire is doubling down by prov...
21/04/2026
The topic of artificial intelligence has a stranglehold on the sports-video-prod...
21/04/2026
5G is still a hot topic in live event production, and this workflow continues to...
21/04/2026
At the 2026 NAB Show, Ed McGivern, GM and President of Appear US, discusses the ...
21/04/2026
Studio Network Solutions (SNS) has announced an on-premise AI suite designed for...
21/04/2026
Suite Studios has integrated its file-streaming technology into the newly announced Frame.io Drive, a desktop application from Adobe company Frame.io. The colla...
21/04/2026
Net Insight has integrated InSync Technology's FrameFormer into the Nimbra E...
21/04/2026
Fox Sports has selected Appear as a technology partner to support the next phase...
21/04/2026
Diversified has appointed Tyler Affolter as Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) to lead the company's commercial organisation. The appointment follows the firm'...
21/04/2026
Layercake has formalised the integration of Bitmovin's video streaming infra...
21/04/2026
The International Judo Federation (IJF) has extended its distribution partnershi...
21/04/2026
Glookast has launched the Cinnafilm Tachyon plugin for its Media Producer and Me...
21/04/2026
Eutelsat has entered into an agreement with Cadena Tres, a division of Grupo Ima...
21/04/2026
Dolby Laboratories and TV Azteca have partnered to introduce Dolby Atmos immersive audio to free-to-air television broadcasts. The implementation utilises the A...
21/04/2026
FOX Entertainment partnered with Verizon to overcome significant production hurd...
21/04/2026
Osprey Video has announced its technology showcase for the NAB Show 2026, highli...
21/04/2026
Riedel Communications (Booth C4908) introduced a range of new solutions at NAB S...
21/04/2026
The NAB Show is in full swing, and the SVG and SVG Europe editorial teams are chasing down the hottest stories from all over the Las Vegas Convention Center. He...
21/04/2026
Blackmagic Design has announced the URSA Cine Immersive 100G, an immersive cinem...
21/04/2026
Clark Wire & Cable is continuing its evolution from cable supplier to full-scale solutions partner for broadcast and live production. At the 2026 NAB Show, we s...
21/04/2026
Rashad Frett attends the 2025 Sundance Film Festival premiere of Ricky at Eccles Theatre on January 24, 2025, in Park City, UT. (Photo by George Pimentel/Shut...
21/04/2026
Five years ago, Spotify arrived in Pakistan, opening a new chapter in the country's music scene. Since then, local listeners have explored across genres, ge...
21/04/2026
Since its launch in 2020, RADAR has been our program for spotlighting emerging artists around the world. This year marks the sixth edition of RADAR Spain, our o...
21/04/2026
Offers compact wireless solution for pedalboards
Taiwanese audio brand Cloudvocal have announced the availability of a new pedalboard-friendly wireless syst...
21/04/2026
Latest hybrid sampling/synthesis instrument arrives
Arturia's Augmented series offerings rely on a mixture of sampling and synthesis, allowing users to ...
21/04/2026
Rohde & Schwarz to host Power Electronics Online Conference From Design to Vali...
21/04/2026
MAS and Lockheed Martin partner to establish an F-35 depot in Canada, enabling in-country sustainment and creating high-skilled aerospace jobs....
21/04/2026
Advertising strategies shift as competition grows for a large, active and qualit...
21/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
21/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
21/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
21/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
21/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
21/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
21/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
21/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
21/04/2026
Layercake Deepens Bitmovin Integration to Power End-to-End Media Orchestration w...
21/04/2026
Cobalt Digital Announces Launch of blueCORE at NAB Show 2026: Compact Powerhouse...
21/04/2026
On-Premise AI Suite from Studio Network Solutions Debuts at NAB Show 2026
Melanie Ciotti April 21, 2026
0 Comments
Unlimited processing, no cloud depe...
21/04/2026
London, 21 April 2026 IBC today announced the appointment of Tim Banham as its first Chief Commercial Officer (CCO), a newly created role that reflects the or...
21/04/2026
Motion Design Tools - April 2026
Roland Kahlenberg April 21, 2026
0 Comments
Within 2 days, Maxon and Canva announced pro-level motion design apps - A...
21/04/2026
Chaos and Zero Density to Showcase Real-Time Ray Tracing for Virtual Studios and...
21/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...