iWorld
India online video opportunity to scale to $4.5 billion by 2025
NEW DELHI: 2020 was a breakthrough year for over the top (OTT) streaming platforms. India’s online video industry generated an estimated $1.4 billion in revenue in the year, with advertising contributing 64 per cent and subscription 36 per cent, said Media Partners Asia (MPA) in its ‘India Online Video and Broadband Distribution’ report.
India is currently the fastest growing OTT market. According to MPA, the country's overall online video market is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 26 per cent over 2020-25 to reach $4.5 billion.
There are around 60 platforms operating in the Indian OTT landscape. However, YouTube (43 per cent), Disney+ Hotstar (16 per cent), Netflix (14 per cent), Amazon Prime Video (seven per cent) remained the top five platforms which accounted for a combined 80 per cent share of total revenues in 2020.
“Subscription based online video services benefited significantly in 2020 as the country went into the lockdown. Key players are investing in premium local content while leveraging sports, movie rights and aggressive consumer pricing to drive subscriber adoption. The subscription video-on-demand (SVoD) market will remain competitive as Disney+ Hotstar scales its direct subscription business while Netflix and Amazon Prime Video deepen partnerships with mobile and fixed broadband operators. These three platforms accounted for almost 80 per cent of the SVoD revenues in 2020,” said MPA India vice president Mihir Shah.
YouTube remains the market leader in AVoD, accounting for 67 per cent of total online video advertising in 2020. But, its market share is expected to decline to 55 per cent by 2025 as domestic broadcaster-backed platforms and short form user-generated content (UGC) video players expand their presence. “Local premium content and sports rights will help broadcaster-backed platforms gain share. Increased reach and engagement with rural millennials will improve monetisation for short-form video platforms,” added Shah.
According to its projections, the SVoD market could reach $1.9 billion by 2025, a 30 per cent CAGR from 2020.
Online video advertising reached an estimated $909 million in 2020, a marginal decline of two per cent y-o-y as reduced demand has forced advertisers to recalibrate advertising budgets. The AVoD segment is expected to expand at a CAGR of 24 per cent over the next five years to reach $2.6 billion by 2025.
India OTT content investment reached $700 million in 2020 as both domestic and global platforms are investing in the country’s burgeoning SVoD opportunity. The budgets for originals and local acquisitions continue to trend upwards. As a result, the OTT content costs are projected to grow at a CAGR of 18 per cent in the next five years to reach $1.6 billion, said the report.
The 4G revolution drove the country’s mobile broadband penetration to 43 per cent as of December 2019. With commercial rollout of 5G expected to begin in 2021, India’s mobile broadband penetration is forecast to grow steadily to 66 per cent by 2025. India's fixed broadband market remains under-penetrated at merely six per cent of households, but fresh investments by private telecom players have renewed the market. According to MPA, the country's fixed broadband market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 18 per cent between 2020 and 2025 to reach 45 million subscribers with more than 82 per cent of subscribers through fiber.
With the infrastructure upgrades, consumers are identifying new uses for the expanded broadband capacity including work from home, education from home, video conferencing, as well as online video streaming.
Alliances and partnerships are emerging which facilitate the sale of VOD and data bundling packages. Jio has collaborated with all leading platforms, while Airtel has tied-up with Amazon Prime Video and Zee5 for its fixed broadband offering.
iWorld
Why Peaky Blinders is one of television’s biggest hits that still deserves more attention
Six seasons, multiple awards and the release of Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man bring the Shelby saga back into the spotlight
In the crowded universe of streaming content, only a handful of shows manage to leave a lasting cultural footprint. Peaky Blinders is overwhelmingly considered one of the biggest global hits of the past decade. Yet many viewers still haven’t fully explored the dark, gripping world of the Shelby family.
Originally produced for the UK’s BBC and later finding a massive global audience through Netflix, the series quietly grew from a British period drama into a worldwide streaming phenomenon.
Created by Steven Knight, the show follows the rise of the Shelby crime family in post-First World War Birmingham. What begins as a gritty street-gang story gradually expands into a sweeping narrative about ambition, politics, power and survival.
At the centre of the saga is Thomas Shelby, portrayed with extraordinary depth by Cillian Murphy. The casting of Murphy is widely regarded as perfect for the role. With piercing eyes, restrained dialogue and an almost hypnotic screen presence, he transforms Shelby into one of the most unforgettable characters in modern screen storytelling.
Murphy’s brilliance lies in his restraint. He rarely shouts or performs theatrically. Instead, a quiet stare, a calculated pause or a subtle shift in expression conveys the emotional storms within the character. Beneath the ruthless gang leader is a war veteran carrying trauma, guilt and loneliness. Murphy captures this complexity with remarkable precision, making Thomas Shelby both terrifying and deeply human.
Beyond its central performance, Peaky Blinders stands out for its unfiltered portrayal of reality. The show does not romanticise crime. Instead, it exposes the harsh social conditions of early 20th-century Britain, from poverty and class struggle to political extremism and the psychological scars left by war.
The series also presents powerful female characters who hold their own within the Shelby empire. Polly Gray, played by Helen McCrory, is the strategic backbone of the family and one of the most formidable figures in the story. Women in the series shape decisions, influence power structures and challenge the rigid social norms of the time.
Across six seasons, the narrative grows dramatically in scale. What begins in the smoky streets of Birmingham evolves into a story involving political conspiracies, fascism and international criminal networks.
The series has also earned significant critical acclaim. It won the BAFTA Television Award for Best Drama Series in 2018 and multiple National Television Awards for Best Drama, cementing its reputation as one of Britain’s most celebrated modern shows.
Another defining feature of the series is its iconic music. The show’s opening theme, Red Right Hand by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, became instantly recognisable and widely associated with the Shelby universe. Combined with a powerful soundtrack featuring artists such as Arctic Monkeys and Radiohead, the music helped shape the show’s dark, stylish identity and became hugely popular among fans.
And the Shelby story is not over yet.
In fact, its legacy is unfolding right now. The long-awaited feature-length continuation, Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man, was released on March 6, 2026, bringing the Shelby universe from streaming screens to cinemas and giving fans a new chapter in the saga.
For viewers who have not yet stepped into this world, the timing could not be better.
Six gripping seasons are ready to binge on Netflix. A new film has just arrived in theatres. And at the heart of it all stands one of the most magnetic performances in modern drama by Cillian Murphy.
So if Peaky Blinders has been sitting on your watchlist for years, this weekend is your moment.
So, by order of the Peaky fookin’ Blinders, consider this your cue to finally step into the ruthless world of Thomas Shelby. Pour yourself a drink, clear your schedule and press the play button. Because when the Peaky Blinders give an order, you listen.
