iWorld
India streams ahead with 601 million OTT users in Ormax 2025 report
MUMBAI: When it comes to streaming, India is no longer buffering, it’s booming. Ormax Media has unveiled the fifth edition of The Ormax OTT Audience Report: 2025, pegging the country’s OTT universe at a staggering 601.2 million viewers (60.12 crore), or 41.1 per cent of India’s population.
The report, based on a robust survey of 15,600 respondents across urban and rural India in June and July 2025, defines an OTT audience as anyone who has watched at least one online video free or paid in the past month. While the audience base grew by 10 per cent year-on-year, the rate is slightly slower than the 13–14 per cent surge in 2023 and 2024.
Paid subscriptions are also gaining ground, with 148.2 million active subscriptions (including telecom bundles and aggregator deals) recorded in the report. Meanwhile, the most dramatic growth has come from the living room: India’s Connected TV user base now stands at 129.2 million, translating to 35–40 million homes, marking a jaw-dropping 87 per cent jump in just a year.
Ormax Media Founder & CEO Shailesh Kapoor said the Connected TV surge was a turning point: “India has long been regarded as mobile-first, but this sharp rise in CTV usage signals a paradigm shift in viewing behaviour.”
Since its launch in 2021, the Ormax OTT Audience Report has become the industry’s go-to yardstick. This year’s edition goes further, adding fresh parameters on time spent, preferred languages, content formats, and media habits. Ormax head of business development (streaming, Tv & brands) Keerat Grewal said these updates were driven by industry feedback: “The 2025 edition widens the scope, complementing business and monetisation insights with a richer picture of content consumption.”
The full report, available on subscription, is aimed at streaming platforms, advertisers, media agencies, investors, and production houses, offering a data-backed lens on the ever-expanding OTT ecosystem.
iWorld
OneOTT partners with UP govt for Project GANGA broadband rollout
Initiative to connect 2M plus households, empower 8,000–10,000 entrepreneurs in 2–3 years.
MUMBAI: Uttar Pradesh just got a digital Ganga flow because when broadband meets ambition, even villages start streaming faster than city traffic. OneOTT Intertainment Ltd. (OIL), the broadband arm of Hinduja Global Solutions (HGS) under the Hinduja Group, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the State Transformation Commission (STC), Government of Uttar Pradesh, for Project GANGA (Government Assisted Network for Growth & Advancement).
The MoU, signed on 7 March 2026 in the presence of Uttar Pradesh Finance & Parliamentary Affairs Minister Suresh Kumar Khanna, aims to empower 8,000–10,000 local entrepreneurs at the Nyaya Panchayat level as independent Digital Service Providers (DSPs). A significant number of these DSPs are expected to be women. The initiative will deliver high-speed broadband to over 2 million households in the next 2–3 years and create direct and indirect employment for more than 100,000 individuals.
Project GANGA will support government priorities in digital education, healthcare and public services while enabling MSMEs and enterprises with reliable connectivity. DSPs will receive structured training, financing assistance, network build-out support and technology enablement.
STC CEO Manoj Kumar Singh said, “Project GANGA is a significant step toward expanding inclusive digital infrastructure in Uttar Pradesh. By empowering local entrepreneurs, the program will strengthen service delivery and ensure affordable digital access for underserved communities.”
OIL, MD & CEO and HGS whole-time director Vynsley Fernandes added, “This initiative reflects our long-term commitment to enabling digital access and economic opportunity at scale. Project GANGA is structured as a multi-year program focused on entrepreneur onboarding, network deployment and workforce development.”
OIL brings execution strength backed by HGS and NXTDIGITAL’s national footprint, which already connects over 5 million homes across more than 4,500 pin codes in 1,500 cities and towns through 15,000 plus franchise partners and over 2 lakh kilometres of fibre infrastructure. The ecosystem will support broadband, IPTV, OTT, CCTV, satellite internet and cybersecurity solutions for households, businesses and public institutions.
In a state racing toward digital inclusion, Project GANGA isn’t just laying cables, it’s laying the foundation for millions to connect, learn, heal and earn, one Nyaya Panchayat at a time.
