iWorld
OTTplay forays into streaming aggregation in partnership with 12 OTTs
Mumbai: Over-the-top (OTT) content recommendation platform OTTplay forays into streaming with the launch of its premium service in partnership with 12 Indian and international OTTs.
The OTT aggregator has partnered with platforms such as Sonyliv, Zee5, Lionsgate Play, Sun Nxt, ShemarooMe, Curiosity Stream, ShortsTV, Docubay. It has also launched four international streaming services in India with Hallmark Movies Now, Dust, Fuse+ and Tastemade+.
It offers five premium subscription plans which offer five Hindi OTTs, eight English OTTs, four OTT focused on South languages and five assorted OTTs.
The pricing platform starts at Rs 50 per month to be paid annually. A user that purchases an OTTplay premium subscription pack could save anywhere between Rs 3,000 to Rs 12,500 per year, claims the platform.
OTTplay has a user base of five million who navigate the complex OTT landscape with AI-based personalised recommendations every month. Users can discover titles across multiple OTT platforms as well as get relevant content by OTTplay’s editorial team in terms of ratings, reviews, interviews and news.
“We specialise in curation, aggregation, recommendation and hence personalisation. With the launch of subscriptions on the OTTplay app, we now have a better understanding of our viewer’s preferences through not just their stated preferences, but also their actual consumption patterns, and we are very excited to see the upgrade in the accuracy of our personalized OTT recommendations across platforms, genres and languages,” said OTTplay’s founder Avinash Mudaliar.
He further said, “Our aim is to enable consumers to spend time watching their favourite content, not searching for it; according to a recent Accenture report, close to 70 per cent of Indian OTT consumers find the process of navigating different OTT apps ‘frustrating’, and that is the precise problem we had set out to solve with OTTplay.”
“Our partnership with OTTplay is an exciting opportunity to expand our international footprint as we bring Hallmark Movies Now to India for the first time,” said SVP international distribution Francisco Gonzales. “Indian audiences now have a one-stop destination to access a curated mix of signature Hallmark content.”
“Our endeavour has been to ensure that viewers are provided with a curated line-up of content for the best viewing experience. Taking this forward, we are excited to partner with OTTplay to reach a large and diverse sector of consumers with a digitally-driven offering enabling consumers to spend more time watching than searching – this is in-line with our ethos of ‘play more, browse less’. We look forward to a successful partnership with the end user discovering the best of content, said Lionsgate Play EVP Amit Dhanuka.
“We are excited to be a part of this endeavour aimed at broadening the horizons of digital content consumption and improving online entertainment experiences for consumers,” said a spokesperson from Zee5. “At Zee5, we passionately believe in and have been democratising content for the country’s diverse entertainment seekers through innovative offerings with an added value proposition. With this collaboration, we aim to strengthen our connect with the wider audience base and enable them to enjoy Zee5’s extensive and diversified content library.”
“At Curiosity, we know our audiences want to know more and our factual content and documentaries satisfy that need. We are very pleased to partner with OTTplay as they optimize valuable insights to superserve their consumer with the factual content they are searching for, providing for the ultimate customer experience,” Curiosity Inc. managing director and head of international Bakori Davis.
OTTplay premium offers content across 12 OTT platforms, 10 Indian languages, a host of international languages, 18+ genres and 20,000+ shows. The platform works seamlessly across all operating systems and does not need any additional hardware to be installed. OTTplay is available as a website as well as on iOS and Android apps.
“I am delighted to direct Kanda Naal Mudhal. It has an eccentric plotline with significant characters who have their set of dreams and desires,” said director Radha Krishnan. “How each of the characters fulfil their dreams while also balancing their relationships is the crux of the story. Furthermore, it was a treat to direct such a terrific ensemble with tremendous acting prowess, with the rustic locations serving as a complement. I am grateful that Colors Tamil has given me the opportunity to be a part of the show where all characters represent an important facet of society.”
MUMBAI: If cricket were a binge-worthy series, this one just dropped its most explosive pilot yet. The opening weekend of the 2026 edition of the Indian Premier League has come out swinging, smashing records across both television and digital platforms and reaffirming the tournament’s unmatched pull in India’s sporting and media landscape.
Backed by two high-octane matches featuring 200-plus run chases, the tournament delivered a combined reach of over 515 million viewers across linear TV and digital platforms via JioStar’s broadcast ecosystem, including Star Sports and JioHotstar. More tellingly, engagement surged alongside reach, with total watch-time hitting 32.6 billion minutes, a sharp 26 per cent jump over the opening weekend of the previous season.
The numbers reveal a deeper shift in how India watches cricket. Connected TV (CTV) consumption rose by 30 per cent, while peak concurrency on digital platforms jumped 61 per cent, signalling a growing appetite for shared, big-screen streaming experiences. On traditional television, the momentum held strong, with TV ratings (TVR) climbing 24 per cent compared to earlier seasons’ opening matches.
A key driver of this spike has been the evolution of the viewing experience itself. This season introduced differentiated feeds, most notably a Hindi CTV broadcast featuring cricketing voices such as Ravichandran Ashwin, Suresh Raina, Harbhajan Singh, Virender Sehwag and Irfan Pathan. Blending expert analysis with a watch-along format, the feed has added a conversational, almost second-screen feel without requiring viewers to leave their screens.
According to JioStar CEO for Sports Ishan Chatterjee, at the opening weekend underscores not just scale but also the depth of engagement that live cricket continues to command. He noted that the combination of large-screen viewing and digital interactivity is creating a more immersive and personalised experience, while also delivering tangible outcomes for brand partners.
From the league’s perspective, the early numbers point to a tournament that continues to reinvent itself. Arun Singh Dhumal, Chairman of the IPL, said the strong start reflects how high-quality cricket paired with enhanced viewing formats is resonating with audiences nationwide, while Board of Control for Cricket in India secretary Devajit Saikia highlighted the “quality of engagement” as a key takeaway, not just the scale.
Commercially too, the opening weekend signals robust advertiser confidence. The broadcast is led by co-presenting sponsors including Google (Search AI Mode), Campa Energy, and Havells & Lloyd, alongside co-powered partners such as Birla Opus, Hero Motocorp and Amazon. A long tail of associate sponsors from OpenAI and Asian Paints to Flipkart and Amul further reflects the league’s unmatched ability to aggregate advertiser interest at scale.
Taken together, the opening weekend numbers are less a spike and more a statement. With 515 million viewers, 32.6 billion minutes of watch-time, and double-digit growth across formats, IPL 2026 has not just started strong, it has set the tone for a season that looks poised to push the boundaries of both sport and spectacle.
