iWorld
The Ormax OTT Audience Report: 2023 estimates 13.5% growth in India’s OTT audience
Mumbai: Media consulting firm Ormax Media has released the latest edition of India’s largest audience research to size the OTT universe in the country, titled The Ormax OTT Audience Report: 2023. The research, based on a sample size of 12,000 across urban and rural India, was conducted from July to September 2023.
Ormax Media released select findings of the report, which reveal that the Indian OTT audience universe is currently at 481.1 Million (or 48.11 Crore) people. This translated into a penetration of 34%. The report defines an OTT audience who watched at least one online video (free or paid) in the last one month. The report breaks down this universe by gender, age, NCCS, pop strata, states, and cities.
Speaking about the significance of the report, Ormax Media business development head (streaming, TV & brands) Keerat Grewal said, “The latest edition of our annual report reveals that after the upsurge in the Indian OTT market during the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021, the growth has settled down at more moderate levels. The Indian OTT audience base grew 20% from 2021 to 2022, but has grown only 13.5% over the last one year, highlighting that the category is now past the peak growth phase it witnessed in the two preceding years.”
The report also reveals that there are currently 101.8 Million active paid (B2C) OTT subscriptions in India, across 36.4 Million SVOD (B2C) audiences, i.e., an average of 2.8 subscriptions per paying audience member. B2C subscriptions in the report refer to subscribers who have taken a membership directly with the OTT platform, in contrast with B2B subscriptions, which are via telecom packs offered by various operators. Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru are the top 3 cities on paid subscriptions, with more than 6 Million active paid subscriptions each.
Elaborating on the findings, Grewal said, “The extensive data in this report can help OTT platforms and associated agencies take more informed strategic decisions in areas like pay vs. free strategy, TG and market selection, content and communication strategy, revenue planning, etc. Ormax Media continues to stay committed to the idea of helping the Indian media & entertainment industry use data and analytics towards building more profitable and consumer-centric businesses.”
The full report is available by subscription for streaming platforms, production companies, media agencies and other companies associated with the OTT category in India.
iWorld
Applause, Story TV team up to push microdrama content
Partnership to create premium short form shows for mobile first viewers
MUMBAI: Applause Entertainment and Story TV are betting on short attention spans with a long-term vision, joining forces to create a slate of premium microdramas for mobile-first audiences.
The partnership brings together Applause’s storytelling pedigree and Story TV’s fast-growing digital reach, with plans to co-produce and distribute bite-sized dramas across genres. As part of the deal, Story TV will also adapt the romantic thriller Hello Mini into a vertical microdrama format, signalling a shift in how stories are being reshaped for smaller screens.
Backed by the Aditya Birla Group, Applause Entertainment has built a reputation for high-quality content with titles like Scam 1992 and Criminal Justice. Story TV, launched in 2025, has quickly scaled up with a library of over 1,000 titles across languages and genres, riding the wave of mobile consumption.
Story TV founder and CEO Saurabh Pandey said, “Phones are now the primary screens for content consumption, and microdramas are evolving into a mainstream format. At Story TV, we are blending storytelling with technology to push this format further.”
He added that the collaboration with Applause Entertainment will help expand the reach of microdramas while introducing a layer of premium storytelling to the space.
Applause Entertainment chief business officer Prasoon Garg said, “At Applause, we have always focused on strong storytelling across formats. As microdramas gain momentum, this partnership allows us to explore the space with a platform that understands both the format and its audience.”
With mobile screens shrinking and content getting sharper, the collaboration hints at a future where storytelling is not just shorter, but smarter, designed to fit neatly into the scroll of everyday life.
