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The TAM story continued…
It has clearly broadcast its intent: the Rs 37,000 crore Indian TV broadcasting industry wants change in the way TV viewership is monitored in India. Though a lot of noise has been made about the quality of and what was wrong with the ratings, followed by broadcasters‘ cancellation notices to TAM Media Research‘s service, nothing specific was forthcoming from them on what those changes should be. This was followed by a period when speculation was that TAM‘s ratings would be blacked out for a while until it corrected itself and satisfied broadcasters.
But despite denials from the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF) very senior management sources in television channels have toldindiantelevision.com that the cancellation notices by the broadcasters stand cancelled. I guess one shouldn‘t be surprised. Long after some broadcasters unsubscribed, they continued to claim their No 1 position. How? As per ratings, of course.
Confirming this is the CEO of a TV channel: “Most of the broadcasters who sent in their subscription cancellation letters to TAM have withdrawn them. Nobody will come on record; the IBF will say no it has not happened, but the cancellations stand cancelled. All the channels who say they have unsubscribed have been circulating ratings internally and to their producers. So who says that they have cancelled their subscriptions to TAM?”
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_________________________________________________________ Most of the broadcasters who sent in their subscription cancellation letters to TAM have withdrawn them. Nobody will come on record; the IBF will say no it has not happened, but the cancellations stand cancelled. |
But to be fair, the broadcasters did write to TAM withdrawing their subscriptions, but they did not ‘enforce‘ those letters. TAM continued to give out ratings and the industry continued to download them. Besides, one-third of the broadcasting industry unsubscribing was not a shut-down, but a warning. A warning which was very much required.
While Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) is underway and will possibly take over the industry as the sole ‘currency‘ for television ratings by mid-next year, a black-out in the interim period is not a desirable situation for any of the stakeholders, is what we understand.
So the fact is TAM never went away really. What happened was that there were threats to make it go away, but behind closed doors the broadcasters worked on elucidating what they would like TAM to do to win their favour and their custom. Their list of demands, part of which was reported by Mint, includes:
Monthly data v/s Weekly data
Broadcasters prefer their ratings on a monthly basis as opposed to every week. This means data will be week specific, yet it will be available for consumption only at the end of the month.
No ratings for smaller niche
Any cell or segmentation which has less than 30 peoplemeters employed in it, should not be reported. This translates to no ratings for smaller niche channels in that particular month. The idea behind this restriction is self-explanatory. ‘No data is better than insufficient data.‘
CPT v/s CPRP
A lot of the chaos surrounding TAM ratings arises out of tall claims made by channels based on ‘share‘. The broadcasters wish to do away with the share syndrome and want the data strictly in numbers. This implies that the market standard will now have to change from Cost Per Rating Point (CPRP) to Cost Per Thousand (CPT). Broadcasters want to be told the exact number of viewers they are reaching in thousands, irrespective of the share aspect, which as I understand, is prone to loopholes.
BARC supervision
The broadcasters‘ have demanded that the implementation of all their demands and the overall technical procedure is subject to BARC‘s tech committee‘s supervision.
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_________________________________________ Broadcasters have complained for long, that in a country where millions of viewers are getting added annually and there is a robust digitization exercise in place, how can they believe TAM’s claim of the TV universe shrinking? In this context, the demand for increasing the viewers, only seems justified. |
From 145 million to 260 million
The total television viewing universe in India is approximately 500 million. Out of this, around 240 million comprises rural viewers which are not covered by TAM. This leaves 260 million urban, semi-urban and semi-rural viewers. Currently, TAM covers a universe of 140 million viewers only. The broadcasters rightly demand that the sample base should be boosted to 260 million viewers to cover the entire non-rural universe.
Broadcasters have complained for long, that in a country where more viewers are getting and there is a robust digitization exercise in place, how can they believe TAM‘s claim of the TV universe shrinking? In this context, the demand for increasing the viewers only seems justified.
The fallout happened due to a number of causative factors. Inaccuracy, lack of transparency and illogical explanation were some of the complaints made by the broadcasting industry for a considerably long period of time.
Besides, it was important to send out a clear message to TAM and the rest of the world, that the Indian broadcasting industry is capable of dismantling an existing system by their united strength. Also, the time was right to set the stage for the upcoming BARC. The sudden outburst against TAM was not so sudden after all.
The concerns of all involved have to be addressed sooner than later. And it is definitely a positive development to know that broadcasters finally chose to break their golden silence and initiate corrective measures.
The consensus between TAM and broadcasters is believed to have been reached for the above-mentioned demands. So far everyone stands divided on the way forward based on broadcasters five or six point plan. It is now up to TAM to convince agencies and advertisers, both of which are very crucial stakeholders in the entire set up.
MUMBAI: 2025 will be remembered as the year India’s OTT industry stopped chasing scale for its own sake and began reckoning with how audiences actually consume content. Completion rates fell, patience wore thin and the limits of long-form excess became impossible to ignore. In this guest column, Pratap Jain, founder and CEO of ChanaJor, traces how micro-drama moved from the fringes to the centre of viewing behaviour, why short-form fiction emerged as a retention engine rather than a trend, and how platforms that respected time, habit and emotional payoff were the ones that truly grew up in 2025.
If there is one thing 2025 will be remembered for in the Indian OTT industry, it’s this: the industry finally stopped pretending.
Stopped pretending that bigger automatically meant better.
Stopped pretending that viewers had endless time.
Stopped pretending that scale without retention was success.
What began as a quiet reset in 2023 and a cautious correction in 2024 turned into a very visible shift in 2025. Business models matured. Content strategies tightened. And most importantly, platforms started aligning themselves with how Indians actually watch content, not how the industry wished they would.
At the centre of this shift was micro-drama—not as a trend, but as a behavioural inevitability.
When OTT finally understood the time problem
For years, long episodes were treated as a marker of seriousness. A 45–60 minute runtime was almost a badge of credibility. Shorter formats were pushed to the margins, labelled as “snack content” or “mobile-only.”
That belief quietly collapsed in 2025.
What platform data showed very clearly was not a drop in interest—but a drop in patience. Viewers weren’t rejecting stories. They were rejecting commitment.
Across platforms, the same patterns appeared:
* First-episode drop-offs on long-form shows kept increasing
* Completion rates continued to slide
* Viewers were sampling more titles but finishing fewer
At the same time, shows with episodes in the six to 10 minute range started showing the opposite behaviour: higher completion, higher repeat viewing, and stronger daily habit formation.
Micro-drama didn’t win because it was short. It won because it respected time.
Micro-Drama didn’t arrive loudly. It took over quietly.
There was no single moment when micro-drama “launched” in India. It crept in through dashboards and retention charts.
By mid-2025, it was clear that viewers were happy watching four, five, sometimes six short episodes in one sitting—even when they wouldn’t finish a single long episode. Romance, relationship drama, slice-of-life conflict, and grounded comedy worked especially well.
This wasn’t disposable content. It was compressed storytelling.
In shorter formats, there was no room for indulgence. Every episode had to move the story forward. Weak writing was punished faster. Strong writing was rewarded immediately.
Micro-drama raised the bar instead of lowering it.
Where ChanaJor naturally fit into this shift
ChanaJor didn’t pivot to micro-drama in 2025 because the market demanded it. In many ways, the platform was already built around the same viewing behaviour.
From the beginning, ChanaJor focused on short-to-mid-length fictional stories that felt close to everyday Indian life—hostels, rented flats, office romances, small-town relationships, young people figuring things out. Stories that didn’t need heavy context or cinematic scale to connect.
What worked in ChanaJor’s favour in 2025 was clarity:
* A clearly defined audience
* Tight episode lengths
* Storytelling that prioritised emotion and pace over spectacle
While several platforms rushed to copy global micro-drama formats, ChanaJor stayed rooted in familiar Indian settings and conflicts. That familiarity mattered. Viewers didn’t have to “enter” the world of the show—it already felt like theirs.
Why audiences started responding differently
One of the biggest misconceptions going into 2025 was that audiences wanted shorter content because their attention spans had reduced. That wasn’t entirely true.
What viewers actually wanted was meaningful payoff per minute.
On platforms like ChanaJor, episodes didn’t waste time setting the mood for ten minutes. Conflicts arrived early. Characters were recognisable within moments. Emotional hooks landed fast.
A typical consumption pattern looked like real life:
* One episode during a break
* Two more before sleeping
* A few the next day
This is how viewing habits are built—not through marketing spends, but through comfort and consistency.
Viewers came back not because every show was a blockbuster, but because they knew what kind of experience to expect.
2025 was also the year OTT faced business reality
The other big change in 2025 was on the business side. Subscriber growth slowed. Discounts stopped hiding churn. Customer acquisition costs rose.
Platforms were forced to ask harder questions:
* Are viewers finishing what they start?
* Are they returning without reminders?
* Is this content worth what we’re spending on it?
This is where micro-drama began outperforming expectations. A well-written short series could deliver sustained engagement without massive budgets. It didn’t peak for one weekend and disappear—it stayed alive through repeat viewing.
Platforms like ChanaJor benefited because they weren’t chasing inflated launch numbers. The focus was on consistency and retention, not noise.
Failures Became Visible Faster
2025 also exposed weaknesses brutally.
Several platforms assumed micro-drama was a shortcut—short episodes, quick shoots, instant traction. What they discovered was that bad writing fails faster in short formats than in long ones.
Viewers dropped off within minutes. Episodes were abandoned mid-way. Weak stories had nowhere to hide.
Micro-drama didn’t forgive laziness. It amplified it.
The platforms that survived were the ones that treated short storytelling with the same seriousness as long-form—sometimes more.
OTT Stopped Chasing Prestige and Started Chasing Habit
Perhaps the most important shift in 2025 wasn’t technical or creative—it was psychological.
OTT stopped trying to look like cinema. It stopped chasing validation through scale and awards alone. It began behaving like what it actually is in people’s lives: a daily companion.
Platforms like ChanaJor found their space here because that mindset was already baked in. The goal wasn’t to dominate a weekend launch. It was to quietly become part of someone’s everyday viewing routine.
That shift changed everything—from release strategies to how success was measured.
What 2025 Ultimately Taught the Industry
By the end of the year, three truths were impossible to ignore:
* Time is the most valuable thing a viewer gives you
* Retention matters more than reach
* Format must follow behaviour, not ego
Micro-drama didn’t take over because it was fashionable. It took over because it fit real life.
Looking Ahead
Micro-drama is not replacing long-form storytelling. It is redefining the baseline of engagement.
Longer shows will survive—but only when they earn their length. Short-form fiction will continue to evolve, becoming sharper, more emotionally confident, and better written.
Platforms like ChanaJor have shown that it’s possible to grow without shouting—by understanding the audience, respecting their time, and telling stories that feel real.
2025 wasn’t the year OTT became smaller. It was the year it became smarter.
Note: The views expressed in this article are solely the author’s and do not necessarily reflect our own.
