Why India’s smaller OTT platforms are losing ground

With rising production costs, shrinking marketing budgets, and the dominance of Netflix, Prime Video, and JioHotstar, fringe players like ALTT and Eros Now are fading from the spotlight. While regional platforms carve out their own niches, those stuck in the middle find themselves with dwindling content and fewer options to compete.

For example, while platforms like Lionsgate Play are doubling down on international content, others such as Eros Now and Ekta Kapoor’s ALTT are seeing a sharp decline in new programming. Meanwhile, Hungama Play, though still releasing a few titles, has largely scaled back its marketing efforts.

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Entertainment industry experts say Hindi-focused platforms are at a disadvantage, lacking both the financial muscle of larger rivals producing multilingual content and the niche appeal of regional players like Hoichoi and aha.

Hungama and Lionsgate declined to comment on the story while ALTT and Eros Now didn’t respond to queries.

A report by media consulting firm Ormax reveals an 18% decline in Indian OTT original releases in 2024 compared to the previous year, with ALTT alone seeing a drop of over 10 titles.

Big fish, small pond

“It is a classic case of big fish ruling over the small ones. These platforms can’t afford to acquire big-ticket rights that Netflix, Prime Video and broadcaster-owned OTTs can. Even the small, regional language-focused apps may not be profitable but they are innovating in their own way, they at least have some story to tell investors and could good end up with decent valuation. But the issue with some of these other players is that they are neither niche nor can they beat the big guys in terms of capital investment,” said Girish Dwibhashyam, a streaming industry expert.

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Entertainment industry experts point out that there are now three tiers of OTT platforms in India. The game is led by giants like Netflix, Prime Video and JioHotstar. Then there are broadcaster-led apps such as SonyLIV, ZEE5, and Sun NXT. Finally, there are regional services like Hoichoi and aha.

It is clear that the big daddies now pretty much call the shots, Uday Sodhi, senior partner, Kurate Digital Consulting agreed, referring to Netflix, Prime Video and JioHotstar. 

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“Those are three formidable rivals. These (smaller) players were anyway never large from a fresh content point of view. Their operations are now focused on simply retaining customers than doing anything new. You can now either go into regional and identify white spaces or take the big guys head on,” Sodhi explained.

While some of these platforms do launch new titles occasionally, their marketing budgets are so low it barely makes enough noise for audiences to be aware. 

“Everyone tries their hand with new tech but there is no space for so many platforms, even in a youth-focused market. After the acquisition of MX Player by Amazon, people know at least libraries hold some value,” said a senior content studio executive, declining to be named.

Moreover, while most services attempted hybrid models, marrying paid subscriptions with some free content, digital advertising presents its own challenges, with rates in India extremely low.

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“The entire monetisation game on digital has been a challenge. These are fringe platforms that are now struggling because the business is all about scale and user experience and global media giants are becoming larger in terms of variety of content. Advertising dollars are moving to e-commerce and there isn’t much left for video anyway. Plus, despite attractive pricing, none of them has managed paid subscriptions,” said Karan Taurani, senior vice-president at Elara Capital Ltd said, adding that industry consolidation has hit smaller players hard.