Video on Demand Market in India: Survey Results- May 2020 0 0 Mobility Foresights surveyed MBA college students during 1st-8th May 2020 to understand the consumer perception of Video on demand market in India. To understand what drives the demand and what attracts the consumers, the survey was divided amongst a broad set of questions ranging from preferred services, content type, features, willingness to spend per month while choosing Video on Demand service. KEY FINDINGS Netflix and Amazon Prime Video are the most preferred OTT services in India among 23-28 age group 90% of respondents prefer subscribing more than 1 streaming service at a time Original series & movie library are the major governing factors while making a choice More than 54% of respondents stream content for 2-3 hours every day Demand for Over The Top (OTT) services is reaching new heights every day in the country and has created a market worth more than $300 Million in just a few years. OTT platforms are offering customised plans to add new users and make them a long-term subscriber by offering multiple low-cost options. An interesting data point we learnt from the survey is that almost 90% of the respondents preferred subscribing more than one Video on Demand service at a time. Netflix and Amazon Prime Video are locked in neck-to-neck fight with 79.6% and 77% preference levels followed by Disney+ Hotstar which has a 45% preference. YouTube is also very popular due to its advertisement-based revenue model which offers free of cost entertainment to its users. Domestic services like Alt Balaji and Voot are also growing and 25% of the respondents like them. Among these services, 62% of the respondents currently have access to 2-3 streaming services which shows that consumers are not satisfied by one service altogether, a single service is not complete, some lack original content, some lack local content or recommendation engine could be a problem. No particular streaming service satisfies the expectations of the consumer completely. Interestingly, 21% of the respondents have subscribed to 4-6 services which depict that service providers are yet to completely understand the requirement of an urban consumer. Original Series & Movie Library Are The Major Governing Factors While Consider A Streaming Service More than 66% of the respondents consider original series as the content of top priority while selecting a streaming service followed by movie library which is also deciding factor for more than 53% of the respondents. While a healthy 46% feel that a broad mix of content also plays a big role while selecting a streaming service. Specific genre, sports, favourite (older) TV content, these 4 categories too are preferred by more than 20% of the respondents each. More Than 54% Of Respondents Stream Content For 2-3 Hours Every Day People are moving towards video on-demand services and streaming content every day. 28.3% of the respondents said that they watch content online on streaming services for 2 hours every day while 26.5% of the respondents said that they stream for 3 hours every day. And if we club together rest of the respondents, it shows that 27.5% of the respondents use paid streaming services for 4 hours or more in a day which means that they are spending more than 17% of their time every day on streaming. Most Important Features Of A Video On Demand Service: Content is the key to succeed in the market whilst every other thing comes after that, quality and quantity of content at a justifiable price can be a key differentiator for a service provider. Monthly Expenditure Interestingly, 9% of the respondents do not pay for the services, they use accounts of their family members or friends, while 10% of the respondents spend more than 1000 INR per month to avail video on-demand streaming services. 26% of them are currently spending in the range of 200 and 399 INR per month. While 19% are currently spending 400 to 599 INR per month to experience video on demand facility. This survey also asked respondents to rate the most common services like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ Hotstar and YouTube based on 6 parameters and they are quality of content, quantity of content, user interface, recommendations, value for money and audio & video quality. Netflix excelled in most of the platforms, followed by Amazon Prime Video and YouTube. While Amazon Prime Video is considered to be the option which provides the most value for money. CONCLUSION Burgeoning demand in the country has started a fight among the companies to capture the market rapidly. Netflix and Amazon Prime Video are the most popular platforms followed by Disney+ Hotstar, each having a specific set of features distinguishing it from the others. Indian subscriber is not yet satisfied with a single streaming platform and this has fuelled the race of delivering unique original content among the players. This survey shows that the Indian market has a huge potential and the journey has just begun. Swapnil Dalal , Research Associate(Intern) at Mobility Foresights
