Study Finds Majority Of Indian Viewers Find Content On OTT Platforms Irrelevant

The Indian OTT market is generating a revenue of around $1.9 billion now and it is expected to grow to a whopping $4.5 billion by 2026. With such a humongous prospect in the offing, OTT giants like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Disney+ Hotstar have been extensively focusing on beefing up their subscriber base.

But as it appears, the Indian OTT audiences are not too satisfied with what these paid OTT platforms are offering them. As per a survey report from Accenture, the vast majority of the Indian OTT crowd opine that the content served up by these OTT platforms are irrelevant to them. The survey states that 74% of the OTT users opine that the content they are paying for is too expensive.

What is more worrisome to these OTT giants is that 46% of the users are planning to move away from digital media entertainment in the next one year. Another strong point that is being raised by Indian OTT users is that the OTT platforms are not offering them personalized recommendations. They are “frustrated” with recommendations that are so very irrelevant to 81% of them that they are ready to switch media platforms to get better recommendations. Ease of use is another key criterion here. 69% of the users feel that navigating through OTT platforms to find content suitable for them is a frustrating experience.

“As the video streaming segment has matured, consumers are increasingly finding the experience to be complicated, expensive and hard to use. Evolving consumer preferences and tough economics will create challenges for video streaming platforms,” said Saurabh Kumar Sahu, Accenture India’s Managing Director for Communications, Media and Technology practice.

He also added that the ecosystem needs a “major reset and the consumers will need greater control over their viewing experience.”

In terms of market share, Netflix leads the pack with 29% of the market followed by Disney+Hotstar which slightly lags behind with 25% of shareholding. Another contender, Prime Video also comes a close third with 22% market share.

All in all, the leading OTT platforms in India should work towards providing their paid subscribers with better personalized recommendations. Solely focusing gaining more subscribers will not help the cause and considerable effort should go into providing users with a seamless experience.