Viewers aged 15-34 consumed the highest content across video OTT, gaming, music, and news apps in 2020-21, revealed the fourth edition of the Indian Over-the-Top (OTT) Platforms Report 2021 (postpandemic consumption), published by MICA Ahmedabad. Released in association with Ahmedabad-based startup Communication Crafts, the report that mapped the post-pandemic consumption found that content consumption on OTT platforms was the highest by men, especially in the age group of 15-24. The report, which analyzed data shared by Comscore, an American media measurement and analytics company, showcases the OTT's everchanging ecosystem in India's Media and Entertainment sector and the challenges and opportunities awaiting content creators and platforms for 2020-21.
The report, prepared by MICA's Centre for Media and Entertainment Studies (CMES), captures trends between April 2020 and March 2021 across 53 OTT platforms such as video, music, gaming, and news. The report also predicts that India is marching towards the milestone of 1 billion internet users quickly. The report also mentioned that over 450 million Indian entertainment consumers spent 4.6 hours per day on their smartphones in the lockdown year.
While all the traditional media verticals reported a negative growth over the previous year, digital subscriptions grew by 49%, and online gaming grew by 18% over the last year. In addition, while Indian consumers love to access content for free, 29 million subscribers paid for 53 million OTT video subscriptions in 2020, the report stated.
Interestingly, the fourth edition of the report has added edutainment platforms like Byju's and Vedantu, social media platforms, two regional video platforms, and bundled platforms.
MUSIC CONSUMPTION: MEN OUTNUMBER WOMEN
Amazon Prime Music was accessed three times more by men above the age of 35 years than women above 35 years. Similarly, most men between the ages of 25 and 34 years frequent the app, while women of that age group are five times fewer.
For Spotify, the platform has 1.5 times more male users than females. However, the maximum number of users falls in 15–24 years, where male users are double the female users. In terms of preferences, over 60% of the top ten albums streamed through the year on Spotify had music from international artists.
Among Indian independent artists streamed abroad, Prateek Kuhad, The F16s, Ritviz, Lost Stories, and Nucleya are the most popular. Spotify further witnessed an 1100% growth with Hindi podcasts, with Ranveer Allahbadia, Jay Shetty, and Dhruv Rathee joining Spotify Wrapped's Top 5 most streamed shows.
Interestingly, for Wynk Music, most female audiences fall in the age group of 15-24 years, but their number is significantly fewer than their male counterparts. The trend continues with other apps like Jio Saavn and Apple music. Devotional and romantic playlists dominate Gaana's listener patterns.
MORE FEMALES ARE TURNING TO GAMING:
In October 2020, Subway Surfers saw 19.8 million downloads globally, with 27% of these downloads coming from India. Interestingly, women above the age of 35 play Subway Surfers.
Overall, the clear leader among all the players is the male members between 15 and 24. From 65 million dailyactive users of PubG in March 2020, the number went down by more than half, by December 2020, due to the ban. Ludo King is most frequented by men and women between 18 and 34, who make up 70% of the total visitor traffic. Coin Master was installed 30.7 million times in India in 2020-21, and the key consumers of Coin Master are men above the age of 25 years, while young women between the ages of 15-24 years have shown the most activity on the app.
For 8 Ball Pool, as of 2021, 115 pool matches have been played, and people have spent almost 24 billion hours on the game. In addition, 15 billion minutes of the game are played every month, and 20 million monthly cue shots are recorded. For Doodle Army 2, young adults between the ages of 15 and 24 dominate the key consumer base, while female gamers of ages 25 to 34 appear to play the game the most.
OTT PLATFORMS HAVE DOUBLE THE MALE VIEWERS AS AGAINST FEMALES:
The report witnessed a repeating trend from previous years when it came to watching movies or web shows on OTT platforms. Despite the nature of the content offered by various platforms, male viewers dominated the spaces except for Voot and Zee5.
For Netflix, the male viewers are 17.36 % more than the female viewers, and the maximum number of viewers falls in the age group of 15-24 years. Whereas for Disney+ Hotstar, the audience viewing falls in the age bracket of 6 to 34 in both genders. However, male viewers outnumber female viewers by 1.6 times. Chennai tops entertainment consumption with a 73% viewership of Disney+ Hotstar.
For Sony LIV, the male audience outnumbers the female viewers by 1.2 times, whereas for Amazon Prime, the male category occupies the most significant chunk. Even for MX Player, the total male audience is 2.27 times higher than the female audience.
Interestingly, for Voot, the female audience outnumbers the male audience for this platform, whereas for Zee5, the number of male and female audiences is almost the same.
MOST CONSUMED CONTENT:
For YouTube, the most-watched content included Kota Factory, What the Folks, Please Find Attached, Soulmates, and Better Life Foundation.
As far as Netflix was concerned, the most-watched content included Indian Matchmaking, Blood of Zeus, Bad Boy Billionaires, Mismatched, The Protector, and Too Hot to Handle. In terms of K-Dramas, Indians loved watching The King: Eternal Monarch, Kingdom, It's Okay to Not Be Okay, and Start-up.
For Hotstar and Sony LIV, it was Aarya 2, Special Ops, Hostages, Out of love, Scam 1992, JL 50, Avrodh, Gullak, and Undekhi. On Prime, Indians loved watching Made in Heaven, The Family Man, Mirzapur, Breathe, Paatal Lok, and Panchayat.
35+ AGE GROUP DOMINATES WHATSAPP/FACEBOOK:
Male users on WhatsApp are 1.5 times higher than female users. Among male and female users, the age group of 35+ years constitutes the highest chunk, with 37% male users and 40% female users, respectively. WhatsApp saw a 40% increase in usage at the height of the coronavirus pandemic.
For Facebook, the trend is similar as the male users outnumber the female users by 65%. Again, the age group of 35+ has the highest number of users on Facebook. Whereas for Instagram and LinkedIn, most users belong to the 15-24 age group. Male users on Instagram are 1.8 times higher than female users, whereas, on LinkedIn, they outnumber female users by 1.6 times.
However, unlike other social media platforms, LinkedIn saw a downward trend in desktop users and an upward growth in mobile app users. Desktop users in August 2020 are the highest, as appraisal season gets over in July, and therefore a lot of people start their job search in August. In the case of the mobile app, there has been an almost 69% increase in the number of users.
For Snapchat, the mobile app witnessed an upward trend between April 2020 and March 2021 as the number of users has increased twice. Telegram recorded an increase of 61% users due to changes in Whatsapp's privacy policies. The male users outnumber female users by almost two times. In the male users, the age group of 15-24 years has the highestnumber of users, which is 40% of the total male users, whereas, in the female users, the age group of 15-24 years has the highest number of users numbering almost 42% of the total users.
Interestingly, Pinterest has higher female users than males.
OFFICIAL QUOTES:
Dr.Shailendra Raj Mehta, President & Director, MICA, said, "The year 2020-21 was particularly significant, with the pandemic forcing consumers to stay homebound. This brought about a paradigm shift in consumption patterns.
The fourth Over-The-Top (OTT) Platforms Report, developed by MICA, encompasses in-depth research and analysis from an Indian perspective and thus, in many ways, unique and radical in its approach."
Dr.Preeti Shroff, Dean, MICA, said, “This report reflects the vision, research collaborations, and dedication of MICA's Media and Entertainment Management Area and Centre of Excellence. This year's report showcases everchanging ecosystem of the OTT platform in India with increased regional-local consumption, and rural-urban content across states. It captures creative challenges in the post-pandemic entertainment ecosystem, and opportunities for growth while connecting with diverse stakeholders."
Dr.Darshin Ashwin Trivedi, Editor, MICA Indian OTT Platforms Report and Adjunct Faculty at MICA, said, "Indian OTT consumers are primarily young, within 15 – 34. Gaming, especially e-sports, short-form video content, news app consumption, music platforms consumption, podcasts, video platforms consumption, crowdsourced food content creation, and education platforms content creation and consumption were some of the highlights of the previous year. Indian OTT segment is all set to get redefined with the launch of 5G."
Dr. Bhaskar Das, Group President, Republic TV, said, "The new edition of the report encapsulates the growth story of gaming platforms, edutainment, and social media platforms as the natural extension of OTT business in India. In addition, this report deep dives into the growth of consumer engagement, consumption patterns, and subscriptiondriven business in the OTT ecosystem of India. We are confident that the MICA OTT report 2021 will provide critical insight to all our readers, both in the industry and academia."
Prof. Santosh Patra, Head, Centre for Media and Entertainment Studies (CMES) at MICA said, “The OTT industry is set to be worth US$15 billion by 2030. Smartphones with affordable data plans have made strong inroads across the country. This has brought the requisite infrastructure to people’s fingertips across the country and created a massive opportunity. The next wave of growth in the OTT landscape, thus, will be propelled by the Tier II, III, IV cities and the Indian regional languages-speaking population.”
Stay informed, Stay ahead and Stay inspired with MBA Rendezvous.