CONTENT IS KING. BUT WHO OWNS THE KINGDOM?

 

BIZ MASALA  |  THE BIG STORY

Inside the battle between Indian storytellers and the streaming platforms that control access to their audiences

By Murthy ASR  |  Biz Masala  |  17 October 2026

India’s streaming business is no longer just a contest to acquire the next hit film or series. It is a struggle over rights, audience access, subscriber economics and who captures the long-term value of a story.

The audience is growing. The business model is still being tested.

Ormax Media’s 2026 OTT Audience Report estimates India’s OTT audience at 664.9 million people, up from 601.2 million in 2025 and 547.3 million in 2024. Its definition is broad: anyone who watched online video at least once in the preceding month, whether free or paid. This is not the number of paying subscribers, nor the number of unique people subscribing directly to one platform.

Measure	2025	2026
OTT audience universe	601.2 million	664.9 million
Active paid subscriptions	148.2 million	172.6 million
Connected-TV audience	129.2 million	206.9 million

These are Ormax estimates. Active paid subscriptions include telecom bundles and aggregator access; subscriptions must not be confused with unique paying individuals.

The living-room screen is changing the equation

Ormax estimates India’s connected-TV audience at 206.9 million in 2026, compared with 129.2 million in 2025 and 69.7 million in 2024. Streaming is increasingly competing for shared, big-screen viewing time—not only for attention on personal phones. That expands the opportunity for premium drama, films and advertising, but also brings streaming closer to the television and cinema experience it once promised to disrupt.

Content is the asset. Rights are the business.

A producer may license a finished film for a defined period, sell streaming rights, split rights by language or territory, or negotiate a broader package. Those choices determine whether the producer retains future opportunities—or trades them away for certainty today.

A 2024 report published by India’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting with industry research partners notes that digital rights have become an important revenue stream. It cites industry experts estimating digital rights at around 20–25% of producer revenue in relevant cases, while describing slate deals and language-wise rights splits. This is an industry estimate, not a universal rule: the share varies by title, contract and market conditions.

The platform’s problem: attention does not automatically become profit

A large audience is commercially useful only if a platform can monetise it. Subscription services must persuade people to keep paying; advertising-supported services must deliver reach and viewing time advertisers value; hybrid services must balance both. Content costs, marketing, technology, distribution and customer acquisition all compete for revenue.

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, citing the FICCI-EY Media & Entertainment Industry Report 2025, said video-subscription revenue grew 11% in 2024 to ₹9,200 crore. That indicates a substantial market, but it does not reveal platform-level profitability or the returns earned by individual producers.

Regional stories: bigger reach, not automatically better bargaining power

Streaming can take Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Bengali and other language stories beyond their home markets. Dubbing, subtitles and recommendation systems can extend a title’s life beyond its original release. But wider reach does not guarantee that creators share proportionately in the value generated. If a contract transfers extensive rights, or the platform does not share meaningful performance information, a producer may struggle to assess a title’s contribution or negotiate future terms from an informed position.

The power map

Player	What it controls	Key business risk
Creator / writer	Story, characters, creative execution	Limited leverage; weak ownership terms
Producer	Financing, packaging, negotiated rights	Selling long-term value too cheaply
OTT platform	Distribution, customer relationship, discovery	High content costs; weak retention or monetisation
Advertiser	Marketing spend and brand demand	Fragmented audiences; uncertain attribution
Viewer	Attention, subscription choice, churn	Subscription fatigue; fragmented catalogues

Five questions that reveal who captures the value

1.       What rights are transferred: streaming only, or also remake, sequel, adaptation, language and international rights?

2.       How long does exclusivity last, and what happens when the term expires?

3.       Does the deal include meaningful performance reporting, bonuses or revenue sharing?

4.       Can a producer monetise the same intellectual property in theatres, television, merchandising or future productions?

5.       Does content spending translate into subscriber retention and sustainable revenue, rather than just launch-week attention?

Biz Masala verdict

OTT has widened the market for Indian storytelling, strengthened the reach of regional content and created new revenue routes for producers. But distribution access is not the same as ownership, and audience scale is not the same as profit.

Content may be king. But in the OTT economy, the decisive question is who owns the kingdom—and who gets paid when the audience arrives.

Sources and editorial notes

·       Ormax Media, The Ormax OTT Audience Report: 2026 (10 September 2026)
https://www.ormaxmedia.com/insights/stories/the-ormax-ott-audience-report-2026.html

·       Ormax Media, The Ormax OTT Audience Report: 2025 (19 September 2025)
https://ormaxmedia.com/stories/the-ormax-ott-audience-report-2025

·       Ministry of Information & Broadcasting / MPA / Deloitte, Economic impact of the film, television and online curated content industry in India, 2024
https://mib.gov.in/sites/default/files/2025-06/mpa_deloitte_ecr_in_final_webversion27.4.25_1.pdf

·       Press Information Bureau, OTT sector and video-subscription revenue (17 December 2025)
https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2205233&lang=1&reg=1

Methodology note: Audience and subscription figures are estimates from Ormax’s published research. An OTT audience member, a paid subscription and a unique paying person are different measures. The digital-rights share is an industry estimate, not a universal contract term. This draft does not claim access to private platform contracts or audited title-level profitability.