Beyond scale: What's next for independent OTT platforms?

India's streaming industry is entering a new phase. The first decade rewarded platforms that could spend aggressively on original programming, acquire subscribers at scale and secure premium sports rights. The next may reward something entirely different: focus.

The emergence of JioHotstar, coupled with the continued dominance of Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, has fundamentally altered the economics of streaming. Scale now determines bargaining power with content creators, advertisers, technology partners and telecom operators. For independent OTT platforms, over 30 in number, matching those investments is neither practical nor financially sustainable.

Yet, the market itself continues to grow. PwC India's Global Entertainment & Media Outlook 2025–29 estimates India's OTT market will expand from US$2.3 billion in 2024 to US$3.5 billion by 2029, while Ormax Media estimates 601 million OTT users and 148 million paid subscriptions. The opportunity remains significant. The competition has become far tougher.

The question is no longer whether independent OTTs can match global platforms. It is whether success still depends on scale at all.

Relevance Is Replacing Reach

India's OTT ecosystem has also become more fragmented. Government data showed 57 OTT platforms in 2023, but survival has become harder. Over the past 18 months, the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting blocked more than 50 platforms, including ALTBalaji and Ullu, for allegedly streaming obscene content. 

At the same time, growth across the industry has begun to moderate. According to the FICCI-EY Media & Entertainment Report 2025, OTT content volumes fell 12% in 2024—the first decline since the pandemic boom—as platforms shifted their focus from aggressive expansion to profitability.

Amid tightening margins, intensifying competition, and plateauing revenue, OTT players have begun prioritising profitability over sheer volume. The FICCI-EY Media and Entertainment report 2025 underscores this recalibration, revealing a 12 percent drop in OTT content volume in the past year. Content release hours fell to 2,620 in 2024, a notable decrease from 2,986 in 2023. This marks the first decline since the pandemic-induced surge, where releases climbed from 1,187 hours in 2020 to 2,512 hours in 2021 and 2,956 hours in 2022. The production costs also saw a downward trend, falling from INR 29.7 billion in 2023 to INR 26.7 billion in 2024.

If scale is increasingly out of reach, relevance is becoming the new competitive advantage.

The rise of regional streaming has demonstrated that audiences do not always choose the largest catalogue. Increasingly, they seek stories that reflect their language, culture and identity. Platforms such as Hoichoi, Chaupal, Planet Marathi, Aha and AAO NXT have shown that deeply focused content can build loyal communities without matching the budgets of global competitors.

That is precisely where Soumya Mukherjee, COO, Hoichoi, believes the next opportunity lies. "Independent OTT platforms cannot compete on scale, content spending, or breadth of catalogue. They must compete on relevance. The biggest competitive advantage will be building a deep relationship with a clearly defined audience through cultural understanding, language, community, and product focus. Large platforms are designed to serve everyone. Independent platforms can serve someone exceptionally well.”

Over the next 3–5 years, success will be less about having the biggest library and more about owning a specific consumer need better than anyone else. That could be language, genre, fandom, faith, education, or any passionate community. Consumers today don't necessarily want more content—they want content that feels made for them, Mukherjee explains. 

Sandeep Bansal, Director, Chaupal, echoes that view, arguing that the future belongs to platforms that remain deeply connected to a specific audience rather than attempting to appeal to everyone. "I believe the biggest advantage for independent OTT platforms will be their ability to stay focused on a specific audience. At Chaupal, we've always believed in the strength of regional storytelling. When you understand your audience well, it's easier to create content that genuinely connects with them.”

Kaushik Das, Founder and CEO of AAO NXT, believes independent platforms possess another advantage that larger companies often struggle to replicate: speed. "Unlike giant global streamers such as Netflix and Prime Video, which operate under complex corporate structures... This agility gives independent platforms a real edge in serving local cultures and niches that mega-platforms often treat as an afterthought."

The ability to commission faster, experiment with formats and respond quickly to emerging cultural conversations may prove as valuable as deep pockets in the next phase of streaming, Das noted. 

Filmmaker Yubraaj Bhattacharya argues that the real competitive advantage lies in owning the content pipeline rather than merely operating a streaming platform. "In regional spaces they can survive or thrive only if they control the content pipeline. Else they will lose to the bigger platforms who will want to be in regional spaces as well. Hoichoi thrives because it is the biggest producer of Bengali-language content and has built a dominant position across the ecosystem. Creating a platform is very easy. Creating great content is very difficult. It takes both time and talent."

Beyond Subscriptions: Building Sustainable Businesses

Relevance may help independent OTTs acquire loyal audiences, but it is unlikely to ensure long-term sustainability. As subscriber growth slows, executives argue the industry must build businesses around intellectual property, partnerships and diversified revenue streams rather than subscriptions alone.

For Soumya Mukherjee, the future lies in thinking beyond the traditional OTT playbook. "The future belongs to platforms that build IP, not just libraries. We have to think beyond subscriptions—through licensing, syndication, merchandising, events and partnerships. A strong regional story today can travel globally if packaged well. Independent OTTs have to evolve into content companies rather than just streaming platforms."

That evolution is already visible across several international markets, where niche streaming platforms increasingly generate value from content licensing, creator collaborations, live experiences and brand partnerships instead of relying solely on subscriber growth.

Bansal believes partnerships could become a more sustainable route to growth than expensive customer acquisition. "Independent OTT platforms should not try to imitate larger players. Instead, they should focus on strengthening their niche and explore partnerships that help them reach wider audiences. Whether it's telecom operators, device manufacturers or content collaborations, partnerships can help regional platforms scale without significantly increasing costs."

For regional platforms, partnerships may prove a more sustainable route to expansion than pursuing expensive customer acquisition or bidding wars for premium content. Kaushik Das argues that independent OTTs should also leverage their agility to experiment with business models that larger organisations often struggle to execute.

"Our strength lies in being nimble. We can test new formats, shorter commissioning cycles, regional creators and innovative monetisation models much faster than global platforms. That flexibility allows us to stay close to evolving consumer preferences," said Bansal.

The lesson, industry executives say, is increasingly clear: independent platforms cannot win by becoming smaller versions of Netflix. They need to build businesses that are structurally different.

The Next Competitive Edge Is Intelligence

The next phase of streaming may be defined less by who owns the largest catalogue and more by who understands audiences the fastest.

Globally, niche platforms are beginning to use artificial intelligence, predictive analytics and audience insights not merely to recommend content, but to shape commissioning decisions, identify underserved communities and reduce programming risk. For independent players operating with limited budgets, every content decision carries greater financial consequences.

Pep Figueiredo, COO, PTPL India and former SonyLIV executive, believes monetisation—not discovery—will define the next phase. "Monetization is the challenge! The next generation of successful independent platforms will have specialized audiences and diversified revenue streams beyond advertising," he says.

He argues that regional OTTs should convert emerging cultural trends into proprietary IP instead of competing with global platforms on scale.

According to him, “Platforms that consistently convert real time consumer trends into proprietary intellectual property will create stronger long term value than those that rely solely on expensive commissioned originals or legacy catalogues. Besides, glocalization is the key! Strategic community engagement and consistency with creating cultural relevance that is difficult to replicate.”

The future, executives argue, will belong to platforms that understand not just what audiences watched yesterday, but what they are likely to watch next.