Prasar Bharati’s OTT push: WAVES spending jumps to Rs 258 cr in FY25 from Rs 1.85 cr

Prasar Bharati spent Rs 258.50 crore on its new OTT platform Waves in 2024-25, marking a dramatic increase from the Rs 1.85 crore spent on the platform in the previous financial year, according to the public broadcaster’s annual accounts.

The expenditure, disclosed under the “New Platform (OTT)” head in Schedule 21 of Prasar Bharati’s annual accounts, increased by around Rs 256.65 crore year-on-year.

The sharp increase points to the scale of Prasar Bharati’s financial commitment to its OTT initiative as the public broadcaster expands its presence beyond its traditional television and radio operations and builds a digital distribution platform.

The annual accounts, however, do not provide a separate breakup of the Rs 258.50 crore expenditure. The amount is recorded as a single line item under “New Platform (OTT)”. The document therefore does not establish how much of the expenditure went towards technology infrastructure, platform development, content acquisition, marketing, distribution or other activities associated with Waves.

The size of the expenditure becomes particularly significant when compared with Prasar Bharati’s other programme-related expenses. In FY25, the broadcaster reported Rs 36.49 crore in royalty payments, Rs 30.65 crore paid to UNI, PTI and other news agencies, Rs 20.15 crore towards commissioning of programmes and software, Rs 7.36 crore towards sports events, Rs 43.57 crore in payments to artists and professionals, Rs 136.66 crore under other programme expenses and other ministries, and Rs 15.87 crore towards content creation.

Against these expenses, the Rs 258.50 crore spent on the new OTT platform was the largest individual expenditure item listed in Schedule 21. The amount was also substantially higher than the Rs 15.87 crore spent separately on content creation during the year.

The comparison with the previous year is even more striking. In FY24, Prasar Bharati had recorded expenditure of only Rs 1.85 crore under the “New Platform (OTT)” category. The expenditure therefore increased by more than Rs 256 crore in a single year.

This suggests that FY25 represented a major scale-up in spending on the broadcaster’s OTT initiative. While the accounts do not describe the precise reason for the increase, the jump in expenditure indicates that the platform moved from a relatively small spending line in FY24 to a major programme-related investment in FY25.

The OTT expenditure also stands out against Prasar Bharati’s spending on content creation. Content creation expenses increased from Rs 5.44 crore in FY24 to Rs 15.87 crore in FY25, an increase of about Rs 10.44 crore. Even after this rise, however, content creation expenditure remained less than one-sixteenth of the amount recorded under the OTT platform head.

This distinction is important because the annual accounts classify “New Platform (OTT)” and “Content Creation” separately. The Rs 258.50 crore figure therefore should not be treated as the amount spent solely on producing content for Waves. The accounts do not provide sufficient detail to determine the precise composition of the OTT expenditure.

The same trend is visible when the OTT expenditure is compared with commissioning costs. Prasar Bharati spent Rs 20.15 crore on commissioning of programmes and software in FY25, down from Rs 21.98 crore in FY24. The expenditure under the new OTT platform was therefore more than 12 times the amount spent on commissioning programmes and software.

Royalty payments also declined sharply during the year, falling from Rs 61 crore in FY24 to Rs 36.49 crore in FY25. Payments to UNI, PTI and other news agencies, meanwhile, increased marginally from Rs 29.70 crore to Rs 30.65 crore. Payments to artists and professionals rose from Rs 28.43 crore to Rs 43.57 crore.

These movements show how unusual the OTT expenditure increase was compared with the changes in other programme-related expenses. Most of the established spending categories either declined, increased moderately or saw relatively contained changes, while the new OTT platform expenditure increased by more than Rs 256 crore.

The spending also comes as Prasar Bharati seeks to establish a digital presence for its content. Its traditional broadcasting operations have historically centred on Doordarshan and All India Radio, while an OTT platform provides a direct digital route to audiences using internet-connected devices.

For Prasar Bharati, the significance of the investment extends beyond the creation of another distribution channel. A digital platform potentially gives the public broadcaster a mechanism to bring together its existing television and radio content with programming designed for online audiences. It also creates the possibility of reaching audiences that increasingly consume video and other media through streaming services rather than conventional broadcast channels.

However, the annual accounts do not provide financial or operational performance indicators for Waves alongside the expenditure. They do not separately disclose the platform’s user base, subscriber numbers, advertising revenue, subscription revenue or profitability. As a result, the accounts establish the scale of the expenditure but do not provide enough information to assess the commercial returns generated by the investment.

The size of the expenditure makes Waves a significant part of Prasar Bharati’s financial activity in FY25. The Rs 258.50 crore spent on the platform was more than half of the programme-related expenditure amounts specifically itemised in Schedule 21, based on the figures disclosed in the accounts.

The figures therefore point to a substantial change in the spending priorities of the public broadcaster. From a relatively small expenditure of Rs 1.85 crore in FY24, the new OTT platform became a Rs 258.50 crore programme-related expense in FY25, making it the largest identifiable line item in the schedule.

The next phase for Prasar Bharati will be to translate that investment into audience reach and sustained usage of the platform. Whether Waves can generate significant revenues or deliver other measurable returns from the public broadcaster’s investment cannot be established from the FY25 annual accounts alone.

For now, the accounts provide one clear measure of the scale of the push: Prasar Bharati’s expenditure on its new OTT platform increased nearly 140-fold in FY25, from Rs 1.85 crore to Rs 258.50 crore in a single year.