OTT is rewriting the rules — Can TV flip the script?

India's television landscape is at a crossroads. Once the undisputed champion of mass entertainment, linear TV is now battling dwindling viewership, creative fatigue, and increased competition from OTT and Connected TV (CTV) platforms. With digital-first audiences gravitating towards personalized, on-demand content, industry experts argue that television urgently needs a revival in its storytelling strategies to stay relevant.

While some believe that linear TV could benefit from adapting successful OTT shows, albeit in sanitized forms for mass family audiences, others argue that TV needs to dig deeper, taking creative risks and generating original content tailored for its core base. What unites them all is one belief: the status quo isn't working anymore.

The Audience has evolved

Kailash Adhikari, from SAB, emphasized the evolution of the viewer. “With regards to the content on TV and OTT, the basic difference is that when OTT grew, it showed a lot of stories which pushed the boundaries, which linear television—because of certain boundaries or regulations—could not. So, people got hooked to it as a personal viewing time because naturally there was no censorship there.”

“But now after Covid, what we have seen is that even OTT has become family viewing, with stories like Panchayat and Gullak. The web series being made now don’t have such kind of explicit content because now it's become a family viewing screen,” he added.

He also noted a major shift in how people use their TV sets. “The television set that we have at home is just a monitor. It no longer means satellite television. With a smart TV, you can watch satellite TV, OTT, and other apps. So, a lot of those realistic stories where people could connect are on OTT, whereas television is probably still following the formula of the same old way of storytelling, which now fewer people connect with.”

Adhikari pointed out that age and exposure have a lot to do with changing tastes. “We must understand what age people were 25 years ago. Now it's much more evolved. There is social media, there is OTT—there are many more means of looking at content. So, what was accepted 25 years ago may not be accepted now. And in another five years, those audiences will have reached 70-plus. The current youth is not at all on TV.”

He suggested shorter episode arcs and storytelling innovation as a potential fix. “If we try the OTT style of making or storytelling in a TV format—lesser number of episodes, like a 26-52 episode show—it could see a new fresh thing on television. Continuing with the same thing, same location, same look and feel of each show will get monotonous. Audiences are evolving with age. What story you and I liked 25 years ago, we wouldn’t follow the same pattern today.”

Relevance requires risk

Anil Solanki, Senior Director, Dentsu X echoed similar sentiments, stressing the need for risk-taking. “Today’s viewer craves depth, nuance, and surprise—something that OTT has mastered. If TV wants to reclaim relevance, it needs to stop underestimating its audience,” he said.

“Adapting OTT hits into sanitized TV formats may seem like a shortcut, but the long-term solution lies in empowering writers, embracing new storytelling formats, and taking creative risks. There’s still massive reach on TV—what’s missing is the courage to disrupt from within.”

AIDCF: A wake-up call

In a strongly worded statement, the All India Digital Cable Federation (AIDCF) painted a stark picture of the current crisis in TV content.

“Over the past decade, India’s entertainment landscape has undergone a profound transformation. While linear television remains a powerful medium with massive reach, its influence is increasingly eclipsed by the rapid rise of OTT platforms because of appealing and diverse content available on various OTT applications,” it said.

It cited not just technological advancement but also “the creative stagnation of linear TV content” as the root cause. “Broadcasters, especially on their OTT applications, are providing and innovating with bold, diverse, and experimental storytelling content, while the same broadcaster continues to focus on formulaic soaps, reality shows, and family-friendly dramas on linear TV.”

“This content disparity is no longer sustainable,” it warned. “For linear TV to remain relevant in an increasingly digital-first world, there is urgent need to reevaluate the quality and variety of content being aired.”

AIDCF called for broadcasters to explore windowing OTT content on TV. “There is a compelling case for Indian broadcasters to re-broadcast TV-ready versions of successful digital series by windowing or parallel. Global markets have already demonstrated the success of this crossover model. In the West—US, UK—shows that began as streaming originals have later found life on cable and broadcast television.”

“India too can pursue this path, especially for content that already has a fanbase and critical acclaim. For instance, by producing broadcast-sanitized versions of OTT hits, retaining the narrative depth while toning down language or scenes as per programming code, broadcasters can tap into the cultural moment without inviting regulatory blowback.”

The federation outlined the potential benefits: “Revives linear TV programming with fresh narratives, bridges generational divides in audience preferences, increases revenues of production houses and creates synergy between TV and OTT investments, and offers advertisers new, high-engagement inventory.”

Numbers tell the story

Linear TV's declining grip is now backed by hard data. As of March 2025, India’s pay-DTH subscriber base shrank by 1.3 million in just one quarter, falling to 56.9 million. Major networks are reporting serious strain—DEN Networks saw a 17% year-on-year drop in subscription revenue in Q1 FY26, while ZEEL reported a 16.7% dip in ad revenues, largely due to FMCG pullbacks and shifting attention toward digital sports content. These figures paint a grim picture for an industry that once dominated the entertainment landscape.

The drop in revenue is further aggravated by shrinking advertiser interest. The number of brands advertising on TV fell from over 11,000 in 2023 to just 8,653 in 2024—a 23% decline. Meanwhile, TV’s ad revenue share slipped from 34% in 2022 to under 30% in 2024, even as digital platforms now command over 50% of total ad spend. Broadcasters are still producing massive volumes of content—up to 200,000 hours annually—but a bulk of it is failing to strike a chord with today’s audience, especially the younger demographic that increasingly prefers OTT and CTV platforms.

Adding to the woes is the lack of modern measurement systems. Despite 30 million Indian households now connected to CTV, there’s no integrated system to track their viewership alongside traditional TV. This outdated approach to audience measurement is hurting both content creators and advertisers, making it harder to prove ROI or justify investments. With subscriber churn accelerating, advertiser exits rising, and viewers migrating to more engaging digital formats, industry insiders agree: TV’s survival depends not just on reach, but on reinventing its content for today’s sensibilities.

Creative fatigue, changing tastes

“Content is missing from TV,” said Rajiv Khattar, a broadcast expert. “The content taste has changed over the last few years as viewers are exposed to international style of content on OTT. The Indian content is still stuck there. The broadcasters need to have a relook at the content to suit the changing viewing habits and lifestyle of viewers.”

Khattar warns, however, against simply repackaging OTT hits for TV. “The remake of the OTT hits into sanitized TV—personally speaking, there will be no novelty. Thus, it may not pull viewers. In fact, there will be a direct comparison with the full series, which may be counterproductive.”

Sayantani Das, Head of Marketing, Jumboking, said “Linear TV tends to be constrained by traditional formats, strict schedules, and regulatory requirements, resulting in repetitive genres, formulaic programming, and risk-averse content—creating viewer fatigue, especially among younger viewers seeking creativity and diversity. OTT operators (like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu) aren’t limited by the same constraints or ad pressure, allowing them to fund more innovative shows, offbeat genres, and global storytelling. This cultivates unique voices and authentic stories absent on linear TV. A talent shift has followed, with creators drawn to artistic freedom, bigger budgets, and global reach. Viewers now expect originality, high production values, and new perspectives—hallmarks of OTT content. Though franchises and reality formats remain, they coexist with fresh series, documentaries, and films. The contrast with linear TV’s stagnancy is accelerating audience migration. While tech advancements matter, the deeper driver is linear TV’s creative slowdown, positioning OTT as the new frontier for storytelling.”

OTT and TV: Apples and oranges?

In an opposing view, Vikas Sachdeva, EVP and Business Head, Zee Entertainment, pushed back against the idea that TV is creatively stagnant. “TV isn’t creatively stagnant. It’s just measured differently,” he said. “There’s a growing narrative that linear TV is creatively stagnant and that the answer lies in borrowing from OTT hits, sanitizing them and serving them to mass audiences. I disagree. Strongly.”

“Television isn’t stagnant. It’s strategic. OTT and TV serve different worlds. One thrives on individual consumption, niche storytelling and subscription loyalty. The other caters to collective viewing, cultural familiarity and the pulse of Bharat. Expecting TV to mirror OTT is like asking cricket to play by football rules,” he added.

Calling the notion of TV being stuck in formulas "convenient but inaccurate," Sachdeva continued, “TV has evolved continuously, balancing entertainment with social narratives, emotions with values. From shows that highlight gender equality, mental health and regional diversity, to reality formats that tap into grassroots talent—TV has consistently found ways to engage the widest slice of India.”

He cautioned against adapting OTT content for television: “Just because it doesn’t scream disruption doesn’t mean it’s not innovating. TV’s innovation is invisible—it happens within the constraints of time slots, family sensibilities, advertiser priorities and cultural responsibility. That’s a creative challenge OTT doesn’t always face.”

“Now, suggesting that the way forward is to adapt bold OTT hits into diluted TV versions? That’s not evolution—that’s erosion. It underestimates the intelligence of the TV audience and ignores the strengths of the platform. The answer is to invest in original ideas that respect the emotional DNA of TV viewers, while slowly nudging boundaries in fresh ways. And that’s not stagnation. That’s strategy.”

AIDCF warned that linear TV risks self-destruction by not innovating. “Broadcasters deliberately or inadvertently are putting an axe on their own foot by not providing good content on linear TV, which presently stands to a 100 million consumer base,” it said. “In chasing the B2C digital audience, they are losing their own fort of linear TV. The customer base they are chasing in the online domain has already been tapped by regional OTT applications and other players like YouTube, Netflix, Prime Video, MX Player, etc.”

It urged broadcasters and distributors to come together: “India’s linear TV industry has served as a unifying force for decades. Now, broadcasters and DPOs have to put their minds together for innovation and efforts to bring good content on linear TV. That would be a win-win for everyone—consumers, DPOs, and broadcasters.”

“The time has come for established broadcasters to act—not defensively, but boldly and broadly. The audience has evolved on linear TV as well and that’s why it’s time that content should also evolve.”