Sports OTT Landscape in India

Executive Summary

In India, smartphones and better access to data in rural areas have greatly expanded the market for streaming video. Having the second-largest smartphone ownership in the world, mobile viewing of over-the-top (OTT) content is expected to increase in India.

• Who are the major players competing to show sports content? Hotstar, India’s homegrown video streaming platform owned by media conglomerate Star India, leads India’s OTT space with over 40% market share of active users. It competes with SonyLIV; JioTV, a popular live streaming service from mobile network operator Reliance Jio; and Airtel TV, from mobile network Airtel. Over 30 OTT players are now battling for sports rights in India.
• What sports are consumers watching in India? Although cricket remains hugely popular, sports viewership in India is expanding beyond cricket’s Indian Premier League (IPL) to other sports and domestic leagues, including the Hockey India League, the Pro Kabaddi League, the Premier Badminton League and the Indian Super League (soccer). The English Premier League (EPL), always popular in India, received a boost in 2018 from the FIFA World Cup. According to a March 2018 EY study, over 50 million Indians are actively consuming sports content on digital.
• Are India’s consumers interested in esports? The viewership of esports in India is estimated at 150 million by gaming executives there. According to an August 2018 Limelight Networks survey, 59.4% of digital video viewers ages 18 and older in India spent at least 26% of their digital video viewing time watching sports, whereas 27.3% of them spent the same amount of time watching esports.

KEY STAT: In India, 67% of internet users ages 16 to 64 watched sports coverage or highlights online during Q3 2018, up from 64% a year earlier, according to a November 2018 GlobalWebIndex study. 45% of respondents used mobile to watch sports coverage in Q3 2018.

WHAT’S IN THIS REPORT? This report surveys the sports streaming industry in India. We catalog streaming services, analyze market trends and data, and provide takeaways for marketers.

This is part of a collection of 11 reports. To access each report, read the global overview "Sports OTT Landscape 2019."