Depicting life beyond hype and hoopla, year 2024 saw an 18 percent drop in the number of streaming originals launched across major OTT platforms in India, an Ormax Media study has revealed.

Despite an explosion of Indian vernacular language content at a national — and international level also — Hindi was the dominant language as far as original streaming content was concerned.

The analysis, titled ‘Streaming Originals in India: The 2024 Story’, looks at the number of streaming originals in India over the years, and their breakup by platforms, languages, and formats with an eye to build an understanding of how the landscape is shaping up from a content perspective.

After peaking in 2023, the report observed, the originals category witnessed an 18 percent drop in the number of originals that launched in 2024, highlighting a slowdown.

 

Direct-to-OTT films had a significant presence in 2021 because many theatrical films took the OTT route during the pandemic. However, since 2022, fiction series continue to be the dominant format, with about 70 percent share of OTT originals.

Hindi remains the dominant language, accounting for 65 percent of streaming originals in India in 2024. Bengali takes the No. 2 spot, ahead of Telugu and Tamil.

Format strategies of various platforms vary, with some focusing only on fiction series, while others prioritising direct-to-OTT films as well, and a few also adding unscripted content to the mix.

Ormax Media clarified that earlier such reports looked at the streaming category from an audience or demand-side perspective, but looking at the category from the “supply side can be equally interesting”.

The analysis is based on a count of streaming or OTT originals launched in India across all major platforms, excluding YouTube. While Ormax has scanned the ecosystem thoroughly, there may still be some low-key, unpromoted launches that the research could have missed, the company said.

Different seasons of the same property have been considered as separate entries, even if launching in the same year. However, staggered launches (for example, a show launched in two parts) have been considered as a single entry. ‘Hinglish’ content, as well as multilingual content where Hindi is the primary language of consumption, has been classified as Hindi in this analysis.

Comedy specials have been included under the format ‘reality shows’. International content has been excluded from this analysis, which focuses only on content produced in India.

The 18 percent drop in supply in 2024 can be attributed to reduction in number of originals on Prime Video, Ullu, hoichoi and ALTT (drop of 10+ numbers), followed by ZEE5, Disney+ Hotstar, aha, Addatimes, and Discovery+ (drop of 5-9 in numbers). Amazon MX Player and Sony LIV launched more originals in 2024 compared to 2023, while Netflix and JioCinema maintained their 2023 count in 2024 as well.

From a format perspective, the content can be divided into four categories: fiction series, direct-to-OTT films, reality shows and documentaries. Direct-to-OTT films had significant presence in 2021, because many theatrical films took the OTT route, because of prolonged closure of theatres during the pandemic.

However, since 2022, fiction series continue to be the dominant format, with its share hovering around the 70 percent mark. As many as 214 of the 315 originals launched in 2024 were fiction series. The equivalent number was 272 in 2023, a drop of 21 percent.

Telugu and Tamil languages saw 20+ originals each in 2024, with language-focused platform aha, and national platform Disney+ Hotstar, accounting for 17 out of 21 (Telugu) and 14 out of 20 (Tamil) launches between them.

(Image and charts courtesy Ormax Media)