Hotstar continues to lead OTT platform in India: Study

Hotstar is still the OTT leader in entertainment segment with 49% app installations. Hotstar’s growth is credited mostly to live sports events like IPL and the Cricket World Cup.

Hotstar posted live match viewing records during Cricket World Cup 2019. (Hotstar)

Video streaming platform Hotstar leads the over-the-top entertainment app segment with 49% share in terms of smartphone installations, while Jio's Live Tv leads the live channel category with 30% share, a study said Thursday.

According to the techARC-Unomer MegaInsight study, around 79% of smartphone users access over-the-top (OTT) mobile applications for entertainment in India, which is in addition to the 'casual' entertainment of YouTube and other UGC (User Generated Content) platforms like TikTok.

"Over the past 3 years we have seen a lot of enablement both from the Smartphone OEMs as well as operators' sides. This has facilitated growth of OTT Entertainment services as well as the consumption," techARC's founder and Chief Analyst, Faisal Kawoosa said in a statement.

The study found that Hotstar has the highest penetration of 49% on smartphone devices in entertainment OTT app category, followed by Times Internet's MX Player with 42% share.

"One of the main factors for Hotstar's growth has been its sports, especially cricket content, be it IPL or now the World Cup Championship," the statement said.

Amazon Prime Video had 15% share, while that of Netflix was 13%. In the live TV app category, Jio leads the market with 30% penetration among smartphone users and was distantly followed by Airtel and Vodafone Play, according to the study.

"Video has emerged as a category where we are seeing a large number of players that can co-exist and each player can create a market for itself, unlike other sectors like e-commerce and social media, where there is dominance of 1-2 players," Unomer CEO and co-founder Vinay Bapna said.