Sports drives scale, originals power long-term engagement

Big-ticket sporting events remain the top draw on over-the-top platforms in India, despite significant investment in original shows and movies.

The India vs New Zealand men's cricket series on JioHotstar garnered 17.2 million views, followed by the Women’s Premier League at 6.6 million for the week of 19-25 January, according to media consulting firm Ormax Media.

Television shows such as Anupama, Naagin, and Laughter Chefs also made it to the top 10 most-watched OTT properties list, but, aside from Netflix original Taskaree, no web show featured in the list.

Sports properties may be seasonal, but continue to witness huge demand, say experts, as they are also often better promoted and pushed ahead by the platform’s algorithm. While seen as slow burn, web shows, on the other hand, help drive more consistent engagement over weeks and months.

“This phenomenon is driven less by format and more by viewing comfort and habit," said Saurabh Srivastava, chief operating officer-digital business at media conglomerate Shemaroo Entertainment Ltd.

“Sports is habit-driven; it gives viewers a reason to show up at a fixed time. Watching GEC (general entertainment channel) on OTT mirrors TV behaviour, with the added comfort of choice and flexibility. Movies benefit from the heavy marketing during their theatrical release, and star familiarity travels with the film on OTT and pulls audiences in,” he added.

Short-term reach vs mass appeal

Originals remain important for building viewer loyalty and helping platforms differentiate themselves in a crowded OTT landscape, but sports, by contrast, is appointment viewing that delivers scale quickly, Srivastava said.

When users open an app daily during a tournament, it begins to shape viewing behaviour. That habit often spills over into non-sports content after the event, aiding the discovery of originals on the platform. The challenge many OTT platforms face today is not the quality of their original content but discoverability and limited viewer patience.

Experts say live sports consistently dominates short-term reach on OTT platforms, followed by mass-appeal general entertainment content and then films or scripted shows. Sports benefits from appointment viewing and cultural immediacy, enabling it to deliver sharp, high-scale reach within compressed timeframes.

“In India’s OTT ecosystem, different content types serve different strategic roles. Sports delivers instant scale, but originals and films are what build long-term engagement and platform equity. The most successful platforms are those that balance reach with depth,” said Pankaj Krishna, founder and chief executive, market research firm Chrome Data Analytics & Media.

According to the company, in two weeks, the New Zealand tour of India (ODI series) reached 37 million viewers on JioHotstar, while Fallout Season 2 on Prime Video reached 6.2 million viewers.

Munish Vaid, vice-president, management consulting firm Primus Partners, agreed that in the Indian scenario, a regular viewer would spend several hours a week viewing a cricket match or a serial, but a new online series goes out with all the episodes at the same time, gets binge-watched and is out of the weekly charts altogether in no time.

“Thus, the online series is neither here nor there but is a specialist in itself, creating massive impact in shorter durations of time, which is absolutely brilliant for acquisition and PR but not necessarily for weekly viewing,” Vaid said, adding that nonetheless, there are “season drops”, “staged releases”, and “mini-series” formats being experimented with to extend reach. This is not a zero-sum scenario but a different pace.

Quick popularity vs brand loyalty

That said, several experts point out that original web series are responsible for brand loyalty.

Ujjwal Mahajan, co-founder, Chaupal, a platform specializing in Punjabi, Haryanvi, and Bhojpuri content, said movies and shows go hand in hand, and over four years, the service has acquired high-retention users because they know that top movies arrive there, along with good original shows.

At the same time, adding relatable local leagues can definitely bring more users, but that remains an add-on. National leagues are few, with many competing for them, similar to Bollywood movies, while regional ones are few and have fewer takers, he added.

“Indian OTT platforms without sports or GEC content do face challenges, but there's room to manoeuvre," said Rajat Agrawal, chief operating officer, film company Ultra Media & Entertainment Group.

"Content with mass appeal, strong IP, or niche but loyal audiences gets priority in greenlighting. Platforms without sports or GEC can target specific genres, such as horror, science fiction, or regional content, and invest in unique, high-quality content that resonates with audiences. They can also partner with other services or offer affordable plans,” he added.