Netflix, JioHotstar bet big on the South as India’s OTT growth slows
The push for southern content by Netflix and JioHotstar is seen as a strategy to boost India's OTT growth. With a growing audience of 601.2 million, premium regional originals could engage viewers beyond metropolitan areas, fostering broader market appeal.
As India’s OTT growth shows signs of plateauing beyond large cities, streaming platforms are turning their attention south.
Netflix and JioHotstar have both announced an aggressive push into southern-language originals, betting that premium local stories can revive subscriber growth and engagement.
Industry experts say southern audiences—already accustomed to dubbed films and theatrical releases on streaming platforms—represent the next growth frontier. High-quality web originals in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada could help OTT platforms move beyond metros, where penetration has largely stagnated.
According to a report by media consulting firm Ormax, India’s OTT audience universe is now estimated at 601.2 million, accounting for 41.1% of the population. The firm defines an OTT audience as anyone who watched at least one online video—free or paid—over the past month.
However, growth has slowed to 10%, down from 13–14% in 2023 and 2024. The number of active paid OTT subscriptions—defined as subscriptions used at least once in the past month—stands at 148.2 million, including telecom bundles and aggregator plans.
Big investments
In October, Netflix announced six new Tamil and Telugu originals, including psychological thriller Stephen and cross-cultural drama Made in Korea. In December, JioHotstar said it would roll out 1,500 hours of fresh South Indian programming over the next year, alongside an investment of ₹4,000 crore over five years to strengthen the region’s content and creator ecosystem.
“The South is now one of the most evolved OTT markets in India. Audiences here are digital-first, highly discerning and extremely engaged," said Krishnan Kutty, head–entertainment business, south cluster, JioStar. He added that the platform’s south vertical is outperforming the rest of India on subscription growth, retention and large-screen viewing, strengthening its monetisation model.
JioHotstar said smaller-town audiences in the South are among its most engaged users, spending nearly 70% more time on the platform than viewers elsewhere in India. South Indian users also watch 21% more genres than the national average, driven by greater curiosity and genre exploration.
Ashish Pherwani, M&E sector leader at EY India, said the rise of dubbing and subtitling has effectively unified India’s OTT market. “With the advent of OTT dubbing and subtitling, India has merged into one market, rather than a fragmented linguistic market. Hence, south Indian content now caters to a much larger market, and India benefits from its storytelling," he said.
Premium viewing
On ZEE5, non-Hindi languages—including Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada—account for nearly 50% of total content consumption, said Raghavendra Hunsur, chief content officer, ZEEL (Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd).
“Over the past year, South India has also driven a significant share of premium viewing, contributing to 46% of all 4K content consumption on ZEE5," Hunsur said. With nearly 40% of ZEE5’s viewership coming from tier-two and tier-three markets, southern originals play a key role in sustaining engagement and managing churn in a maturing OTT ecosystem.
Beyond language
For platforms like Netflix and JioHotstar, southern originals also offer access to language-loyal viewers who may not convert on Hindi or English content alone. Neelesh Pednekar, co-founder and head of digital media at Social Pill, a marketing agency, said southern originals deliver benefits beyond language reach.
“The South has shown a higher appetite for experimental storytelling, strong genre content across crime, thrillers, mythology and political drama, and consistent production quality," Pednekar said. He added that many shows already travel well nationally, as Hindi and English audiences are comfortable with dubbed or subtitled content.
Platforms, he said, could go further by marketing southern originals as “India originals" rather than regional ones. “Smarter dubbing, stronger subtitling, national influencer amplification and casting pan-India talent can unlock wider viewership," Pednekar noted.
Still, higher content spends do not guarantee subscriber growth. Hunsur cautioned that content saturation is becoming a challenge across markets.
“Simply adding more titles will not move the needle unless they deepen cultural relevance and refresh audience excitement," he said. The challenge, he added, is to create southern originals that strengthen platform identity, build habit-forming behaviour and actively counter churn—rather than blending into an increasingly crowded OTT landscape.
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