With Warner Bros. Discovery shutting down standalone operations for discovery+, its video streaming platform, and ending its direct-to-consumer operations in the country, experts say the writing on the wall is clear. Market economics no longer favour niche streaming services in a market dominated by broadcaster-led apps and foreign giants like Netflix and Prime Video.
The cost of creating high-quality content is far too high and returns don’t add up, especially when short-form content is emerging in a big way. However, given that many of these companies own exhaustive catalogues, they continue to remain available via aggregator platforms and licensing deals with rivals.
Among other examples, HOOQ, Spuul and BigFlix either shut down outright or gave up on originals years ago. ALTBalaji has scaled back and started licensing its library to rivals instead of competing on its own app.
Going forward, three models may emerge: one, licensing content that generates one-off cash with no brand or data insights. Second, branded hubs where content lives inside a larger distribution platform leading to retaining the brand, recurring revenue, and negligible local cost, and thirdly, bundling with telcos, DTH players or e-commerce membership providers.
“We have seen sustained growth of discovery+ through our local partners and have decided to focus on amplifying this reach across these platforms. The discovery+ [India] DTC service will be discontinued from November 3, but fans can continue to enjoy discovery+ content via partner platforms, including Amazon Prime Video Channels, Jio TV+, Jio TV, Tata Play Binge, Dish TV VZY and Playbox TV,” Warner Bros. Discovery said in a statement in response to Mint’s queries.
Distribution platforms
Rohan Lobo, industry leader for technology, media and telecommunications for Deloitte South Asia, said there will be more OTT platforms that do not survive in India. Competitive advantage and pricing power in India sit at three fronts: scarce rights, distribution platforms that own the customer and IP that earns across platforms.
“Niche apps that don’t control a large portion of the three drivers do not have enough pricing power to recover acquisition, payments, and content costs alone. We have seen this earlier with international entrants and creator-led platforms, but I expect more niche apps – domestic and international – to close the standalone app and move content into the distribution platform of a larger player,” Lobo added.
According to Saurabh Sankpal, co-founder and chief creative officer at Re:awakening collective, a creative consultancy, there is a clear pattern here. A platform launches with global backing but can't clear the subscriber math in a price-sensitive market, and either shuts the app or hands it to someone who'll run it leaner.
“The common thread across all of them is that India's willingness to pay for a single-genre or single-studio app is low, somewhere in the ₹100 to ₹150 a month range at best, and that ceiling doesn't move no matter how good the content library is,” Sankpal said.
Further, global parent companies are facing their own cost pressures. Warner Bros. Discovery is mid-restructuring globally and doesn't have the patience to subsidize a market that isn't converting.
“The app is the disposable part now; the content relationship with an aggregator is what gets kept,” Sankpal pointed out.
Partho Dasgupta, managing partner at Thoth Advisors and ex-CEO of BARC India, agreed aggregation is the name of the game now.
“It works both from a platform and user perspective. Platforms no longer have to pay CDNs (content delivery networks) to maintain a standalone app and consumers too don’t want to subscribe to so many platforms individually. Making multiple apps available from the same gateway reduces fragmentation,” Dasgupta added.
Subscription fatigue
Video streaming is now well entrenched among India’s entertainment consuming audience. However, the industry is highly competitive with many international, national and regional players. Too many platforms mean divided customers, which reduces the subscriber share and causes subscription fatigue. Households generally cap their budgets at two to three paid digital services, making standalone app retention a continuous uphill battle.
Also, the average revenue per user in price-sensitive markets such as India remains relatively low, limiting how much platforms can increase subscription prices.
According to media consulting firm Ormax, the Indian OTT audience universe is now estimated at 664.9 million people, representing 45% of the country’s population. It estimates the total number of active paid OTT subscriptions at 172.6 million, including subscriptions through telecom bundles and OTT aggregators, growing 16% from 148.2 million in 2025.
“The Indian OTT market does not have an independent trusted viewership measurement that advertisers and players can rely on. Unlike mature markets such as the US or UK, India still lacks a single, trusted, industry-wide system for measuring digital viewership,” said Prof. Deeksha Gupta, assistant professor – strategy, IMI Bhubaneswar.
Thanks to weak piracy laws and enforcement infrastructure, pirated links and screen-recorded streams circulate within hours of a premiere, siphoning off exactly what audience platforms most need to convert viewers into paying or ad-viewing users.
“The Indian OTT market will keep growing in absolute size, but ownership of the customer relationship will concentrate in fewer hands, while everyone else recalibrates around licensing, regional niches, or advertising rather than head-on subscription competition,” she added.