Why OTTs Are Focusing On Bharat

'The South today is a creative engine shaping the future of Indian entertainment.'

IMAGE: A scene from the Telugu series Paruvu on Z5.

Streaming platforms are zeroing in on Tier-II and Tier-III cities and southern India to attract subscribers. They are expanding their content slate and rolling out more bundled offers to counter slower growth compared to the 2023-2024 period.

JioHotstar, for instance, plans to double its original programming hours in southern languages over the next 12 to 18 months, with the region serving as both a core base and a growth engine.

Z5, the over-the-top (OTT) platform of Zee Entertainment Enterprises, aims to expand reach in the South through language-specific subscription packs.

In Hindi-speaking markets (HSMs), its strategy revolves around small-town, culturally rooted stories, with a strong push for direct-to-digital films.

IMAGE: Jim Sarbh and Kriti Kharbanada in Taish on Z5.

"The South today is a creative engine shaping the future of Indian entertainment. Stories rooted here are breaking out nationally, making the South portfolio a cornerstone of our strategy. We're doubling down with an expanded slate across Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada, and will double our original programming hours in the next 12 to 18 months," a spokesperson for JioStar said.

Z5 is also betting on cultural authenticity, said Kaveri Das, business head of Z5 Hindi.

"Our recent pivot to becoming a language-first platform drives a sharp focus on seven Indian languages across content, personalisation, and affordability. For Hindi, we're ramping up new subscribers from key HSMs like Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh," she explained.

Hindi content remains a major growth driver for Z5, with its Hindi segment growing 1.5x in subscriptions between April and August 2025.

Mumbai and Delhi remain key markets, with Bengaluru and Hyderabad also contributing strongly, thanks to their information technology and migrant populations.

IMAGE: Shivaji Satam, Dayanand Shetty and Aditya Srivastav in CID Season 2 on Netflix.

Southern India still maintains a strong pay TV base. Executives from both JioStar and Zee say this hasn't posed a hurdle to streaming. For JioHotstar, Bigg Boss South across four languages has racked up over 4 billion hours of watch time on both TV and OTT. For Z5, non-Hindi content accounts for more than half of total consumption.

"Pay TV still commands strong loyalty in the South, but digital is complementing, not replacing, linear television," said Raghavendra Hunsur, chief content officer, ZEE.

"Our strategy is to widen access through language-specific packs while investing in premium originals in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam. In parallel, we're deepening telecommunications and device partnerships to lower entry barriers and offer bundled value."

The OTT sector is entering a slower growth phase.

User growth slipped to around 10 per cent this year, down from 13 to 14 per cent in 2023-2024, according to Ormax Media. India's OTT user base stands at roughly 601.2 million in 2025. A FICCI-EY report projects that the video OTT segment will grow from 47 million households in 2024 to 65 million by 2027.

Film producer Shariq Patel observed that the industry is nearing a saturation point, pushing many platforms toward advertising-supported models.

IMAGE: Jitendra Kumar in Panchayat, Season 4.

Over time, streaming may resemble linear TV more closely.

"Around half of all streaming content is in regional languages, with the rest mostly in Hindi," Ashish Pherwani, EY's media and entertainment sector leader, said.

"National platforms typically have a four to eight original language strategy and dub content across languages," Pherwani pointed out. "This helps them reach language audiences across metros and smaller towns."

"Bundled offers via telecom partners drive both data pack and content pack sales -- over 40 per cent of broadband sales in India now include bundled content."

The FICCI-EY report also flagged artificial intelligence-assisted localisation as a key lever for OTT expansion into Tier-II and Tier-III towns, helping unlock large untapped audiences.

Netflix India has diversified its slate with crowd-pullers like CID Season 2.

Amazon Prime Video's Panchayat, Season 4 ranked third among the top 50 streaming originals in the first half of 2025 with 23.8 million viewers, according to Ormax Media.

Prime Video has also introduced advertising in India. Patel believes it's only a matter of time before Netflix brings ads to India too, given its global strategy.