Ten years of Netflix and Prime Video: The platforms that reset India’s streaming business

In 2016, television still dominated Indian living rooms. The box office remained the ultimate measure of scale. YouTube was growing fast, but largely as a free, short-form destination. Homegrown OTT (over-the-top) platforms functioned as digital extensions of broadcast — catch-up services rather than standalone subscription businesses. Premium digital streaming was, at best, an urban experiment.

In September 2016, Reliance Jio launched nationwide 4G services, triggering one of the sharpest data price collapses in telecom history. Mobile internet became dramatically cheaper almost overnight. Broadband penetration surged. Video consumption exploded.

That same year, two global streaming giants formally entered India: Netflix in January and Amazon Prime Video in December. They arrived with global playbooks, deep capital, and a conviction that India would eventually pay for premium content.

What followed was not merely the rise of OTT platforms. It was the re-engineering of India’s content economy.

From catch-up TV to subscription ambition

Streaming wasn’t new. Ditto TV (2012), Sony LIV (2013) and Disney+ Hotstar (then Hotstar, 2015) were early movers. But subscription revenues were negligible, ARPUs (Average Revenue Per User) were low, and the industry’s working assumption was blunt: India does not pay for content.

The global entrants challenged that belief, but not without friction.

By December 2021, Netflix had just 5.5 million subscribers in India. Disney+ Hotstar, powered by sports and aggressive pricing, had 46 million. The premium thesis appeared fragile.

A decade on, the picture looks markedly different.

After recalibrating pricing and doubling down on Indian originals, film premieres and regional storytelling, Netflix has crossed 16 million subscribers, according to industry estimates. Mihir Shah, vice-president at Media Partners Asia, says the platform has firmly captured India’s affluent, high-value segment, generating more than three times the industry’s average ARPU.

“This demonstrates a strategy that has balanced growth with profitability, anchored in calibrated pricing and sustained investment in local content,” Shah says.

For Amazon, India has emerged as one of its fastest-growing Prime markets outside the US in recent years, underscoring the strategic importance of the country to its global subscription flywheel.

Raj Nayak, who was the COO of Viacom18 when these platforms emerged, says for them, Netflix and Prime Video were not rivals; they were players expanding the same space. 

“What Netflix and Amazon changed was the scale and ambition of investment. They brought global content, multi-language access, and poured serious money into originals. That reset the benchmark for quality across the industry. With deep pockets and a global outlook, they approached India differently.”

The bigger shift, however, was psychological. The idea that Indian consumers would never pay for digital content began to erode.

Ashish Golwalkar, former content head at Sony LIV, says Netflix fundamentally changed executive thinking. “Indian platforms were underselling themselves. Netflix proved that if the proposition is strong enough, consumers will pay,” he says. “It wasn’t plug-and-play. Pricing and content needed recalibration. But the belief system changed.”

Raising the bar for creators

The most enduring transformation may have occurred behind the camera.

On the supply side, the global platforms introduced structured development processes, budgeting discipline, data-led commissioning, and stringent delivery standards. On the demand side, they elevated audience expectations in storytelling ambition, production values, and user experience.

Vikram Malhotra, founder and CEO of Abundantia Entertainment, witnessed the shift up close. His company created Prime Video’s early Indian original Breathe in 2018. He began developing long-form series in 2016 after observing the migration of Western TV audiences to OTT.

“Streaming platforms brought development rigour and accountability to what was often an informal ecosystem,” Malhotra says. “From script to screen, the benchmarks changed.”

He recalls that during Breathe’s post-production in 2017, Indian teams struggled to meet Amazon’s technical and quality-control standards. Over time, however, the ecosystem adapted, upgrading workflows, data management systems, QC (quality control) protocols and remote collaboration capabilities.

“The impact hasn’t just been commercial,” he says. “It has been structural, reshaping standards across the value chain.”

Today, commissioning and acquisitions from streaming platforms form a significant revenue stream for both films and series. “If you look at the 110-year history of Indian cinema, the last decade may be among its most defining, and streaming is central to that shift,” Malhotra adds.

From pure SVoD to hybrid reality

The early narrative suggested India would leap straight into a subscription-first future. Reality proved more complex.

Even Prime Video eventually introduced advertising. Most platforms moved toward hybrid models, blending subscription revenue with ads to balance affordability and sustainability.

Harikrishnan Pillai, founder of The Small Big Idea, says the initial “everyone will pay” narrative underestimated India’s value-conscious consumer base.

“Content is an expensive business, and India remains a price-sensitive market. The content–pricing–consumer value equation has to balance. Increasingly, that balance includes advertising,” he says.

The post-COVID commissioning boom further tested economics. Lockdowns accelerated OTT adoption and habit formation, but they also led to aggressive spending. That surge is now reflecting in tighter slates and more disciplined acquisition strategies.

Platforms are tying film deals to box-office performance slabs rather than blanket upfront purchases. Announcements of 100-show slates have given way to curated bets.

Golwalkar argues that the pure premium-content model, which involves heavy spend recovered solely through subscriptions, may not be fully sustainable in India. Unlike long-running US sitcoms that generate decades of library value, Indian streaming originals have yet to consistently deliver strong long-tail returns.

He notes that television has mastered sustained engagement, despite the commoditisation of its content.

The next opportunity lies in combining OTT content's quality with television's stickiness, which refers to the ability to keep viewers engaged over time.

“Engagement matters as much as spectacle,” he says. “Sustainable engagement beats one-time impact.”

The next decade

Ten years on, the debate is no longer whether India will pay for content. It is about ARPU optimisation, hybrid monetisation, connected-TV growth, regional expansion and profitability discipline.

Shah believes the rapid shift toward connected TV will broaden storytelling beyond crime thrillers and action to include family drama, comedy, and kids’ content. Malhotra says the core challenge is relevancy in content, pricing and experience while protecting premium ARPU.

“How do you scale without diluting value?” he asks. “Consumers are cost-conscious. They will choose platforms that deliver the maximum value for their time and money.”

Nayak says Indian OTT players must now think global while staying rooted. “If our stories are authentic and made at scale, they will travel — just like Korean or Turkish shows. But technology and user experience must match global benchmarks,” he says.

The novelty phase is over. The correction is underway. What remains is a more disciplined, more ambitious industry.