The Ormax SVOD Audience Report: 2024 highlights that there’s a small but significant increase in co-viewing among urban SVOD audiences in India.

This shift is aided by the growth in usage of connected television sets, which are being used by a healthy 36 percent SVOD audiences in urban India to stream content, said a senior executive of Ormax, while analysing the report’s findings and their impact on the industry.

The findings, Ormax said, is the result of an extensive research on viewing behaviour, content tastes, preferences, and media habits of urban adults (15+ yrs.) In the research, audiences were asked to pick the most-likely accompaniment scenario when watching streaming content at their homes.

There’s a small but significant shift that can be seen from solo or individualistic viewing, to collective viewing. Four percentage points may not seem like a trend, but the swing of 8 percentage points (47 vs. 53 to 43 vs. 57) within just two years, is hard to ignore.

If at all, one may have expected the solo consumption number to go up marginally in 2024, as 2022 would have some residual impact of the pandemic, which encouraged co-viewing, the report’s analysis stated.

It’s important to note that the type of streaming content being dished out has not changed fundamentally over these two years. This change is behavioural and social in nature, and hints at early signs of growth in inclusivity in the pay streaming market in India.

The shift becomes easier to understand if one looks at the devices on which SVOD audiences are watching streaming content in India.

While smartphone is the ubiquitous device for streaming, a healthy 36 percent usage of Connected TV is an important finding. This amounts to about 32 million SVOD 15+ urban audiences in India. “Add to this kids, rural and AVOD audiences, and we would hit a figure of about 65-70 million audiences who are using Connected TV to watch streaming content,” the Ormax analysis stated.

 At an average incidence of 3.5 family members watching streaming content on Connected TVs and this amounts to 18-19 million TV sets that are being used to stream content, along with (or instead of) linear television consumption.