Hotstar Leads Entertainment Apps Installations: Study

Video Streaming platform Hotstar leads the over- the-top entertainment app segment with 49 percent share in terms of smartphone installations, a study said.

According to new study by research firm techARC Hotstar has the highest penetration of 49 percent on smartphone devices in entertainment OTT app category because of cricket content, followed by Times Internet's MX Player with 42 per cent share.

"One of the main factors for Hotstar's growth has been its sports, especially cricket content, be it IPL or now the World Cup Championship," the study said.

Meanwhile Jio leads the live TV app category with 30 percent penetration among smartphone users and was distantly followed by Airtel and Vodafone Play.

The OTT platforms installed on the devices are in addition to the casual entertainment apps such as YouTube and UGC (User Generated Content) platforms like TikTok and with such as penetration, OTT entertainment apps have become the 'most-penetrated' app category for smartphone users in India after social networking, chatting and e-commerce Apps, revealed the report by techARC.

"Over the past three years, we have seen a lot of enablement both from the smartphone OEMs as well as operators' sides. This has facilitated the growth of OTT entertainment services as well as consumption.

79% Smartphone Users Hooked To OTT Apps

79 percent of the male Smartphone users have an OTT Entertainment app as compared to 74 percent of females. However, platforms like Amazon Prime Video and Netflix which have a mix of global as well as local content, is more popular among women.

The report also pointed out that that the new age women of India are going beyond the regular daily soap operas on the regular TV channels and looking for more engaging and entertaining content for which they watch such OTT platforms.

Furthermore, Netflix penetration among women is 9 percent compared to 8 percent in men while its 15 percent and 13 percent for Amazon Prime Video respectively.

4G Services And OTT Services

The study also noted that the OTT Entertainment app growth has seen a direct relationship with the launch of 4G services, which enables user to seamlessly consume such content.