India has now 600 million OTT users, CTV penetration sees 87% jump

Sharp rise in the CTV audience base is striking for a market long regarded as mobile-first

The number of active users of connected TV (CTV) increased a sharp 87 per cent, driven by the rise of smart TVs, while over-the-top (OTT) users have crossed the 600 million mark which is around 41 per cent of the country’s population, a report by Ormax Media said. 

“India’s active connected TV (CTV) user base is around 129.2 million, which translates to an estimated 35 to 40 million CTV homes. The CTV penetration in India has grown by a staggering 87 per cent within a single year,” the report stated. 

Shailesh Kapoor, founder and chief executive officer (CEO), Ormax Media, said that the sharp rise in the CTV audience base this year is particularly striking for a market long regarded as mobile-first. 

 

On the other hand, the growth rate of OTT users was 10 per cent this year, which is below the 13 to 14 per cent growth seen in 2023 and 2024 respectively, the report titled ‘The Ormax OTT Audience Report: 2025’ said. 

OTT users in India are now estimated to be around 601.2 million. 

This comes at a time when major streaming platforms have moved to hybrid models to reduce their dependence on subscription-based revenues. Additionally, some OTT platforms in India have cut operational costs to focus on profitability. 

So far, only the US-based platform Netflix is operating in India with a subscription-video on demand (SVOD) model, while Amazon’s Prime Video introduced its advertising-video on demand (AVOD) model in India this year. 

The report estimates that the total number of active paid OTT subscriptions in India is 148.2 million, including subscriptions through telecom bundles and OTT aggregators. 

Active paid subscriptions here are defined as users who have at least once used the OTT platform in the last one month. 

 

This is a subscription-based report released by Ormax Media and is based on a sample size of 15,600 respondents across urban and rural India, with the research being conducted in June and July 2025.