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Connected TV viewership growth: OTT users going beyond six-inch smartphones

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KOLKATA: Indian viewers consume content only on smartphones – the market has matured enough to move on from this notion. With more and more premium content offered by leading streaming services, consumers don’t want to limit their viewing experience to six-inche screens anymore.

It is undeniable that a large chunk of Indian consumers still watch content on mobile devices but their preference for the larger screen has increased by leaps and bounds, especially while they were homebound during lockdown. Moreover, the appetite for quality viewing experience also pushed them to larger screens.

With smart TVs becoming more affordable, a number of TV households are replacing their old linear sets. Smart TV market has been on the rise over the last couple of years due to the entry of brands like Xiaomi, Vu, Real Me, One Plus, etc. In addition to that, traditional TV brands like Samsung, Panasonic, and LG also went aggressive in the segment. Reports have suggested the popularity of OTT content is driving smart TV growth in India.

"India is one of the most exciting countries in the world with more than 200 million potential TV households and still underpenetrated. Smart TVs have become more affordable over the last three years, and represent the vast majority of all new TVs sold. People love having the ability to connect to the Internet and stream their favourite films and series on demand. We see an ever growing need among audiences to watch Netflix on a smart TV, at home, with their family,” Netflix India business development director Abhishek Nag said.

Connected TV also includes streaming devices such as Roku, Chromecast and Fire TV. Users who don’t intend to invest in a brand new TV set are opting for these devices instead. Recently, Amazon said in a report that Fire TV users in India doubled consumption of entertainment content during their stay at home in 2020, with movies, cricket, online gaming and music gaining traction.

“In 2025, we expect connected TV will reach over 40 million homes from around seven million homes today. This will further grow OTT viewership as people  prefer to watch content on a large screen if possible. Both Airtel and Jio have announced growth plans for home broadband. Hence, that’s growing to drive connected TV homes and viewership,” stated EY India partner and media & entertainment leader Ashish Pherwani.

The prolonged shutdown of cinema halls and fresh content availability on OTTs also contributed to the uptake of connected TV. Over 50 per cent of Mirzapur 2 viewers completed the show within 48 hours of its release on Amazon Prime Video. Direct-to-digital releases Shakuntala Devi, Gulabo Sitabo, Coolie No.1,  Soorarai Pottru, Ponmagal Vandhal were the most watched movies from Prime Video on Fire TV devices. Users enjoyed sports content too as Disney+ Hotstar viewership increased 50 per cent during IPL 2020.

Zee5 witnessed accelerated adoption of connected devices wherein, three out of five SVoD users watched content via connected devices, recording over 80 per cent growth during Covid2019. Overall engagement of the platform grew and the audience spent more time watching content on connected TV versus smartphone.

“With the audience becoming acclimatised to the idea of work-from-home and social distancing owing to the pandemic, their content consumptions patterns have seen a drastic change and there has been a significant growth in terms of watch-time. The surge in content consumption is also partly driven by a big uplift in the use of connected devices,” shared Zee5 India chief business officer Manish Kalra.

Earlier in a conference, head honchos from Disney+Hotstar, Voot, Amazom Prime Video also spoke of the shift towards the living room as opposed to mobile device viewing.  As a result of rapid growth lately, the current ratio of mobile-connected TV consumption for Zee5 stands at 50-50, Kalra revealed. This signifies higher engagement levels on CTV compared to content consumption on smartphones.

“In terms of the genres, we have observed that the audience consumes more of family entertainment content. Some of the most watched content includes Jeet Ki Zid, Black Widows, Pareeksha as compared to crime and edgy content,” he added.

On the back of surging demand for CTV, OTT services are increasingly forging partnerships with OEM manufacturers. Netflix’s Nag said the platform has tied up with global TV OEMs like Samsung, LG, Sony, Xiaomi, and OnePlus, and local TV OEMs like VU and MarQ, to ensure that all the members get the same consistent, high quality app experience, no matter which smart TV they choose. Zee5’s Kalra mentioned that the platform is available across all leading Smart TVs and smart sticks available in the market – Samsung, LG, Xiaomi, OnePlus, Sony; Amazon FireTV Stick and Mi 2k stick. Moreover, the streamer has a presence as Hot keys for Samsung, LG, TCL, Onida, Nokia and Marq TVs across all 2020 models.

Although smart TV penetration is phenomenally low in India, going forwards it is projected to grow more swiftly than smartphones which have reached the 400 million threshold, Elara Capital VP research analyst (media) Karan Taurani noted. Moreover, affordability coming in with new players will boost growth. Hence, the mobile consumption of OTT platforms standing at 80-90 per cent can come down to 70 per cent in the next few years, albeit mobile devices will largely dominate the viewership for some time to come. However, the growth of connected TV viewership in India will be led by boxes offered by aggregators like Jio, Tata Sky, Taurani remarked.

According to Deloitte India partner Jehil Thakkar, India is a mobile-first video consumption country and that will not change soon. Even, the launch of 5G can result in a better viewing experience for handheld devices. But viewership on connected TVs will parallelly go up, he asserted. During the Covid crisis, many users invested in new smart TVs or connected devices. These users will continue to consume content on those devices while they are homes, he opined. Along with that, the replacement of current TV sets in coming years will be mostly led by smart TVs only.

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Netflix celebrates a decade in India with Shah Rukh Khan-narrated tribute film

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MUMBAI: Netflix is celebrating ten years in India with a slick anniversary film voiced by Shah Rukh Khan, a nostalgic sprint through a decade that rewired how the country watches stories. The campaign doubles as both tribute and reminder: streaming did not just enter Indian homes, it quietly rearranged them.

Roll back to 2016 and television still dictated schedules. Viewers waited weeks, sometimes months, for favourite films to appear on prime time. Family-friendly filters narrowed options further, and piracy often filled the gaps. Then Netflix arrived, softly but decisively, carrying a catalogue of international titles rarely seen in Indian theatres and placing them a click away. Old blockbusters and new releases suddenly coexisted on the same digital shelf.

The platform’s real inflection point came in 2018 with Sacred Games, a breakout series that refused to dilute India’s grit for global comfort. Audiences embraced its unvarnished tone, signalling readiness for stories that did not need box-office validation or censorship compromises. What followed was a steady procession of relatable narratives. Competitive-exam anxiety fuelled Kota Factory. College relationships unfolded in Mismatched. Everyday pressures, not grand spectacle, proved bankable.

Language barriers thinned as foreign series arrived with Hindi, Tamil and Telugu dubbing, expanding viewership beyond urban English-speaking pockets. Marketing mirrored the shift. For global releases such as Squid Game, Netflix leaned on regional creators and influencers to localise buzz and make international content feel native.

The library widened beyond fiction. Documentaries stepped out of festival circuits into living rooms. Stand-up comedians found scale. Established filmmakers, including Sanjay Leela Bhansali with Heeramandi, embraced the platform’s long-form canvas. Subscriber numbers swelled to 12.37 million in India, according to Demandsage, and behaviour followed suit. Late-night binges became routine. Friday release rituals loosened. Watch parties turned solitary screens into social events.

Economics demanded adjustment. Early subscription pricing carried a premium aura that deterred many households. Over time, Netflix recalibrated plans to align with Indian spending sensibilities, conceding that accessibility is as critical as content. To extend momentum around marquee titles, the platform also experimented with split-season releases, stretching anticipation and watch time.

The anniversary film, narrated by Shah Rukh Khan, captures the linguistic shift that mirrors the cultural one: from “Netflix pe kya dekha?” to “Netflix pe kya dekhein?” The question moved from recounting the past to planning the next binge. In ten years, Netflix morphed from foreign entrant to familiar fixture, exporting Indian stories abroad while importing global ones home. The remote no longer waits; it chooses, clicks and moves on. In the streaming age, patience is out, playlists are in, and the next episode is always one tap away.

 

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e-commerce

Tulasi Mohan Padavala elevated to Associate Director at Blinkit

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Gurugram: Blinkit has elevated Tulasi Mohan Padavala to associate director, capping a three-year climb inside the quick-commerce firm and signalling confidence in an executive steeped in ecommerce, category management and on-ground sales execution.

Padavala shared the update publicly, saying he was “happy to share” the promotion, a succinct announcement that nevertheless marks a notable step up within one of India’s fastest-moving delivery platforms. The new role follows nearly three years at Blinkit, where he most recently served as senior category manager from February 2023 to January 2026, focusing on strategic sourcing and assortment planning.

The promotion places Padavala in Blinkit’s mid-to-senior leadership tier at a time when the company continues to expand its rapid-delivery footprint and sharpen category economics. His brief tenure as associate director began in January 2026, with responsibilities expected to span category growth, supplier strategy and cross-functional execution.

Before Blinkit, Padavala spent a short but intensive stint as global ecommerce manager at Wholsum Foods, the parent of Slurrp Farm and Millé, between November 2022 and February 2023. There he worked on digital marketplace expansion and online retail operations, adding a direct-to-consumer and international ecommerce layer to his résumé.

A longer stretch at Amazon shaped much of his cross-border commerce experience. As business development manager for Amazon’s India Global Selling programme from February 2021 to October 2022, Padavala helped Indian D2C brands enter the North American market. His remit ranged from seller recruitment and category revenue management to coordination with industry bodies, regulators and logistics partners. Key outcomes included launching more than 50 D2C consumable brands in the United States, driving a cumulative gross merchandise sales figure of $1m in FY21-22, tripling sales for participating brands during Prime Day through marketing and visibility levers, growing the monthly recurring revenue of more than 10 newly launched sellers from zero to an average $20,000 each, and negotiating ecommerce partnerships that reduced initial launch costs by 20 per cent.

Padavala’s earlier career was forged in the field rather than the dashboard. At Coffee Day Group, he spent close to five years across multiple sales leadership roles. As sales manager in the Greater Delhi Area from July 2019 to January 2021, he led vending-machine and consumables sales for small and medium enterprises with a team of more than 15 assistant and territory sales managers, managed over 2,000 clients, drove upselling and cross-selling, maintained channel partnerships and ensured timely collections. Prior to that, he served as area sales manager in Delhi between May 2018 and June 2019, handling south and east Delhi markets, and earlier in Hyderabad from April 2016 to May 2018, where he led Andhra Pradesh sales for the vending division, supervised service and logistics functions and managed a base of more than 600 machines with a four-member team.

His professional arc began with internships that combined analytics and process improvement. At Boehringer Ingelheim in 2015, Padavala analysed the impact of brand extension on the drug Pradaxa, identified key performance indicators through market research and assessed sales forecasts, recommendations that drew positive responses in pilot studies. Earlier, at Genpact in 2014, he automated manual sales-order backlog reporting using VBA and Excel, increasing efficiency by 800 per cent, and worked on benchmarking metrics within supply-chain planning processes.

From automating spreadsheets to scaling cross-border ecommerce and now steering quick-commerce categories, Padavala’s trajectory tracks the evolution of India’s retail economy itself. Blinkit’s bet is clear: blend data, discipline and delivery speed. The promotion formalises what his career already suggests. In the race for instant commerce, experience that moves from warehouse floors to global dashboards is no longer optional. It is the engine.

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e-commerce

Bharatpe plays a super over as Rohit Sharma fronts T20 push

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MUMBAI: When the stakes rise and seconds matter, even payments need a match-winning finish. That’s the cue for Bharatpe, which has rolled out Super Over, a nationwide campaign led by Indian cricket captain Rohit Sharma, timed neatly ahead of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup.

The campaign draws a straight line between the pulse of cricket and the pace of everyday digital payments. A new brand film taps into India’s emotional bond with the game, while positioning UPI as the quiet hero that keeps daily transactions ticking along at match speed.

As part of Super Over, users making payments via Bharatpe UPI can bag daily rewards ranging from match tickets and signed merchandise to a chance to watch a T20 World Cup fixture alongside Rohit Sharma himself. Both consumers and merchants are also assured Zillion Coins on every eligible transaction, adding a little extra sparkle to routine payments.

Behind the scenes, Bharatpe is also batting for safety. The platform is backed by Bharatpe Shield, a fraud-protection layer designed to offer enhanced security, comprehensive coverage and dedicated support aimed at helping users transact with greater confidence as digital payments scale up.

Announcing the campaign, Bharatpe head of marketing Shilpi Kapoor said Super Over mirrors the aspirations of everyday Indians, combining speed, security and instant rewards to make UPI transactions feel both reliable and rewarding.

The campaign will play out across digital platforms, social media and on-ground activations nationwide, staying live through the T20 World Cup season proof that in cricket, as in payments, timing is everything.

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