‘House Of The Dragon’, ‘The Crown’ And ‘LOTR’ Help Western Content Boom In India — Study
11.04.2023 - 08:57
/ deadline.com
Indian streaming viewers rushed to U.S. and UK content like never before during the Covid-19 pandemic, a study shows.
There’s was a staggering 124% uptick in viewing of shows such as HBO’s House of the Dragon on subscription streaming services during the period, according to Indian ratings analyst Ormax Media.
Nearly two-thirds (66%) of urban Indian SVoD viewers aged 15 or above now watch what the research house calls ‘English’ content, or watches English content dubbed in a local language. We’ll call them Western shows here for ease of understanding.
Half a decade ago, just 9% of viewers watched Western content. That number grew to 40% during the Covid crisis. The number has fallen back post-pandemic but Ormax is predicting a brighter future for content created in English, with the figure still almost double the 2017/18 figure.
A boom in the availability of Western shows has driven the consumption, with titles such as Netflix’s Money Heist, Dark, The Crown and The Gray Man and Prime Video’s The Boys and The Wheel of Time as key shows for the important ‘Lockdown Millennials’ sub-set.
House of the Dragon, the biggest driver, has been playing on Disney+ Hotstar. However, as we revealed earlier this year, HBO content is set to drop off the streamer. Hotstar confirmed our scoop a month ago and the content fell off on March 31.
‘Lockdown Millennials’
Ormax’s English Content in India: No Longer Niche report, created in partnership with Sony Pictures Television, estimated there are a total of 85.2 million urban Indian streaming viewers (15+) watching Western content. The split between SVoD (42.7 million) and AVoD (42.5 million) was almost exactly half.
According to Ormax, ‘Lockdown Millennials’ started watching Western