India's booming over-the-top (OTT) streaming sector is facing a critical challenge that threatens its growth. With nearly 60 platforms and thousands of titles vying for attention, users are increasingly overwhelmed, spending excessive time searching for something to watch rather than actually viewing content.
The 16-Minute Browsing Problem
Entertainment industry experts reveal a startling trend: many Indian viewers now spend over 16 minutes per session just scrolling through options. This extended browsing period represents a significant failure in user experience for services designed to provide effortless entertainment.
Saurabh Srivastava, Chief Operating Officer of Digital Business at Shemaroo Entertainment Ltd, explains the serious implications. "The browsing window before someone hits play often stretches beyond 16 minutes per session. That is a long pause in an experience that is supposed to feel effortless," he said. "When a viewer feels like they are doing work before every session, the value of the subscription starts to drop in their mind."
This problem directly impacts subscription renewal behavior. Salankara Biswas, General Manager of Content Discovery at Bengali streaming platform Hoichoi, confirms that discoverability has emerged as one of the biggest pain points in the OTT journey. "This extended browsing time becomes a drop-off point, leading many to abandon a session before playback even starts. When repeated over time, poor discovery leads to lower engagement, which is one of the strongest indicators of churn," Biswas noted.
Why India Lags Behind Global Standards
Compared to international markets, India's OTT discovery tools appear underdeveloped. Rajesh Sethi, Partner and Leader for Media, Entertainment and Sports at PwC India, identifies several key shortcomings.
"The lack of universal search aggregators forces users to jump between the OTT platforms, while poor metadata and limited mood or context filters make discovery even harder," Sethi explained. He emphasized that platforms need stronger AI and machine learning-led personalization, better language-based discovery filters, and cross-platform partnerships.
India's OTT landscape presents unique complexities that compound the discovery problem:
- Multiple languages and diverse regional tastes
- An unending stream of new releases across genres
- Recent shift toward family-friendly content crowding interfaces
- Absence of sophisticated recommendation engines
The Race to Fix Discovery Gaps
Streaming platforms are actively developing solutions to address the discoverability crisis. According to Rajat Agrawal, Chief Operating Officer and Director of Ultra Media & Entertainment Group, platforms are focusing on multiple strategies including original content, flexible pricing plans, and AI-powered personalization.
Ujjwal Mahajan, Co-founder of regional content platform Chaupal, detailed their approach to hyper-personalization. "The idea is to understand user preferences in depth, segment the audience more effectively, and recommend content that feels personally relevant," Mahajan said. He revealed that personalization now extends to the smallest details, such as showing different thumbnails featuring actors that individual users prefer.
Phanimohan Kalagara, Chief Technology Officer at Gracenote (a Nielsen company), stressed that meaningful improvement requires more unified experiences. He highlighted the importance of enriched program metadata, standardized content identifiers, and contextual personalization as keys to unification efforts.
As the Indian OTT market continues its rapid expansion, solving the content discovery puzzle has become essential for maintaining subscriber satisfaction and reducing churn rates in this highly competitive landscape.
