Why family-friendly TV shows now rule India’s streaming charts

According to media consulting firm Ormax, the list of top 10 most-watched OTT properties in India for the week ended 8 February included titles originally made for TV such as Naagin season seven on JioHotstar (4.5 million views), Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah on YouTube and SonyLIV (3.8 million views) and Pati Brahmachari on the YouTube channel of Dangal TV (3.1 million views).

Experts said this has more to do with who is now watching OTT and less to do with tastes changing overnight. The early phase of streaming in India was urban, English or Hindi-first and driven by originals. That audience is largely saturated. Now, OTT has become the default screen for a much wider group—families, older viewers and people who were earlier loyal to TV.

“As OTT penetration deepens beyond metros, this phase can fairly be described as one of massification, not because audience tastes are being diluted, but because a much larger and more diverse cohort is entering the OTT ecosystem. These viewers are seeking stories that feel familiar, emotionally rooted, and easy to engage with,” said Raghavendra Hunsur, chief content officer at ZEE5 and ZEEL (Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd).

This reflects an expansion of the ecosystem, where premium originals and mass narratives comfortably co-exist and serve different audience needs, Hunsur added.

“Our greenlighting decisions increasingly reflect this reality, balancing scale with storytelling depth, as we plan for an OTT future that is both inclusive and diverse, in step with the widening audience base,” he said.

Broadband spread

According to Ashish Pherwani, M&E (media and entertainment) sector leader at EY India, wired broadband has grown to about 60 million connections, which has significantly increased the reach of OTT platforms.

“Good content works, irrespective of the pipe through which it’s delivered. OTT is therefore catering to a much larger audience, and this trend will continue,” he added.

Agreeing that it is fair to call this phase one of massification, Nitin Gupta, chief content officer at Chaupal, a platform specializing in Punjabi, Haryanvi and Bhojpuri content, said every shift in media consumption has followed a similar pattern, driven by changes in technology and access.

“We’ve seen this earlier with the transition from radio to television, from Doordarshan to private channels, and later from general entertainment to genre-specific TV channels. OTT is going through the same evolution. It has brought in a much larger audience base, especially from tier-two, tier-three and tier-four cities into its fold and audience tastes are also evolving along with accessibility and choice,” he said.

Content that reflects everyday life and family emotions tends to perform well. Sports and reality-based content have also found strong traction on OTT platforms.

As far as specific strategies go, Prime Video has onboarded Goldmines Play as an add-on subscription. This is a streaming service from Goldmines Telefilms, which is known for its library of south Indian films dubbed in Hindi. Netflix will premiere the new season of Bhuvan Bam’s YouTube original Dhindora.

Shifting trajectory

Experts emphasized that as a wider audience comes in, viewing behaviour will start to resemble television. Familiar formats, daily fiction and reality shows feel safer and easier to consume than experimental originals. So OTT is not abandoning its original audience, but it is expanding beyond it. And, that expansion is what shows up as massification.

Charu Malhotra, co-founder and managing director of Primus Partners, a management consultancy firm, said greenlighting decisions today are more pragmatic. Platforms are evaluating if a show brings repeat viewing, family co-viewing and longer engagement windows. That’s why you see more reality formats, serial-like narratives and regional mass content being commissioned alongside premium originals, according to Malhotra.

“The trajectory is indeed shifting, with platforms becoming more cautious and focused on profitability. After years of aggressive growth, OTT platforms are now tightening their content budgets and prioritising quality over quantity,” said Rajat Agrawal, chief operating officer, Ultra Media & Entertainment Group.

“Future greenlighting decisions will likely prioritize content that shows potential for high returns on investment, that resonates with diverse audience segments, and which can be easily localised and scaled across regions,” Agrawal said.