India's Streaming Growth Shifts to Regional Content, Surpassing Hindi Output
Major streaming platforms in India, including ZEE5, JioHotstar, and Prime Video, are increasingly investing in regional language content to drive viewership growth. According to a Ficci-EY report cited in the article, regional content constituted 56% of total content produced for digital platforms in 2025, surpassing Hindi. This strategy includes significant financial commitments, such as JioHotstar's ₹4,000 crore investment in southern markets, and efforts to build local creator ecosystems.
Key Takeaways
- Regional language content accounted for 56% of total content produced for digital platforms in 2025, exceeding Hindi's 44% share, per a Ficci-EY report.
- JioHotstar announced a ₹4,000 crore investment over five years to develop its content and creator ecosystem in southern India.
- Non-Hindi content drives significant viewership, accounting for 60-65% of ZEE5's traffic and with 60% of Prime Video's Indian customers streaming in four or more languages.
- Investments extend beyond content to infrastructure, including JioHotstar's creator labs and Prime Video's local language user interfaces for Tamil and Telugu.
- The paying subscriber base for streaming in India is forecast to grow from 143 million households to 191 million in 2028.
Why It Matters
The data confirms a strategic pivot in India's streaming market: subscriber growth is now primarily tied to a diverse linguistic portfolio, not just a Hindi-first approach. With regional titles making up 56% of new content, this is officially a core strategy, not a niche play. This shifts competition from pure content acquisition to building local creative economies, evidenced by JioHotstar’s partnership with the Tamil Nadu government and ZEE5’s efforts to build a creator ecosystem. Watch for market share shifts in specific southern states and whether competitors adopt language-pack pricing models similar to ZEE5's to capture regional subscribers.
Read full article at hindustantimes.com
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