Mumbai: Comscore's recent report indicates a decline in over-the-top (OTT) unique visitors (UVs) to 460 million in January 2024, marking the first decline since 2020, with OTT penetration of the digital universe reaching 87.8%.

In January 2023, the number of unique OTT visitors peaked at 466 million.

The number of unique OTT visitors increased significantly from 395 million in January 2020 to 448 million in the following year due to increased adoption during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Between January 2021 and 2022, the number of unique OTT visitors increased by four million to reach 452 million.

The report said YouTube is India's largest video streaming platform, with 456 million unique visitors. The platform also has the highest engagement rate, with an average of 864 minutes per visitor.

OTT content aggregator YuppTV had the highest engagement after YouTube, with 2.7 times the engagement of the next closest competitor MX Player (179.4 minutes).

YouTube is followed by Disney+ Hotstar with 114 million UVs, Jio Cinema (101 million), and MX Player (93 million). Disney+ Hotstar had an average of 177.8 minutes per visitor, while Jio Cinema had 69.7 minutes.

Zee5 ranked fifth with 57 million UVs, followed by Amazon Prime Video with 45 million and Netflix with 42 million, while Jio TV and SonyLIV had 29 million and 26 million, respectively.

Zee5 outperformed Netflix in terms of average minutes spent per visitor at 90 minutes, compared to the latter's 83.9 minutes.

Comscore said the competition between Hotstar and Jio Cinema was being fought using live sports as the primary hook. It added that the 2023 IPL helped Jio Cinema reach a peak of 151 million UVs, while the ICC CWC helped Hotstar reach a peak of 191 million UVs in November 2023.

The Comscore report noted that the potential merger between Star India and Viacom18 will lead to a one-stop-shop for most sporting events for Indian viewers. Disney+ Hotstar and JioCinema will have a consolidated reach of 160 million UVs.