Bollywood's shift from a competitive content market to one controlled by a few major streaming platforms has raised major concerns among producers and industry players, mirroring the era when satellite rights dominated revenue streams, shaping content choices as filmmakers tailored films for family audiences.

The repeated failure of small- and big-ticket films has skewed the market in favour of a few deep-pocketed streamers such as Netflix, Prime Video and JioHotstar (see chart).

Three years ago, the industry was in a sellers' market, where producers and filmmakers had plenty of options to secure funding. With at least 10 mainstream streamers and a strong presence of production houses and studios actively creating and acquiring content, there was healthy competition, giving content creators more bargaining power.

In its latest research, media and entertainment research firm Ormax Media said the combined share of acquiring theatrical releases across languages of Netflix and Amazon Prime Video has jumped to a whopping 76% in 2024 from 60% in 2022, indicating a creation of a duopolistic market.

After the pandemic, the film industry saw a major shift as a handful of deep-pocketed streamers managed to survive the repeated flops of big-budget films, while many others struggled. Some streamers pulled back on content creation and acquisition, while production houses and studios took a cautious approach, pausing new projects. With fewer players left standing, the market became more concentrated, giving the surviving streamers even greater control.

Producer Rajesh R Nair, known for films such as 'Kaminey' and 'Adipurush', said, "The industry has transformed into a buyers' market. A few streamers are negotiating hard and calling the shots. Producers are making films for streamers rather than theatres."

He added that today a conversation about a film starts with knowing whether a streamer is attached to the film.

With just a few streamers in control, content buying and production have slowed, limiting the variety of films being made. As a result, producers are making fewer films, reducing the number of new releases on both streaming platforms and in theatres. This downturn has hit exhibitors hard, forcing them to re-release older films just to cover their high fixed costs.

According to Ormax Media, the number of Hindi films released directly on streaming platforms dropped sharply from 53 in 2021 to just 18 in 2024.

"Big production houses provide streamers some good content. But streamers also buy not-so-great content from them. Streamers must train their acquisition teams in developing a strong sense of aesthetics and creativity. This will help them create and acquire content which will appeal to a large base of audiences," said Shrirang Nargund, a veteran and independent consultant on streaming business.

He added, there was enough strong content from mid-and-small-sized production houses and streamers should be bolder in their choice of content.

One upside of a concentrated buyers' market is that streamers have become more disciplined with costs. Nargund noted that content budgets have been slashed by 40%, with a direct impact on actor remuneration. "Today, streamers are more cautious with spending. A film only moves forward if an actor agrees to take a share of the profits instead of an upfront fee. Producers often have to negotiate with actors who are hesitant to lower their steep fees, which also include the costs of their entourage," explained producer and film business expert Girish Johar.

Veteran producers said that the best way to address these challenges is to return to the traditional model-making films for theatres first and then generating additional revenue through rights sales.