India's streaming industry is witnessing a return to ad-supported long-format web series - typically spanning 20 to 50 episodes - as subscriber additions stagnate and margins on premium ad-free content fall.

The share of such long-format shows in total web series content on OTT are expected to rise to 70% in the next one year, up from about 50% now, as streaming platforms increasingly embrace traditional television consumption and monetization patterns, industry experts said.

The shift away from big-ticket original shows, which had surged to 50% of streaming content, is being driven by a binge fatigue among Indians partly due to time constraints.

"Traditionally, the Indian television audience is more attuned to daily soap or episodic format of storytelling," said Sudeep Nigam, a scriptwriter known for mini-series The Indrani Mukerjea Story: Buried Truth. "Binge-watching is essentially a western concept."

While binge-watching spiked during the Covid-19 lockdown, Nigam said the trend was temporary. "Post the pandemic, due to hectic lifestyle, an average Indian viewer can spare little time for viewing. In this context, ad-supported long-format web series has high relevance in India, as premium content demands intense engagement from a viewer," he said.

The share of premium originals on OTT platforms could drop to around 30% over the next one year, according to industry estimates.

"India is still not a subscription economy," said Manish Sinha, founder and CEO of RunnTV, the country's first independent free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) platform. "It is expensive to retain subscribers. Subscribers buy subscriptions for specific content and then do not renew subscriptions."

Latest numbers confirm that the paid subscription base is not expanding. According to media and entertainment research firm Ormax Media, subscribers who had access to paid content in India fell by 1.6% to 150.6 million in 2024 from 153 million in 2023.

Industry analysts said streamers have realized that focusing only on premium content does not materially improve profitability, which has become one of their key focus areas post the pandemic.

The reluctance of top Hindi film actors to take up roles in streaming content is also posing a challenge to creating premium content, experts said. These actors fear that appearance in streaming content may deplete their 'star' value. Also, there is unchecked piracy which impacts the returns on investments on premium OTT content, experts said.

Meanwhile, the base of ad-supported content subscribers grew more than 20% between 2023 and 2024, industry analysts said. This has warranted the demand for mass content. The recent Netflix-Balaji Telefilms creative partnership must be seen in this light, experts said.

One of the key advantages of producing ad-supported long-format web series for streamers is its cost-effectiveness.

"Today, streamers want new subscribers. This necessitates telling new stories in familiar ways. Ad-supported long-format web series have been familiar with the Indian audience. It is cost-effective for streamers," said Samar Khan, CEO of Juggernaut Productions, a platform agnostic content creation hub.

It is estimated that the cost of shooting an episode of an original for a streamer is between Rs. 1 crore and Rs. 3 crore. In comparison with this, the cost of shooting an episode of an ad-supported large-format web series is between Rs. 20 lakh and Rs. 30 lakh.