India to overtake China as largest 'subscription video-on-demand' market by 2030: MPA report

India is set to overtake China to become the world’s largest market for subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) by 2030, with an estimated 358 million individual subscriptions, according to Media Partners Asia’s (MPA) Asia-Pacific Video & Broadband 2026 (AVB 2026) report.

Despite rapid subscriber growth, India’s premium video-on-demand (VOD) revenue pool, comprising subscription and advertising revenue, is expected to remain significantly smaller than that of other major markets. The report projects India’s premium VOD revenues to be 4.5 times smaller than China’s and 2.5 times smaller than Japan’s by the end of the decade, highlighting lower monetisation levels.

Across the Asia-Pacific region, premium VOD--including SVOD and branded or premium advertising-supported VOD (AVOD)—is forecast to add approximately $12.5 billion in incremental revenue between 2025 and 2030, taking the segment’s total revenues to about $52 billion by 2030. Japan, China and India are expected to lead this growth, followed by Australia, South Korea and Indonesia.

The report noted that Asia-Pacific’s total screen revenues will continue to expand through 2030, though growth will be increasingly concentrated in streaming, social video and connected TV (CTV). Traditional television, meanwhile, is expected to face sustained structural pressure.

User-generated and social video platforms are projected to be the single largest growth engine in the region’s screen economy. Revenues from creator-led platforms are expected to rise by $11.4 billion to $44.5 billion by 2030, driven by advertising growth and expanding CTV inventory. China, Japan, India and Australia are expected to contribute the most to this expansion.

Market concentration is also intensifying, with the top 15 online video platforms accounting for 58% of total online video revenues in 2025. Global players such as YouTube, ByteDance-owned Douyin and TikTok, and Netflix continue to dominate, alongside strong regional platforms including India’s JioHotstar and Japan’s U-NEXT.

In contrast, traditional television revenues are projected to decline cumulatively by $8 billion by 2030, reflecting weakness in linear advertising and pay-TV subscriptions. China, Japan and India are expected to account for nearly 70% of this contraction. Free-to-air television, which relies solely on advertising, is forecast to post negative growth of 2% by 2030, while emerging formats such as micro-dramas are expected to grow at a compounded rate of 14% over the same period.

“Value is shifting decisively toward streaming, social platforms and CTV-led monetisation,” said Vivek Couto, CEO and Executive Director of Media Partners Asia. “What differentiates winners is not volume alone, but the ability to monetise premium experiences anchored by sports, high-quality local programming, emerging formats such as micro-dramas, and increasingly by AI-enabled efficiency across the content value chain.”