



When the streams leak: Piracy’s quiet drain on OTT revenues
OTT content piracy results in losses of ₹8,000– ₹11,000 crore annually, indicating that 10–25% of the potential revenue generated by original content creators and funders never reaches the platforms.In the past, OTT originals such as Scam 1992- The Harshad Mehta Story, The Legend of Hanuman and Ek Badnaam Aashram, among others, have fallen prey to piracy.“Piracy is honestly the single biggest plague hurting the entire content ecosystem—from production houses to OTT platforms to theatrical businesses,” said Ujjwal Mahajan, co-founder of Chaupal, a platform specializing in Punjabi, Haryanvi and Bhojpuri content.When a piece of content leaks, the entire commercial cycle collapses—subscriptions drop, advertising value decreases, and the ripple effect extends across the supply chain, Mahajan added. “It is responsible for multi-billion-dollar losses globally, and in India, it also means hundreds of millions of dollars of lost tax revenue for the government.
For a regional platform like Chaupal, piracy is one of the toughest daily battles we face.”India is already a tough market for OTT monetization; subscription conversion and average revenue per user (Arpu) are low and ad markets have been uneven last year. When you add piracy on top of that, it chips away at both revenue streams, according to Munish Vaid, vice-president, Primus Partners, a management consultancy firm, making a bad situation worse.“The real problem is behavioural.
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