India’s streaming environment remains radically competitive and closely watched, continuing to expand premium storytelling and elevated production quality. The country’s linguistic diversity and price-sensitive audience base have produced a layered streaming landscape: premium global platforms compete in Hindi and high-value regional originals, while domestic services focus on language-specific programming and cost-efficient storytelling. 

The market is led by domestic streamer JioStar, and global platforms Prime Video and Netflix, alongside a dense ecosystem of targeted local platforms serving linguistic, regional and genre niches. Some – like Sony LIV – are available to paying audiences outside of India. South Indian platform Zee5 also serves a global audience, offering more than 10 languages spoken in South Asia, including Hindi, English, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam. 

JioStar had the most titles on Ormax Media’s top 50 in the first half of 2025 with 16. Netflix was second with 14, followed by Prime Video with 9, Amazon MX Player with 8, Sony LIV with 2 and Zee5 with 1.

While overall production volumes have moderated from peak commissioning years, India continues to generate large-scale film and TV projects able to attract domestic audiences and international viewers. 

Top streaming titles in 2025/6 include season one of "The Ba***ds of Bollywood", which was the top Indian series on Netflix’s global rankings for the second half of 2025. The series placed #125 of more than 7,700 titles. Spy thriller "Dhurandhar", which released theatrically in December 2025, was Netflix’s #1 non-English film in the world for two weeks this year. 

Netflix’s 2026 India slate underscores the country’s continued strategic importance. The platform has announced 30 titles – 19 series and 11 films – placing India second only to Korea (33 titles) on its global activity chart for the year. The total is ahead of Japan, which counts 26 titles if live baseball and the global production of "One Piece" are included, and 24 without them. The volume signals sustained commitment, even as the company calibrates budgets and output in the region.

Among Netflix’s headline India projects is "Operation Safed Sagar – The Untold Story of the Kargil War", directed by Oni Sen. The series explores the Indian Air Force’s role in the 1999 conflict with Pakistan. Another 2026 tentpole title is "Family Business", created by Hansal Mehta and Niren Bhatt, with Mehta also directing. The series follows a billionaire preparing a successor to lead India’s largest conglomerate, tapping into themes of power, succession and corporate ambition. 

Genre diversity remains central to the strategy. Netflix’s 2026 line-up spans romance, police procedurals, legal drama, gangster stories, reality formats, true stories, comedy and sports thrillers. This breadth reflects both audience fragmentation and the need to maintain engagement across demographic segments.

Prime Video remains equally active in India; its India originals are the platform’s biggest content category outside of U.S. programming. While details of its upcoming slate are evolving (full announcement expected in March), the company continues to balance originals with licensing and regional-language acquisitions. Prime Video’s India tentpoles for 2026 include  Don’t be Shy, a coming-of-age romcom from Eternal Sunshine Productions. The film was written and directed by Sreeti Mukerji and produced by Alia Bhatt and Shaheen Bhatt. Dharmatic Entertainment’s Call Me Bae returns for a second season this year.
India continues to embrace both scripted and unscripted formats from the U.S. and Europe for both free- and subscription audiences. 

According to ContentAsia’s Formats Outlook research, India was the top formats acquisitions market in the first half of 2025 with 16 titles, representing 21% of all activity. 

Recent adaptations include two seasons of "The Traitors" from All3Media International for Prime Video; French reality competition "The Fifty" ("Les Cinquante") by Banijay Asia for JioHotstar and free-TV network Colors; multiple seasons of "Shark Tank"; and at least 10 seasons of MasterChef India.  

In numbers
Population ...................................    1.43 billion
Cable TV households ....................    60 million
DTH subscribers (active) ............    56.9 million
HITS subscribers ............................    2 million
IPTV subscribers .............................    700,000
Internet subscribers ...................    969 million
Broadband subscribers ..............    900 million
Mobile subscribers ......................    1.18 billion
Wireless subscribers ....................    1.17 billion
Wireless market share
Reliance Jio .........................................    40.2%
Bharti Airtel .........................................    33.1%
Vodafone Idea (Vi) ..............................    18.9%
BSNL + MTNL ......................................    7.8%

Source: The World Bank (population estimate at 2025), Telecom Regulatory Authority of India/TRAI annual report 2024-25 (Cable TV h/h, DTH, HITS, IPTV, Internet, Broadband, Mobile, Wireless subs; Wireless market share)

Published in The Big List India | January 2026 edition