3,121
Consumers profiled across
both modules
8
Archetypes, all with a
readable base
20
States, metro and non-
metro
8
Category and platform
questions
2
Field modules, Jan to Feb
2026
F I N D I N G 0 1
YouTube is the category default, holding 43% of
most-used mentions
Netflix takes 23%, JioHotstar 21% and Prime Video 9%. The
largest single share of OTT attention sits with a free platform,
ahead of every paid service.
Most-used OTT platform. Base: 1,037 Module II respondents.
B R A N D I M P L I C A T I O N
Subscription platforms compete for attention against free
video, not only against each other. Share-of-voice planning
should price that in.
F I N D I N G 0 2
Cast is the weakest quality signal in the category,
named by 7%
Original ideas leads at 36% and strong writing follows at 27%,
together accounting for 63% of how audiences define good
OTT content. Production quality draws 12%.
Definition of good OTT content. Base: 1,037 Module II respondents.
B R A N D I M P L I C A T I O N
Casting-led creative argues on the dimension audiences
weight lowest. Premise and writing carry more persuasive
load in launch communication.
F I N D I N G 0 3
Platform preference moves with age, and
JioHotstar gains where YouTube fades
YouTube peaks at 46% among 15 to 24 year olds and settles at
36% by 45 and over. JioHotstar travels the opposite way, from
18% to 26%, while Netflix declines from 25% to 18%.
Most-used platform, youngest and oldest bands. Hollow marker 15 to
24, solid 45+.
F I N D I N G 0 4
No platform owns consistency
Netflix draws 42% positive verdicts against 41% negative,
effectively a split decision. JioHotstar sits at 37% against 44%,
Prime Video at 33% against 47%. Hit-or-miss is the most
common single verdict for both.
B R A N D I M P L I C A T I O N
Reliability is unclaimed territory. The first platform to
evidence consistency takes a position no competitor
currently holds. Content perception by platform. Base: 1,037 Module II respondents.
MINDLINK î›°/î›° OTT CATEGORY STUDY î›°/î›° JAN TO FEB 2026 01
P S Y C H O G R A P H I C S T U D Y î›° / î›° O T T A N D M U S I C I N I N D I A
India judges OTT content on ideas and writing.
Star power comes last.
3,121 OTT viewers profiled across twenty states, read alongside a companion MindLink music study of 2,276.
Every respondent carries a psychographic archetype, so every answer can be read against who is
answering.
S E C T I O N 0 2
What usage does to perception
F I N D I N G 0 5
The harshest verdicts come from people who do
not watch
Among its own most-frequent viewers, Prime Video is rated
consistently strong or premium by 61% against 30% of
everyone else. Netflix moves from 38% to 52%, JioHotstar from
34% to 45%. People who watch rate a slate. People who do not
are rating a reputation.
Consistently strong or premium, by whether the respondent uses that
service most. Bases: 92, 237, 217.
B R A N D I M P L I C A T I O N
Part of any perception gap is a trial gap. Sampling moves
the score more reliably than brand advertising aimed at
non-viewers.
F I N D I N G 0 6
Discovery works for men and misses women
Among viewers, 31% of men call recommendations very helpful
against 19% of women. Six in ten women settle on somewhat
helpful but not always accurate, a figure 18 points above the
male equivalent.
Helpfulness of recommendations, viewers only. Base: 1,039.
B R A N D I M P L I C A T I O N
Only one in four viewers trusts what they are recommended,
so discovery is the most available point of difference in the
category. The gap among women is the recoverable half.
F I N D I N G 0 7
Sport brings men in. Web series carries women. The split is the widest in the
study
Web series draw 44% of women against 25% of men. Movies run the other way, 47% of men against 38% of women. Live sports
reach 14% of men and 3% of women, the widest single gap in the study.
Content type watched most, viewers only. Base: 994 Module I respondents.
B R A N D I M P L I C A T I O N
Sport-led acquisition reaches a heavily male audience. Pairing it with a web series slate is what converts
that spike into a broad base.
MINDLINK î›°/î›° OTT CATEGORY STUDY î›°/î›° JAN TO FEB 2026 02
S E C T I O N 0 3
What a neighbouring category shows about paying
A companion MindLink study of 2,276 consumers, fielded May 2026 for Ernst & Young and the Indian music industry,
asked the same audience what makes someone pay for entertainment. For any subscription service, it reads as a
map of where paying habits come from, where they transfer, and what walks out of the door with a cancellation.
2,276
Verified respondents, music study
32.6%
Payers, active music subscribers
38.6%
Fence-sitters, listening without
paying
28.8%
Never-payers, no paid history
F I N D I N G 0 8
Listening is close to universal. Paying is not.
Ninety-six per cent of smartphone users listen to music, 60%
use a streaming platform and 38% have ever paid, including
bundled and telecom-subsidised access. The drop-off sits
between using a service and valuing it.
EY music streaming research 2025 to 2026, the baseline MindLink
opened up.
F I N D I N G 0 9
For Never-payers the obstacle is a worldview, and
no price point moves it
Payers choose a monthly subscription to full access at 57.5%,
against 10.8% of Never-payers. Beneath that, 43% of Never-
payers say nothing at all is worth paying for, and 31.6% say
paying for digital is wrong while free versions exist.
Preferred unit of value. Base: 2,276 music study respondents.
F I N D I N G 1 0
Paying for video makes someone likelier to pay for audio, and the effect is only
partial
Among Fence-sitters, those who already subscribe to a video OTT service hold a positive attitude to digital payment at 56.7%,
against 35.8% of those who do not. The habit carries across categories without completing the journey: 16% of all listeners pay for
OTT and not for music, having already crossed the threshold once.
Positive attitude to paying for digital content, by segment and OTT status. Base: 2,276.
B R A N D I M P L I C A T I O N
A subscription buys more than revenue. It builds a disposition to pay for digital that transfers across
categories, and a cancellation hands that habit to whoever asks next. Bundles into a live billing
relationship convert this group; price messaging does not.
MINDLINK î›°/î›° OTT CATEGORY STUDY î›°/î›° JAN TO FEB 2026 03
S E C T I O N 0 4
Who is actually watching
T H E E I G H T A R C H E T Y P E S Fixed across every MindLink study. Share shown is of the 2,465 profiled OTT respondents.
Geek 23.1%
Comfort over career progression
Explorer 19.5%
Routine plus a taste for the new
Trailblazer 18.5%
Early adopter, highly social
Reformer 13.7%
Achiever within the norms
Free-Spirited 9.7%
Authenticity above status
Ambitious 7.7%
Life as one growth project
Believer 5.0%
Prefers routine and reliability
Mediator 2.8%
Values patience and stability
F I N D I N G 1 1
One archetype is quietly satisfied, and it is only
5% of the base
Believers call good content strong writing at 55% against 26%,
rate Prime Video consistent at 43% against 17%, and find
recommendations helpful at 40% against 18%.
Believer responses vs all archetypes. Believer base: 60 Module II
respondents.
F I N D I N G 1 2
The Ambitious archetype grants prestige and
withholds trust
Netflix feels premium to 37% of Ambitious respondents against
19% of everyone else, yet only 9% call it consistently strong
against 21% overall.
Ambitious responses vs all archetypes. Ambitious base: 89 Module II
respondents.
F I N D I N G 1 3
Each service draws a different mindset
Explorers and Geeks are 40% of the category but reach 52% on
one service, while every other base sits at or below average.
Both are habit-forming, so this base rewards dependability.
Combined Explorer and Geek share of each platform base. Only the top
gap is significant.
F I N D I N G 1 4
The same two archetypes sit at opposite ends of
both studies
Believers pay for music at 51.3% against a 32.6% average, the
highest of any archetype, and Ambitious respondents at 23.0%,
the lowest. The group that approves also pays.
Active paid music subscribers by archetype. Base: 2,276 music study
respondents.
W H Y M I N D L I N K
A niche worth 5% of the market becomes actionable once it can be seen twice
Believers are around 5 to 7% of both samples. A conventional 300-respondent study would surface fifteen of them, too
thin to act on. Profiling 3,121 consumers in OTT and 2,276 in music puts sixty and 154 in that cell, and because the
archetypes are fixed, a finding in one category can be tested against the other.
S A M P L E
3,121 respondents in two modules:
n=1,713 (January 2026) and n=1,408
(February 2026). Twenty states,
metro and non-metro.
I N S T R U M E N T
MindLink assigns every respondent
one of eight fixed psychographic
archetypes, then joins category
questions to that profile, so results
compare across studies.
A N A L Y S I S
Cross-tabulated by archetype, age
band, gender and metro status.
Differences hold at p<0.001 unless
stated. Viewer-only questions
exclude the 28% who report not
watching OTT.
C O M P A N I O N S T U D Y
Music subscriptions, India, n=2,276,
fielded May 2026 for Ernst & Young
on the same psychographic
baseline, which makes the
archetype cut comparable across
both studies.
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