Indians spending 11 hours streaming videos a week

The Covid-19 pandemic has dramatically changed consumer behaviour and Indian are now streaming videos for 10 hours and 54 minutes weekly on average -- outdoing the global average by three hours, according to a new report.

Indian viewers consume the most online video content per week on average, with almost 70 per cent subscribing to new streaming services in the last six months during various states of lockdowns, said the report by Limelight Networks, a video delivery and edge cloud services provider.

More than half (51 per cent) of Indians admit to sharing login information or using someone else's account to stream content.

"Our research indicates that video buffering challenges amount to discontentment, and service providers have an opportunity here to win customers over by improving the streaming and video quality," said Ashwin Rao, country director, Limelight Networks India.

"There is a need for reliable infrastructure to be set up, to match the increasing appetite for new and improved online experiences".

Online video consumption has exceeded traditional broadcast viewing.

India has witnessed one of the steepest increases in online viewing as compared to traditional broadcast viewership.

Indian viewers are watching 10.9 hours of online content on average, as compared to 8.7 hours of traditional broadcast viewing per week in 2020.

"Almost half (47 per cent) of global consumers will cancel a streaming subscription due to high prices.

Indian consumers' behavior is consistent with the global average, with almost 46 percent indicating price sensitivity.

YouTube dominates as the most-preferred platform for watching user-generated content (65 per cent), followed by Facebook (16 per cent).

"The choice of Indians is similar with varying averages, with YouTube and Facebook usage standing at 72 per cent and 12 per cent, respectively, the findings showed.

The "State of Online Video" 2020 report was based on responses from 5,000 consumers in France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, the UK and the US. IANS

I can only imagine who all involved in Sushant's death: Kangana

Mumbai: Actress Kangana Ranaut on Friday raked up the deaths of Sushant Singh Rajput and Disha Salian to launch fresh attack at the alleged mafia culture of Bollywood, while making her case for the release of journalist Arnab Goswami.

"We can only imagine who all are involved in Sushant's and Disha murders, Bullydawood's drug racket and child trafficking business, every voice against the mafia is being choked #ReleaseArnabNow," Kangana tweeted.

Goswami was arrested on Wednesday morning in a dramatic operation by the Mumbai and Raigad Police teams and was taken to Alibaug in connection with a double suicide case. After a marathon hearing, Alibaug court chief judicial magistrate Sunaina S. Pingle declined the police plea for 14-day police custody and sent Goswami to judicial custody till November 18.

Sushant was found dead in his flat on June 14. The CBI, NCB, and ED are probing the death of the actor. Disha, 28, allegedly jumped off a highrise apartment in Mumbai on June 8. Her death is being linked to that of Sushant's, who was found hanging at his residence on June 14.

After the sudden demise of Sushant, Kangana had put out a video in which she talked about topics like Sushant's death, 'movie mafia' and 'nepo-kids' to reopen the Bollywood nepotism debate. She also spoke about these topics on interviews. IANS