Streaming platforms shift from dark thrillers to family-friendly stories to woo small-town India

Mumbai: Streaming platforms have diversified their content strategy over the past year-and-a-half, moving beyond dark action, crime and thriller (ACT) content to family-friendly dramas, romance and comedies that reflect cultural values, emotions, and everyday realities of small cities and towns. This shift, consultants and streaming platforms said, is aimed at connecting with a much wider and long-overlooked viewer base.

Web series such as Gram Chikissalay, Mitti-Ek Nayi Pehchaan, Dupahiya (Amazon Prime Video), Ghar Wapsi and Thukra Ke Mere Pyaar (JioHotstar), Bada Naam Karega (SonyLiv) and Pyaar Testing (Zee5) show this trend.

“Audiences from tier-2 and -3 cities are decisively shaping the next chapter of digital entertainment growth. We are expanding beyond metro-centric narratives and investing in stories rooted in regional ethos. This has led to deeper audience engagement,” said Raghavendra Hunsur, chief content officer at Zee Entertainment Enterprises.

The share of content in the ACT genres in the total streaming content has reached a saturation point at 43%, shows data from media and entertainment research firm Ormax Media.

Increasingly, as streaming platforms expand their presence beyond metros, family-friendly stories will find more takers as ACT content lacks broad appeal, said industry consultants.

“India’s streaming content is currently dominated by shows in the action, crime and thriller genres. As platforms increase their subscriber base beyond tier-1 cities, we will see a clear rise in family-friendly content,” said Keerat Grewal, head of business development, streaming, TV and brands at Ormax Media.

While only 45% of Hindi web series are set in small towns and rural settings, they account for 60% of high engagement shows, according to Ormax Media research. Besides comforting optimism and emotional connection, a key factor which has worked for them is their rootedness. A case in point is one of the most acclaimed Hindi web series, Panchayat, of Amazon Prime Video. In its fourth season, the series shows the experiences of an engineering graduate who settles for a low-paid job as a secretary of a gram panchayat in a fictional village of Uttar Pradesh. According to the data shared by Amazon Prime Video, India, Season Four of the series in its launch week was streamed in 95% of India’s pincodes as well as in over 180 countries and territories.

“For us, genre is just a way of telling a story that explores a particular theme. This approach allows us to tell deeper, more nuanced stories rooted in local sensibilities, enabling a wide range of viewing experiences, be it individual, family, or community-based,” said Nikhil Madhok, director & head, Originals, at Prime Video, India.

Increasing share of connected televisions (watching streaming content on TV) in India has also boosted the share of family-friendly content on streamers. In the past five years, the number of connected TVs in Indian homes has jumped four times. According to Ormax Media, this has led to a shift from solo viewing of OTT content to family viewing, leading to more balanced content offerings.

In addition to this, streamers are of the view that increasing share of family-friendly content is largely a part of a diversification strategy.

“The strategy is to have a diversified content slate. With connected TVs, there is a propensity towards a little more ‘inclusive viewing’. In this context, most of our shows have been covering upcountry and other geographies,” said SonyLIV content head Saugata Mukherjee.

Industry consultants said streamers must rely more on writers’ creativity than data insights to produce content. Family-friendly genres such as sci-fi and horror-comedy, which are under-explored, can help streamers to gain more subscribers, they said.