The return of the commercial break

Streaming giants are pressing play on hybrid monetisation to cater to diverse preferences

- GEETIKA SRIVASTAVA

THE OTT EXPERIENCE, in its heyday, was defined by two things—edgy content and ad-free viewing. But with subscription revenue on a decline—ad-supported streaming grew 21% in 2024 while the subscription video on demand degrew by 2%, as per Ormax—it seems the streaming business can no longer give the cold shoulder to advertisements.

In that sense, Amazon Prime Video's decision to introduce advertisements across all paid tiers in India starting June 17 was a formal announcement of a shift that's underway already—the return of advertising as a core pillar of revenue.

"Ad-supported tiers are increasingly becoming necessary to balance content investments with subscriber growth, especially in India, which is a price-sensitive market," says Abhijeet Rajpurohit, COO & co-founder of CloudTV. "Hybrid models allow platforms to address different market segments. Pure subscription models are a challenge to scale."