OTTs move past views, eye engagement metrics amid growth slowdown

On a video platform, every click may count as a view.

- Lata Jha

But not every view means the content was actually "watched".Even as streaming platforms in India invest heavily in original and acquired programming, they continue to operate with widely differing measurement models when it comes to deciding whether a viewer has truly "completed" a show or film they began watching.

Completion rates have become a critical input for platforms as they decide where to deploy capital next. With subscription growth plateauing and the digital advertising environment remaining challenging, services are under pressure to identify what has resonated with audiences, spot repeatable patterns, and commission similar content-or steer creators towards safer, proven formats.

However, there is little uniformity in how completion is defined. Some platforms consider 60-70% of a title as sufficient to count it as "watched", while others argue that even a single episode of a long-format series can qualify.