2020 saw a 161% increase in news views: Mi India PatchWall Replay 2020

• Mi India launched the latest edition of its annual report ‘PatchWall Replay 2020’.
• The report throws light on the latest insights and interesting trends from the show business.

Mi India in its annual trend report ‘PatchWall Replay 2020’ revealed that there was a 161% increase in news views in 2020. The study evaluates the consumption patterns of over 5 million consumers across 25+ content partners and throws light on the latest insights and interesting trends from the show business.

Mi India had introduced PatchWall on Mi TV’s in 2018. Designed specifically for the Indian market, PatchWall provides one of the largest content libraries comprising both Indian and global content partners. In 2020 alone, PatchWall witnessed over 14 billion interactions across different categories such as movies, TV shows, music, kids entertainment etc.

From strict lockdowns to a roller-coaster of emotions, the year 2020 was entailed by unprecedented challenges. However, with the world going digital across entertainment, work, education, and communication, 2020 witnessed an immense growth in the media streaming landscape. After surveying 5 million consumers, Mi India’s PatchWall Replay 2020 details out all the trends that dominated the Indian OTT space in the last year.

Commenting on the unveiling of the report, Eshwar Nilakantan, Category Lead - Mi TVs, Mi India, said, "Mi TVs have become an integral part of families and consumers’ lives and they further solidify Mi India’s leadership in the smart TV segment. Having sold over 5 million TVs, we not only understand the requirements of Indian consumers, but have also taken significant steps to address their needs. “Content first” has always been our Mi TV team’s philosophy and that led the company to introduce PatchWall on Mi TVs and since then, we have rolled out over 40+ features and extended partnership with 25+ content partners. We are happy to unveil PatchWall Replay 2020’, it throws light on what India watched in 2020, across all OTT platforms.”

From blockbusters to originals, content that trended

While the pandemic put a halt on ‘Let’s go and watch a movie, it’s Friday’ in 2020, the love for movies among people didn’t subside. For a Friday release, PatchWall generated similar traffic as a housefull on a first day - first show across all 3k+ multiplex chains in India. There was a 2.5X increase in the number of people watching movies on weekdays as compared to 2019, making views increase by 97% in the movies category.

Laxxmi, Dil Bechara, Angrezi Medium, Lootcase, Chhalaang, Khaali Peeli and Chintu Ka Birthday, among others were some of the popular movies, trending in 2020. India gravitated towards strong performances, Rajnikanth trended in February, followed by Deepika Padukone and Saif Ali Khan in March, and Superhero movies taking the spot in May. July was ruled by Sushant Singh Rajput, and soon India’s focus shifted to cricket in August. Akshay Kumar and Mulan made highlights in November and December respectively. According to the report, April to August were blockbuster months, because of movies releasing on OTT platforms during that time.

2020 was the year of some fantastic performance and original shows and series. With Indian audiences appreciating new categories in TV shows, the segment recorded 133 percent increase in engagement. Shows such as Mirzapur 2, Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story, Pataal Lok, Sam Jam, Loser, Geetha Subramanyam scored big.

April to June aired a devotional vibe in the living rooms with people reminiscing their old times with shows like Mahabharat, Ramayana, Devon ke Dev..Mahadev, and Shaktiman. There were more than 3 million interactions across these shows.

Kids’ content streaming witnessed new highs

With education turning its route to the digital mode, the edutainment category saw a 177 percent increase along with a 205 percent increase in overall kids streaming. Wheels on the bus’, ‘Tales of Akbar and Birbal’, ‘Bal Ganesha’ were the stars of kids’ edutainment category, and ‘Show yourself’ and ‘Baby Shark’ became the new kids anthem.

Interestingly, there were more than a million kids mode sessions trusted a million times by parents across India.

Regional language consumption increased

The regional language content made space in the streaming landscape and a 56 percent increase was observed in this segment. PatchWall has content across 16+ languages including Punjabi, Gujarati, Bhojpuri, Assamese, Odia, Rajasthani, Urdu along with Haryanvi. The top languages that saw an increased consumption trend were Telugu, Tamil, Marathi, Malayalam, Bengali.

Fitness pumped its way up

Online platforms served as fitness companions as well. With no access to gyms, Zumba classes, Yoga etc., the fitness category received a good boost with an increase of 93 percent views. From how to lose weight in 21 days to meditation for relaxing and yoga stretches, people tried to maintain their fitness regimes. Interestingly, users were pigging out on searches such as Sarson da saag, Jeera Chicken, Yoga stretch and instant 5 ingredient ice-cream.

Bigger appetite for Live news

With a lot happening across the globe, news in any mode took most of the space. In response to this, a 161% increase in news views paved its way.

Grooving to music in our living rooms

More than 20 million minutes were spent by PatchWall unsers listening and grooving to their favorite songs. Badshah, Arijit Singh, the duo Vishal-Shekhar, A.R Rahman, and Neha Kakkar rocked the charts the whole year and the popular music videos that glued Indians to their screens included Genda Phool, Illegal Weapon, Dus Bahane, Bhankaas, and Khulke Jeena ka.

Eat. Binge. Sleep. Repeat. with PatchWall

The new trend surfacing was Eat.Binge.Sleep.Repeat. The newly launched features of PatchWall such as India Top 10 Today, Celebrity Watchlist, and Collections recorded 87 million views.

India Top 10 Today: It garnered 48 million views with top trending titles such as Laxmii, Dil Bechara, Mirzapur 2, Scam 1992- The Harshad Mehta Story, Mulan, Darbar, Chintu ka Birthday, Pataal Lok, and Aarya, along with Colour Photo.
Celebrity Watchlist & Collections: This feature accounted for 39 million views with people exploring the watchlists of Vidya Balan, Pankaj Tripathi, Ali Faizal, Maanvi Garoo, and Abhishek Bachchan.

In just 2.5 months, more than a million people created Watchlists, and watched more trailers with the new User centre feature added on Patchwall.

PatchWall Replay 2020 shows how the OTT space witnessed a major boom in 2020 with people looking for fresh and rejuvenating content across platforms.