Amagi on FAST track to tap India's growing connected TV market; expects business to double in three years
Amagi, a cloud-based video broadcasting and distribution platform, expects its India business to double over the next three years, led by the growth of free ad-supported streaming television (FAST), according to one of the company's co-founders.
'India has been one of the fastest-growing markets for us from a viewership perspective globally in FAST," Amagi co-founder and chief revenue officer Srinivasan KA told Mint in an interview.
Amagi, valued at over $1 billion and planning an IPO, is a platform meant for broadcast networks and content owners. Its products allow clients to have total control over monetisation, launch and distribution of their content – whether it's live TV, cable TV, on-demand and even OTT as well as FAST.
Currently, 70% of Amagi's revenue comes from the US, while Europe accounts for 20%. India, Asia and Latin American together make up the remaining 10%.
'On a global scale, the revenue growth will still be single digit," Srinivasan said, adding that ad spend in the country remains muted when compared to the US.
India has over 200 FAST channels that stream on connected TVs (CTVs) alone and that's not accounting for people who watch television on their phones, mobiles and computers. Samsung TV Plus, Amazon Mini, and Reliance Industries and Disney's merged entity JioHotstar are examples of popular FAST channels in India. Amagi also counts LG, TCL and Xiaomi among its clients in India.
Also Read | Rise of connected TVs prompts OTT platforms to focus on family-centric shows
Growth of the FAST model in India will be led by a surge in CTVs – televisions that can access the internet and stream content. The CTV household base is projected to exceed 65 million in 2025, according to media investment company GroupM's 2025 This Year, Next Year report. That's about 30% of Indian households with TVs.
Growth drivers
While the US continues to be the company's focus, the rate of growth won't be as high as in Europe and Latin America, according to the company.
'Germany and the United Kingdom are growing really fast," said Baskar Subramanian, co-founder and chief executive officer of Amagi. 'Brazil and Mexico are big growth drivers. We're seeing really strong green shoots in Japan as well."
India's media and entertainment sector is expected to grow at a faster clip than the global rate of 4.6%, according to a report from PwC. The sector is projected to expand at a CAGR of 8.3% and is set to become a ₹3.7 trillion market by 2028.
Over the past few years, revenue from traditional television, like broadcast and cable, has declined and streaming services and platforms have become more common.
'Live sports and live news, especially outside of India, have traditionally been on cable. A lot of that is moving to streaming," said Srinivasan.
Also Read | With TV and digital under one roof, JioStar plans to take IPL to a billion screens this season
In the US especially, teams in the billion-dollar National Basketball Association, National Hockey League and National Football League all have their own phone apps that offer customers the option to stream games for a price instead of buying tickets to watch games in person.
'Sports has been a growth driver for us and will continue to be as a natural consequence of the FAST model. We don't see FAST slowing down," Srinivasan said.
With the growth of the FAST model, advertising spend is expected to pick up as well. In India, GroupM suggests that advertising spend will grow by 7% to ₹1.64 trillion, or almost $20 billion. It's why Amagi is looking to make acquisitions this year as it seeks to build out parts of its product and business that are underserved at the moment.
'We have big moats that we cover but we continue to evaluate both on the front of the glass, near the camera and the edge of the glass, be it monetisation or advertising," said Subramanian.
The company is evaluating businesses that operate in three areas: live sports broadcasting, advertising technology solutions and media preparation supply chain.
Some of Amagi's previous acquisitions have been along similar lines. Argoid, a company it acquired in December 2024 provides personalised recommendations for users on OTT platforms. Tellyo, a live production company acquired early last year, was a natural fit into Amagi's ecosystem of products. Streamwise, a data integration platform for content distributors, was acquired in 2022.
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The company is also looking at AI companies, but not too deeply.
'AI is a fast-moving space. By the time you start talking to a company, their technology and whatever they've built has already become a little obsolete," said Srinivasan.
It's not that the company isn't working on providing value-added AI services to its customers. Amagi is looking at the implementation of AI into its ecosystem in two ways: the extraction of data from raw content, i.e., meta data, language, genre classification, quality, and format; and the delivery of personalised content, whether it's advertising or things that people want to watch.
'The personalisation realm lends itself very well because content discovery and personalisation of advertising and communication is a very big value chain," said Subramanian.
However, he added the caveat for them has been whether or not their customers are seeing tangible value, either from the cost of production or increased revenue. In that regard, Subramanian said that it was 'too early to tell."
The company has started running proof-of-concept projects with clients and already has a product called Amagi Now, which automates processes in content distribution such as marking video content metadata accurately and picking out parts of a video that work best for promos. Essentially, the platform allows content to be tailored to a personal degree, which its clients can then use to distribute across channels.
Founded in 2008 by Subramanian, Srinivasan and Srividhya Srinivasan, Amagi initially started out as an advertising solution for TV channels. In 2018, the company pivoted to its current business model, a video content monetisation and distribution platform for broadcast networks and content creators.
Also Read | Amagi hires Kotak, Citi, IIFL, Goldman to raise up to ₹3,200 cr in IPO
Amagi, last valued at over $1 billion, is working towards an initial public offering. The company last raised money in November 2022 – over $100 million in a round led by General Atlantic, taking its valuation to $1.4 billion.
In March that year, it raised $95 million in a round led by global VC firm Accel, pushing its valuation to unicorn territory. Before that, in September 2021, Amagi raised $100 million from Accel, Avataar Ventures and Norwest Venture Partners.
Nadathur Holdings, the venture investing arm of NS Raghavan, had entered the company during its seed round, with Premji Invest coming in when it raised funding in a Series-C round.
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