In India, nobody wakes up wanting a “subscription.” We wake up wanting certainty: the match at 7:30 without a scramble, medicines before Mum’s alarm, dinner at the door when the rain won’t stop, the new show the group chat will spoil by breakfast. When those moments are predictable, the monthly debit feels like permission; when they aren’t, it feels like a tax. That’s why the same country that enjoyed cricket streams for free has also shown it will pay happily when the exchange is obvious: less faff, more reliability, a week that runs smoother.

₹36,000 crore on the table by 2025, and a second chance to get subscriptions right. The first wave stumbled on three fronts: renewals that broke, value that moved (rights shifting between platforms), and pricing that didn’t match how people used the product. Today, the path is clearer: fair entry tiers, smart bundles, regular product/content updates, and cleaner, more reliable renewals. From here, growth will come from fit, weekly use, clear value, and plans people can stick with rather than from discounts.

For a long time, the typical user didn’t see a strong reason to pay every month. We had a “try first, pay later” mindset (borrowed logins, free trials, telco freebies), occasional use cases sold on monthly plans (so bills felt wasteful), and value that moved around (shows/sports switching platforms). On top of that, peak-time reliability wasn’t consistent, cancel/refund flows felt hard, and pricing was one-size (no clear ad tiers, family packs, or bundles that matched how households actually buy). All of this trains users to sample, churn, and return only for big moments, not to stay. In short, it wasn’t one blocker; it was product fit, packaging, trust, and operations landing at the same time.
If you’ve built a consumer tech product in India, such as OTT, food delivery, health, or fitness, you’ve watched the market move from land-grab to sustainability. Disney+ Hotstar’s 2023 stumble after losing IPL and HBO showed the sharp edge of subscriptions: when the core reason to return disappears, the debit does too. Hotstar shed more than 12 million subs in one quarter; the IPL void was the culprit. (Business Today)
Then came the consolidation wave. Reliance and Disney announced a joint venture to bring their streaming assets together and, crucially, end the era of completely free IPL streams. The new reality is hybrid: some free taste, a clear paywall for the full thing. It’s a line in the sand: from scale-at-any-cost to scale-with-unit-economics. (Reuters)
JioCinema has been the price provocateur. In April 2024, it reduced Premium to ₹29/month ad-free, introduced a family tier at ₹89, resetting price expectations across OTT India, and using value to capture market share. (Reuters+2India Today).
The move worked because it wasn’t just cheap; it was legible. Users knew what they got for that ₹29: clean streaming of the shows they actually wanted. At the other end, Netflix took the long road: it re-priced India downwards in 2021, then let content and consistency do the compounding. By mid-2024, India was Netflix’s #2 market for paid net additions that quarter; revenue growth and engagement followed. Price to local reality, make the product worth returning to, and let recurring revenue do the rest. (The Economic Times+3The Economic Times+3mint+3)

Subscription Models Beyond OTT

You can see the same subscription model journey in food delivery. Zomato’s Gold has shape-shifted several times; in May 2025, it even scrapped the rain-fee waiver for Gold members. That’s the sustainability check in plain sight: perks must pay for themselves, and the narrative must be honest about why. The Economic Times+1 Swiggy split the ladder: One Lite for value hunters, and invite-only One BLCK for people who want priority, on-time guarantees, and premium conveniences. Same engine, different fuel, targeted to segments that renew for various reasons. The Economic Times+1 In health, Tata 1mg Care Plan is a vertical subscription that feels like money saved, offering extra discounts and convenience in moments that actually recur. In fitness, Cult.fit sells membership as a habit loop, distributing through trials and partnerships, and then making a clear promise: access that removes friction from your routine. These aren’t vanity SKUs; they’re retention designs for Indian life. (1mg+21mg+2)

And then there’s the plumbing that determines whether your lovely retention plan survives its first encounter with reality: payments. The Reserve Bank of India’s e-mandate rules in 2021 suspended card auto-debits. The first few months were painful due to extra authentication, new caps, and re-registration, but they forced product teams to treat billing as part of the user experience, not back-office admin. Today, UPI AutoPay is the workhorse for recurring payments: mandates are simple to set up, easy to manage, and increasingly understood by consumers. The lesson for any subscription product in India is simple: retries, reminders, and one-tap “fix payment” flows are as important as your onboarding. Billing is UX. UX is retention. Google Help+1

Streaming, again, is a clear mirror. India will pay for OTT when the exchange is fair and will push back when it isn’t. Amazon Prime Video’s 2025 switch to inserting ads and selling an ad-free top-up (₹699/year) is a good example of pricing with a story: keep the base bundle valuable, ask for more only when you remove interruptions. Users don’t love change, but they accept transparent logic.( mint+1) 

If there’s a single sentence that explains subscription fatigue and retention in this market, it’s this: people will always pay for ongoing outcomes, not museum passes. New capability, new content, time saved, and steps removed, all these show that every month, churn becomes a conversation, not a cliff.

The Indian Subscription Playbook

So what actually separates a keeper from a leaky bucket in India’s subscription model?

First, a weekly reason to return. If your product doesn’t earn four meaningful uses a month, don’t force a monthly debit; sell credits, annuals, or bundles that match reality. Netflix’s India push worked not just because of pricing but because the slate pulled people back, Heeramandi, local films, and a run of titles that made the service feel alive. (The Economic Times+1)

Second, personalisation as a product, not as a marketing email. Swiggy’s tiering, telco-OTT bundles, and Times-Prime-style packs reduce decisions. One home, one bill, one default. In a country where households are value-maximising and time-pressed, fewer choices are valuable. (Even telcos are moving here: all-in-one OTT packs are turning “what should we subscribe to?” into “we already have it with our recharge.”) The Economic Times

Third, ethics are compound. The “roach-motel” approach, easy in, hard out, wins the chart, loses the brand. In a world where pausing is normal and resubscription is a button away, trust is your cheapest reacquisition channel. Human design cancellation. Offer a clean pause. Send a month-end recap that proves the month mattered: what you watched, saved, solved, earned, or learned. You will spend less buying the same customer twice.

Here’s a simple, founder-friendly way to plot your subscription journey, before you change pricing. Ask three questions, in order:

  1. Usage cadence: Do typical customers use you weekly? Nor could they do it. If the answer is “sometimes,” switch to annuals or packs to avoid starting the month-end dread.

  2. Monthly progress: Can you show visible progress every 30-60 days? New shows, features, integrations, perks, or money saved. If your argument lives in a roadmap PDF, you’re not ready.

  3. Honest retention: If a journalist screen-records your “manage plan” flow, would you be proud? Clean pause, clean cancel, clean export. That single experience tells customers whether to trust you with next month’s debit.

Do those three things, and the subscription model becomes what it should be in India’s consumer tech: a quiet engine for recurring revenue and retention, not a loud tax on attention. You’ll find the knock-on effects everywhere: lower acquisition cost over time (because fewer people churn), higher lifetime value, and more freedom to plan products with a steady drumbeat. You’ll also discover that payment clarity with UPI AutoPay mandates, retries that don’t harass, and reminders that actually help are a competitive moat your rivals will underestimate. NPCI

Rukam Sitara’s Take from the Ground

In India, a subscription is not a paywall; it’s a promise. Price is fair only when progress is felt. Bundles only work when they reduce thinking. Personalisation is not a campaign; it’s the product itself. Before you “flip the switch,” pass four tests: weekly use, monthly progress, honest retention, and payment hygiene. If three of those aren’t true yet, fix the loops first; subscriptions don’t address indifference; they only ensure invoices are sent on time. The winners of this next phase won’t be the brands that charge for consistency; they’ll be the ones that earn the right to renew, month after month, with relevance that travels, progress you can feel, and respect that shows up exactly when someone taps “manage plan.”