SonyLIV Paid Subscribers Jump 700 Percent, Now at 6.8 Million Total

SonyLIV's paid subscriber base grew by nearly 700 percent between June 2020 and June 2021, its Japanese parent company Sony announced in its quarterly earnings presentation on Wednesday. On Friday, SonyLIV told Gadgets 360 it has 6.8 million paid subscribers, as of Thursday, August 5, and is aiming for about 10 million paid subscribers by the end of 2021. Additionally, the Sony Pictures Networks India-run streaming service had about 45 million monthly active users and 10 million daily active users in July 2021, SonyLIV told Gadgets 360.

“In Media Networks, our video direct-to-consumer (DTC) services are increasing their customer bases significantly, with paid subscribers since June 2020 increasing approximately 80 percent at our anime DTC service Funimation and approximately 700 percent at SonyLIV, our video DTC service in India,” Sony Group Corporation's executive deputy president and chief financial officer Hiroki Totoki said [PDF] on the company's quarterly earnings call on Wednesday. SonyLIV provided the exact number of paid subscribers, MAUs and DAUs to Gadgets 360 after we reached for comment.

Interestingly, this 700 percent growth comes on the back of SonyLIV increasing its membership price by up to 200 percent in June 2020. That said, it has introduced more affordable plans with restrictions after. Still, that suggests audiences have found value in its new offering. Naturally, SonyLIV owes some of that to the success of its most-talked about original series, Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story. A second anthology season, Scam 2003: The Curious Case of Abdul Karim Telgi, has been announced with director Hansal Mehta to return. Beyond that, SonyLIV had the rights to the ongoing 2020 Tokyo Olympics, UEFA Euro 2020, and multiple Test series with the Indian cricket team.

SonyLIV hasn't only gained a lot of new paid subscribers in the past year, but its subscribers have also spent more time on the app than before. In FY21, time spent went up 25 percent to 75 minutes, with total views of SonyLIV videos doubling to over 4 billion, per an exchange4media report from July. Alongside, SonyLIV began its international expansion (beyond South Asia) in July, with YuppTV launching the platform on its service in the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Middle East, and parts of Europe.