Nearly a decade ago, Hotstar, Netflix, and Amazon Prime entered the scene and positioned themselves as the anti-TV. No fixed showtimes. No endless ad breaks. No re-runs you had to sit through just because nothing else was on. For the first time, we were in control. TV became personal. It became on-demand. And best of all—it was ad-free. It felt like there was no going back.

But now something has shifted. Subscriber growth is stalling, and that’s making streaming platforms nervous. Really nervous. Their answer? Bring back ads. Amazon Prime Video is the latest to jump into India’s ad-supported streaming game, also called ad supported video on demand or AVOD. And Netflix? It’s reportedly toying with the idea of a free, ad-supported tier here—just like it’s doing in a few other markets. In other words, OTT is starting to look a lot more like the very thing it was supposed to replace

Have we come full circle? Or is this just the natural evolution of an industry growing up?  Daybreak hosts Snigdha and Rahel speak to Swati Mohan, the former head of marketing at Netflix India, to find out 

Tune in. 

P.S The Ken’s podcast team is hiring! Here’s what we’re looking for.

Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.Listen to the latest episode of Two by Two here