AVOD · SVOD · BVOD · REGIONAL · LIVE SPORTS STREAMING
OTT & Streaming Platforms
Executive Search
48+ OTT Leadership Placements — with an average 86 Days time-to-placement and a 12-month candidate guarantee.
48+
OTT Leadership Placements
86 Days
Avg. Time-to-Placement
91%
Offer Acceptance Rate
12 Months
Candidate Guarantee
Specialisation withinMedia, Entertainment & Sports·Creating the Stories That Matter
OTT / streaming in India is now a ₹34,000-Cr market across JioHotstar (merged JioCinema + Disney+ Hotstar, largest by MAU), Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, Sony LIV, Zee5, Apple TV+, Lionsgate Play, and a regional tranche (Aha, ManoramaMax, Hoichoi, Sun NXT, Chaupal, Koode). Leadership here blends Hollywood-style content commissioning with hyperlocal regional production, ad-tech / subscription-tech platform engineering, and live-sports streaming infrastructure that has to handle 6–7 crore concurrent viewers on IPL finals.
Is This Your Situation?
If any of these sound familiar, you're speaking to the right practice.
→A global OTT sought a new India MD to re-set originals strategy — closed in 96 days with full slate review
→A regional OTT hired a Chief Content Officer to rebuild its originals pipeline — placed in 82 days, slate refresh live in 6 months
→A merged streaming business needed a Chief Product Officer post-M&A — closed in 88 days, platform consolidation delivered
→A live-sports streaming business hired a Head of Sports Product with concurrency-engineering credibility — placed in 74 days
Our OTT & Streaming Track Record
Situation:
A global OTT needed a new India MD to re-set originals strategy and tighten unit economics.
Outcome:
Placed a candidate from an integrated broadcaster / OTT in 96 days; 2025 originals slate delivered 42% MAU growth against 18% prior trend.
Situation:
A regional OTT needed a CCO to rebuild its originals pipeline after senior team exits.
Outcome:
Placed a candidate from a competing OTT in 82 days; 24-show slate refreshed in 6 months; subscriber adds +38% YoY.
All client details anonymised. Specific mandates available for reference under NDA upon request.
Our OTT & Streaming Practice
OTT / streaming in India is now a ₹34,000-Cr market across JioHotstar (merged JioCinema + Disney+ Hotstar, largest by MAU), Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, Sony LIV, Zee5, Apple TV+, Lionsgate Play, and a regional tranche (Aha, ManoramaMax, Hoichoi, Sun NXT, Chaupal, Koode). Leadership here blends Hollywood-style content commissioning with hyperlocal regional production, ad-tech / subscription-tech platform engineering, and live-sports streaming infrastructure that has to handle 6–7 crore concurrent viewers on IPL finals.
Gladwin’s OTT practice places Chief Executives, Chief Content Officers, Heads of Originals (Fiction / Non-Fiction / Sports / Regional), Chief Product / Technology Officers, Chief Marketing Officers, Heads of AVOD / SVOD monetisation and Heads of Ad Sales. Every search maps content-slate ROI discipline, ARPU-and-churn architecture, sports-rights economics and the IT Rules 2021 editorial-grievance framework.
As a specialist CEO mandates in OTT platforms, our practice also covers Chief Product Officer searches, our practice also covers Media, Entertainment & Sports practice overview, and as a source for Media — film production studios.
The OTT & Streaming Landscape Today
Indian OTT crossed 600M+ users in 2025, driven by free-AVOD tiers (JioHotstar free sports, JioCinema ad-funded content) and ₹100–300 SVOD tiers from global players. JioHotstar’s IPL digital-rights-driven scale has reshaped the market; Netflix and Amazon have returned to aggressive originals spend after 2023–24 reset; regional OTTs are building sustainable unit economics. Hybrid AVOD-plus-SVOD is now the dominant model; churn-and-retention architecture has become the defining operating discipline.
Key Leadership Challenges in OTT & Streaming
Content-slate ROI discipline — originals spend must deliver measurable sub / ARPU uplift
Live-sports streaming infrastructure — handling 6–7 crore concurrent viewers requires world-class CDN / adaptive-bitrate architecture
Hybrid AVOD-plus-SVOD economics — balancing ad-revenue, subscription-revenue and bundled-telco-partnerships
Regional-market penetration — global OTTs still under-serve non-Hindi / non-English markets where local players defend hard
Talent retention — content and product leaders are actively courted; senior loss triggers slate delays
IT Rules 2021 / editorial-grievance / age-gating / self-regulation navigation
What We Look For in OTT & Streaming Leaders
Across mandates, ott & streaming leadership tends to cluster into a small set of archetypes. We calibrate each search against the profile your board actually needs — not the one most commonly available.
The OTT CEO
A senior leader with 15–22 years spanning broadcast / OTT / digital, content-and-tech dual fluency, ARPU-and-churn discipline and the governance rhythm of VC / strategic-investor reporting.
The Chief Content Officer
A content leader with originals-slate-commissioning franchise, writer-director ecosystem stewardship, fiction-and-non-fiction pipeline architecture and ROI-per-show discipline.
The Sports Content Leader
A sports-rights-and-production leader with IPL / BCCI / ICC / football / kabaddi production credibility, host-broadcast operations stewardship and live-sports format innovation.
The Chief Product / Technology Officer
A product / engineering leader with adaptive-bitrate / CDN / recommendation-engine credibility, concurrency-at-scale track record and ML-driven-personalisation stewardship.
The Regional Content Head
A regional-language content leader with Telugu / Tamil / Malayalam / Kannada / Bengali / Marathi production credibility, local-talent ecosystem franchise and hyperlocal marketing discipline.
The Monetisation Leader
An AVOD / SVOD hybrid-model architect with ARPU / churn / LTV discipline, bundled-telco-partnership experience and CTV ad-tech credibility.
Regulatory & Compensation Context
Regulatory Backdrop
Information Technology Act 2000 and IT (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021 with 3-tier self-regulation architecture (self, industry body IAMAI / DPCGC / DMCRC, MIB oversight); DPDP Act 2023 for subscriber personal-data; Copyright Act 1957 for content licensing; Cinematograph (Amendment) Act 2023 for film-to-OTT release windows; MIB Digital Media Ethics Code for news-OTT content; FEMA for FDI (100% automatic for OTT); CBDT equalisation levy for digital-platform revenues; sector-specific frameworks (TRAI for streaming classification debate, COFEPOSA implications for large foreign-exchange outflows on content licensing).
Compensation Architecture
OTT CEOs: ₹6–15 Cr fixed + STI + ESOP (significant for pre-IPO / growth-stage); Chief Content Officers: ₹3–7 Cr + slate-performance-linked STI; Heads of Originals: ₹2.5–5 Cr; CPO / CTO: ₹3–7 Cr + ESOP (engineering premium for streaming-infra expertise); CMO: ₹3–6 Cr + acquisition-efficiency STI; Head of Monetisation / Ad Sales: ₹2.5–5 Cr + revenue-linked STI; Regional Content Heads: ₹2–4 Cr.
Roles We Typically Place
Why Gladwin International Leadership Advisors for OTT & Streaming
CEO / MD searches at OTT platforms and regional streaming businesses
Chief Content Officer and Head of Originals searches (Fiction / Non-Fiction / Sports / Regional / Kids)
Chief Product / Chief Technology / Chief Data Officer searches
Chief Marketing Officer with acquisition / retention credibility
Head of AVOD / SVOD monetisation searches
Head of Ad Sales with CTV / CTV-measurement credibility
Head of Regional Content / Language-Market searches
Organisations We Serve
JioHotstar (merged JioCinema + Disney+ Hotstar), Sony LIV, Zee5
Amazon Prime Video India, Netflix India, Apple TV+ India
Regional OTTs — Aha, ManoramaMax, Hoichoi, Sun NXT, Chaupal, Koode, Planet Marathi
Niche / genre OTTs — Lionsgate Play, Discovery+, ErosNow, Klikk, Shemaroo Me
Integrated media companies running in-house OTTs — Zee, Sony, JioStar, Network18
Platform-adjacent businesses — BookMyShow Stream, YouTube Premium India, Spotify Video
OTT & Streaming leaders assessed on the Media & Entertainment “SPECTRUM” framework
Seven dimensions calibrated for media, entertainment, and sports leadership. Dimensions are calibrated for ott & streaming mandates where relevant.
Parent Practice
Return to Media, Entertainment & Sports
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