Xiaomi has been one of the most popular television manufacturers in India for some time now, and according to a report by IDC, it is the best-selling smart TV brand in the country. Competitive pricing and a product range that spans popular TV sizes and resolutions can be credited to the company’s success with televisions in India, along with smaller and smarter features and customizations on offer. One such feature is PatchWall, Xiaomi’s custom user interface made for its TVs, which runs on top of the Android TV operating system.
PatchWall is a kind of ‘skin’, giving users a different look and feel of the television from the default Android TV interface. Xiaomi puts a lot of effort into maintaining PatchWall, including content curation, app integration, and features like Kids Mode, which ensures a certain level of content filtering to ensure kids can use their televisions unsupervised.
The company, through data from many users who use PatchWall on Xiaomi televisions, has now released the PatchWall Replay report for 2021.
More users are cutting the cord on traditional cable and DTH connections
While services like Netflix and Hotstar provide on-demand access to movies and TV shows, users often have to rely on cable or DTH TV connections and linear TV programming to access live content such as news and sports. According to the PatchWall Replay 2021 report, there has been a 300% increase in consumption of streaming content on PatchWall-enabled TVs, including live TV from news channels.
There was also a 117% increase in sports content consumption on PatchWall, with major events like India vs. Pakistan’s cricket match during the 2021 T20 World Cup and the Olympics javelin throw final where Neeraj Chopra won the gold medal reported massive levels of engagement. The latest event saw 70 percent of households with a PatchWall-enabled TV tune in to Neeraj Chopra’s gold medal-winning javelin throw, according to the report.
4K and HDR content sees more buyers in India
Ultra-HD and HDR content has been available on streaming platforms for some time, with Netflix and Amazon Prime Video pioneering the effort. However, Netflix only offers access to 4K and HDR content with its premium plan, while Amazon Prime Video has not marketed Ultra-HD offerings effectively. Things have changed in 2021 on this front with Disney+ Hotstar finally releasing 4K and HDR content, including popular movies and TV shows like Luca, Avengers: Infinity War, Loki, and more.
Hotstar is among the most popular OTT platforms in India and naturally, this has helped boost consumption of 4K and HDR content in India. PatchWall recorded 1.38 crore clicks for 4K content, of which 1.21 crore clicks were for Dolby Vision content on compatible Xiaomi TVs such as Mi QLED TV 4K and Redmi TV X55.
Users continued to rely on streaming services to access new movies in 2021
With the Covid-19 pandemic continuing to be a factor in the ability to watch new movie releases, users continued to rely on streaming services for access. Many new movies have had quick releases on streaming platforms after short theatrical runs, while others have been released directly on platforms such as Amazon Prime Video. This included major releases like Shershaah, which spent 40 days in India’s Top 10 on PatchWall, and Tenet, which was among the first major global films to be released via streaming in India after spotty theatrical run hampered by lockdowns and restrictions.
The report also states that 39 percent of Hindi-speaking households in India with PatchWall-enabled TVs discovered content in a different language, especially films from South Indian cinema such as Jai Bhim, Malik and Drishyam 2. Naturally, this was aided by the greater accessibility of streaming content, raising awareness among viewers and giving easy access to content in different languages that might normally have been missed due to limited theatrical showings for regional content.
Other popular movies on PatchWall in 2021 include Black Widow, Radhe, Salman Khan star, Godzilla Vs Kong and Shang-Chi. Some of the top TV shows of 2021, according to the report, include The Family Man and Loki. The report also states that 230 million minutes of music content were consumed by PatchWall users, with artists such as Diljit Dosanjh, Arijit Singh and Shreya Ghoshal among the most popular choices.