India’s streaming wars have driven format adaptation to record levels, with game shows and drama the biggest winners.

Reality took a hit though, dropping from 12 titles in 2018 to nine in 2019, according to ContentAsia’s Formats Outlook.

The country has registered growth every year for the last four years, ending 2019 with 42 formats on air or commissioned – an increase of six titles compared to 2018’s 36 titles. 

This put India in third place among the 16 markets tracked for ContentAsia’s Formats Outlook for 2019.

Drama increased by 38% from eight titles in 2018 to 11 in 2019.

Singing contest remained the same with six titles and one talkshow title was introduced in 2019. 

Game shows are by far the most popular titles, with 36% share. 

In 2019, game show adaptations were 50% up on 2018.

The 15 game show titles include Bomanbridge’s DNA, Endemol Shine Group’s Fear Factor, Fremantle’s Distraction Bengali, Red Arrow Studios’ Anti Social Network and Sony Pictures Television classic, Who Wants to be a Millionaire – a format credited with kicking off India’s multichannel television industry in the 1990s. 

When most markets in Asia have moved on from their Millionaires, India had six versions – Kashmiri, Hindi, Tamil, Kannada, Marathi and Malayalam in 2019. The only other country with its own version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire in 2019 was Vietnam.

The 11th season of the Hindi Who Wants to be a Millionaire premiered in August 2019. The first Kashmiri version debuted in April 2019. 

Endemol Shine Group sold the most formats in India last year. The 11 titles included six versions of Big Brother (known as Bigg Boss) in Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Tamil and Telugu. 

Sony Pictures Television and Talpa sold six titles each, followed by BBC Studios with five; Keshet and Fremantle, which had four titles each; Armoza Formats and Bomanbridge, with two titles each; and all3media and Red Arrow Studios, with one title each.