Bangladesh’s OTT sector, which surged during the Covid-19 pandemic, has continued to slow in 2025 after peaking around 2023. The past two years have been marked by reduced output, rising production costs and economic uncertainty.
Initially dominated by international platforms such as Hoichoi, Zee5, Addatimes and Netflix, the market gradually shifted towards local services including Chorki, BongoBD and Binge. Current domestic players also include Bioscope Plus, Deepto Play, iScreen and Toffee.
iScreen released the highest number of titles this year, with originals such as ‘Omimangshito’, ‘Noya Note’, ‘Ashbe Ki Phire’, ‘Kistimaat’, ‘Paap Kahini’, ‘Party’ and ‘Shodh’. Its catalogue also included films like ‘Nakshi Kanthar Zamin’, ‘Jinn 3’ and ‘Neel Padma’. In addition, the platform streamed live events and sports, including Lux Super Star, Channel i dramas and major football and cricket tournaments.
Chorki released 27 titles, among them ‘Feu’, ‘Borbaad’, Daagi’, ‘Jongli’, ‘Taandob’, ‘Utshob’ and ‘Amalnama’. Hoichoi, meanwhile, recorded its lowest output in Bangladesh, releasing just three originals, ‘Jimmi’, ‘Bohemian Ghora’ and ‘AKA’, alongside the films ‘Taandob’ and ‘Saba’.
Binge and Toffee had limited releases, while Bioscope Plus re-launched in July by aggregating content from nine OTT platforms but has yet to introduce notable original productions. Deepto Play released titles including Taandob, ‘Good Doctor’, ‘Endless Love’, and other talk and entertainment shows.
Industry figures cite political and economic instability following the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government in 2024 as a major factor behind the slowdown. Chorki CEO Redwan Rony described 2025 as a challenging year, noting that audience behaviour and overall conditions had affected the industry.
Producer Syed Ahmed Shawki placed the onus on creators. “If the content is not strong enough, audiences will not respond,” he said, adding that inflation has sharply increased production costs. He remained cautiously optimistic, however, arguing that new voices and original local stories could help stabilise the market.
In contrast, iScreen project director Rafael Mahbub described 2025 as a successful year for his platform, citing strong engagement with original content, theatrical releases and live sports coverage.
