Over the past five years, Indian television networks and OTT platforms have quietly but decisively recalibrated their reality programming strategy. Amid rising costs, audience fragmentation, and advertiser pressure for sharper targeting, start-up and entrepreneurship-based reality shows have emerged as one of the most strategically attractive genres in the current media ecosystem.
What began as a tentative experiment with Shark Tank India in late 2021 has now evolved into a crowded slate across broadcasters and streamers, including Ideabaaz on Zee TV, Pitch To Get Rich on JioHotstar, Mission Start-Ab on Amazon Prime Video, Bharat Ke Super Founders on Amazon MX Player and regional adaptations such as Startup Singam in Tamil.
Read e4m deep dive on broadcaster OTT revenues
This shift is not accidental. As India’s start-up ecosystem expanded rapidly over the last decade, entrepreneurship moved from a niche, metro-centric ambition to a mainstream aspiration cutting across age groups, professions, and geographies.
Founders, investors and funding rounds began to occupy the same cultural space once reserved for film stars and cricketers. Television and OTT, struggling with fatigue around singing, dancing, and celebrity-driven formats, found in start-up shows a rare blend of aspiration, authenticity, and monetisation clarity.
OTT's South shift. Read e4m report
These programmes offered real stakes, real money and real consequences, something that increasingly scripted reality formats had begun to lack, said industry experts.
According to a senior broadcast and content expert, who did not wish to be named, the “success” of Shark Tank India played a catalytic role in legitimising the genre, adding that while its television ratings were never blockbuster by traditional metrics, the show achieved something arguably more valuable - it became culturally omnipresent.
Business terms entered living room conversations, founders became recognisable faces, and deal moments travelled rapidly across social media. For broadcasters and platforms under pressure to deliver relevance rather than sheer reach, this was a compelling proposition, the expert said.
Another senior media person shared a similar view and explained that the success of start-up reality shows was far from obvious when Shark Tank India was first conceptualised nearly five years ago.
“At the time, the format was considered niche and unproven, with skepticism around whether Indian audiences would engage with business-centric content. The decision to launch the show on television alongside digital, rather than confining it to OTT, proved crucial in building mass awareness and credibility,” he said.
These executives highlighted that while television ratings for such shows typically hover in the 0.2 to 0.3 range, the real value lies in the audience profile they attract.
The format draws urban, younger, digitally native viewers who rarely engage with conventional television. This includes entrepreneurs, investors, students, professionals, and upwardly mobile aspirants. Within this ecosystem, traditional TRP metrics become an inadequate measure of impact, particularly when advertisers are targeting relevance and influence rather than pure scale.
From a commercial perspective, the economics are unusually strong.
One executive estimates that a season of Shark Tank India costs approximately ₹30 to ₹35 crore to produce while generating revenues in the range of ₹100 to ₹150 crore across television and digital platforms.
“This makes it one of the most profitable properties for its broadcaster in percentage terms,” he said.
In comparison, large legacy formats can cost close to ₹100 crore per season while delivering revenues of ₹70 to ₹75 crore, often operating at break-even or thin margins.
Even marquee properties like Kaun Banega Crorepati, Bigg Boss etc., require hefty investments, resulting in significantly lower profit ratios.
According to Manesh Swamy, Founder of First AI and former Chief Content Officer at LS Digital, start-up reality shows sit at a rare intersection of culture, commerce, and conversation.
He argues that these formats fill a critical premium unscripted gap in an overcrowded OTT and television ecosystem, offering built-in drama through negotiation, rejection, redemption, and risk, without the heavy production costs associated with scripted fiction. Each pitch carries inherent tension, with equity and capital on the line, making the storytelling feel urgent and consequential rather than manufactured.
Swamy points out that these shows are advertiser-native by design. Brands do not interrupt the narrative but exist naturally within it. Categories such as fintech, BFSI, edtech, D2C, and start-ups gain contextual, high-intent exposure that delivers clearer ROI compared to forced integrations in fiction programming.
From a cultural standpoint, the timing has been near perfect. Entrepreneurship in India is no longer seen as a fringe pursuit but as a viable and aspirational career path. These shows reflect that shift, turning founders into everyday heroes and demystifying business jargon for mass audiences.
Equally significant is the genre’s performance beyond the primary screen. Start-up shows generate highly shareable moments, sharp one-liners, emotional wins and losses, and decisive deal clips that travel widely on social media. This gives platforms low-cost, high-impact amplification and sustained cultural relevance.
While these formats are more cost-predictable than large fiction properties, Swamy stresses that the real attraction lies in monetisation clarity, particularly at a time when OTT platforms are leaning heavily on ad-supported and hybrid revenue models. However, he cautions that audience interest, though genuine, is selective. Viewers enjoy sharp pitches and decisive moments but fatigue sets in quickly if formats begin cloning each other without creative evolution.
Anil Solanki, Senior Director and Media Lead at DentsuX, notes that start-up and entrepreneurship-led shows are filling a clear gap in the current content ecosystem. They offer aspiration, credibility, and relevance at a time when viewers are fatigued by formulaic reality formats. For broadcasters and OTT platforms, these shows deliver high engagement without heavy production costs while attracting premium advertisers from sectors that align naturally with the content.
Despite the genre’s success, industry insiders caution against unchecked proliferation. The rapid emergence of multiple start-up pitching shows across platforms risks over-saturation, particularly if formats lack differentiation or creative discipline. Many executives believe that while Shark Tank India benefited from strong standardisation and authenticity rooted in an international format, several indigenous adaptations fall short on rigour, casting, and storytelling depth.
There is also a broader concern that the rise of start-up reality shows, along with the revival of legacy fiction and reality formats, points to a deeper creative risk aversion within Indian television. Decision-making is increasingly driven by advertiser logic rather than long-term creative ambition. While this ensures short-term commercial stability, it raises questions about whether the industry is investing enough in bold, original storytelling.
Swamy describes start-up reality as the IPL of aspiration content, offering high repeat value, strong sponsor appetite, and massive highlight culture. However, like the IPL, it requires new strategies every season to remain relevant. Without sharper casting, fresher sub-genres such as women founders, Bharat entrepreneurs, or creator-led businesses, and visible post-show outcomes, audiences may eventually scroll past even the most polished pitches.
For now, start-up and entrepreneurship-based reality shows represent one of the clearest examples of how Indian media is adapting to shifting cultural aspirations and economic realities. Whether the genre becomes a long-term pillar or a cyclical phase will depend not just on advertiser alignment, but on the industry’s willingness to evolve the format beyond its current comfort zone.