SonyLIV
The quiet challenger with the biggest Indian hits.
Last updated November 2026
In brief
SonyLIV started in 2013 as Sony's catch-up app and relaunched in 2020 as a originals-led Indian streamer. Its breakout, Scam 1992, and the Shark Tank India phenomenon gave it a reputation for quality disproportionate to its scale — the classic second-tier challenger strategy.
Launched
January 2013 (as Sony's catch-up app)
Relaunched with originals
2020
Breakout original
Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story (2020)
Shark Tank India since
2021
Live sport
WWE, UEFA club football, cricket highlights
Parent
Sony Pictures Networks India
The story: how SonyLIV rose
For its first seven years SonyLIV was an afterthought: the network's catch-up service for Sony Entertainment Television's shows. The 2020 relaunch under new leadership changed the thesis — instead of buying scale with cricket, Sony would build prestige with originals. Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story, released during the pandemic in 2020, became arguably the most acclaimed Indian web series of its year and the template: true stories, real craft, modest budgets.
Shark Tank India (2021–) then did something more valuable than awards: it made SonyLIV a mainstream habit, especially outside the metros, and gave Indian streaming its first reality-TV water-cooler moment. Avrodh, Undekhi, Gullak and Rocket Boys sustained the prestige run; WWE's Indian rights and UEFA football supplied the male 18–45 sport audience.
The unresolved question is corporate: the Sony–Zee merger that would have created India's largest combined broadcaster was called off in January 2024, leaving SonyLIV a strong niche player — tens of millions of subscribers, an award-winning originals slate — without the distribution muscle of JioHotstar or the bundling power of Prime Video.
Year-by-year milestones
- 2013 — Launched as a catch-up app for Sony's TV channels.
- 2020 — Relaunch with originals; Scam 1992 becomes a national phenomenon.
- 2021 — Shark Tank India debuts and becomes a mainstream hit.
- 2024 — Sony–Zee merger collapses; SonyLIV remains standalone.
Deep dives
Scam 1992 and the Indian originals lesson
Scam 1992 proved that an Indian original could beat the global services at their own game on a fraction of the budget: it still tops Indian critics' lists of the best web series. The lesson the industry took — and that SonyLIV's subsequent slate (Rocket Boys, Gullak) reinforced — is that Indian streaming's premium tier is built on writing and authenticity, not spectacle.
Where SonyLIV stands today
SonyLIV is India's quality challenger: smaller than JioHotstar and Prime Video, but with the strongest hit-rate reputation of any Indian service's originals slate, a lock on the Shark Tank and WWE audiences, and a library that trades on craft rather than scale. Its fate — standalone, acquired, or merged — remains one of Indian media's open questions.