Advantage India
Robust
Demand
* According to a report published by IAMAI and Kantar Research, India internet users are expected to reach 900 million by 2025, from ~622 million internet users in 2020, increasing at a CAGR of 45% until 2025.
* The country's entertainment and media industry is expected to see a growth of 9.7% annually in revenues to reach US$ 73.6 billion by 2027.
* The Advertising-Based Video on Demand (AVoD) segment is expected to rise at a CAGR of 24% to reach US$ 2.6 billion by 2025.
Attractive
Opportunities
* Revenue of the Indian video OTT market that is dominated by players such as Amazon Prime Video, Netflix and Disney+ Hotstar is set to double from US$ 1.8 billion in 2022 to US$ 3.5 billion by 2027.
* India's Animation and VFX sector is projected to grow from US$ 1.3 billion in 2023 to US$ 2.2 billion by 2026, increasing its share of the Media and Entertainment (M&E) industry from 5% to 6%, according to a CII GT report.
* The Indian mobile gaming market is poised to reach US$ 7 billion, in value, by 2025.
Policy
Support
* The Government of India has increased the FDI limit from 74% to 100%.
* In February 2024, the Union Cabinet approved the auction of 10,523.15 megahertz (MHz) of spectrum across bands at a reserve price of Rs. 96,317.65 crores (US$ 11.60 billion).
Higher
Investments
* FDI inflows in the information and broadcasting sector (including print media) stood at US$ 11.41 billion between April 2000-September 2024.
* In the Interim budget of 2024-25 the Ministry of Information and broadcasting received Rs. 4,342.55 crore (US$ 523.20 million).
* The allocation to Prasar Bharati stood at Rs. 2,808.36 crore (US$ 338.36 million) in FY23.
Introduction
The Indian Media and Entertainment (M&E) industry is a sunrise sector for the economy and is making significant strides. The increasing availability of fast and cheap internet, rising incomes, and increasing purchases of consumer durables have significantly aided the industry. India’s media and entertainment industry are unique as compared to other markets. The industry is well known for its extremely high volumes and rising Average Revenue Per User (ARPU).
This significantly aided the country’s industry and made India leading in terms of digital adoption and provided companies with uninterrupted rich data to understand their customers better. India has also experienced growing opportunities in the VFX sector as the focus shifted globally to India as a preferred content creator.
Proving its resilience to the world, Indian M&E industry is on the cusp of a strong phase of growth, backed by rising consumer demand and improving advertising revenue. According to a FICCI-EY report, the advertising to GDP ratio is expected to reach 0.4% by 2025 from 0.38% in 2019.
Market Dynamics
The Indian Media & Entertainment (M&E) sector is set for substantial growth, with a projected 10.2% increase, reaching Rs. 2.55 trillion (US$ 30.8 billion) by 2024 and a 10% CAGR, hitting Rs. 3.08 trillion (US$ 37.2 billion) by 2026. Advertising revenue in India is projected to reach Rs. 330 billion (US$ 3.98 billion) by 2024. The share of traditional media (television, print, filmed entertainment, OOH, music, radio) stood at 57% of the media and entertainment sector revenues in 2023.
India's Animation and VFX sector is projected to grow from US$ 1.3 billion in 2023 to US$ 2.2 billion by 2026, increasing its share of the Media and Entertainment (M&E) industry from 5% to 6%, according to a CII GT report.
Media companies are projected to achieve an 8% revenue growth, reaching US$ 7.14 billion (Rs. 60,000 crore) by FY27, driven by increasing contributions from the digital segment, according to a Crisil analysis of 20 companies that account for 55% of the media industry's revenue.
According to a report by ICRA, the revenue for the print media industry is expected to grow by 8-10% in FY25.
India's Entertainment and Media (E&M) industry is set to outpace global growth, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.3%, projected to reach US$ 43.03 billion (Rs. 3,65,000 crore) by FY28.
In the year 2023, the revenue from subscriptions for over-the-top video platforms across India amounted to approximately US$ 0.88 billion. This was expected to peak at over US$ 1.2 billion by 2026.
According to Media Partners Asia's Asia Pacific Video & Broadband Industry 2024 report, India's video market, encompassing both TV and digital, is projected to grow from $13 billion in 2023 to $17 billion by 2028.
The Indian media and entertainment sector posted a robust 19.9% growth in 2022 and crossed the Rs. 2 trillion (US$ 24 billion) mark in annual revenue for the first time led by a sharp jump in the digital advertising mop-up.
In 2024, the projected revenue in the Digital Media market in India is expected to reach US$ 10.07 billion. It is expected to contribute 38% to the overall advertising industry in India, on par with television.
The OTT segment is likely to grow at a remarkable CAGR of 14.1% to reach Rs. 21,032 crore (US$ 2.55 billion) in 2026. Subscription services, which accounted for 90.5% of revenue in 2021, are projected to account for 95% of revenue by 2026.
The AVGC sector is estimated to grow at ~9% to reach ~Rs. 3 lakh crore (US$ 43.93 billion) by 2024, stated Union Minister of Commerce & Industry, Consumer Affairs & Food & Public Distribution and Textiles, Mr. Piyush Goyal.
2023 recorded US$ 575 million in PE/VC investments in the media and entertainment sector, an 84% decline YoY.
In Q3 of CY23, eight deals were recorded in the media and entertainment sector of India at US$ 269 million. FDI inflows in the information and broadcasting sector (including print media) stood at Rs. 99,096 crore (US$ 11.41 billion) between April 2000-September 2024.
Indian Over-The-Top (OTT) platforms have demonstrated significant growth in the global market, witnessing a 194% increase in revenue from international viewers over the last two years.
The Indian OTT audience universe currently stands at 481.1 million people, of these, 138.2 million are active paid OTT subscriptions in India.
India’s Direct-To-Home (DTH) Services market is expected to expand to US$ 7.59 billion in 2029 from US$ 6.48 billion in 2023, growing at a CAGR of 2.8%.
India’s SVOD subscriptions reached 130.2 million in 2022 compared to 110.5 million in 2021.
As per GroupM’s TYNY report 2023, India was ranked 8th by global ad spend, and will continue as the fastest growing market among the top 10 ad markets in 2023.
Advertising revenue in India is projected to reach Rs. 330 billion (US$ 3.98 billion) by 2024.
Key growth drivers included rising demand for content among users and affordable subscription packages.
India's media and entertainment industry is the fifth largest market globally and is growing at the rate of 20% annually, according to Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Mr. Anurag Thakur.
The Indian mobile gaming market is poised to reach US$ 7 billion, in value, by 2025. The online gaming segment grew 22% to become the fourth largest segment of the Indian M&E sector in 2023, displacing filmed entertainment.
India recorded about 455 million online gamers in the year 2023. This was an eight percent growth from the previous year and is likely to reach over 491 million by 2024. About 90 million of these gamers reportedly paid for online games that year.
JioHotstar and Nielsen will launch independent digital ad measurement for IPL 2025, offering real-time insights to enhance transparency, brand trust, and ad spend optimisation.
The music industry is expected to reach US$ 445 million by 2026 from US$ 180 million in 2019. According to a study conducted by Kantar and VTION, an audience measurement and analytics company, Gaana, the streaming service owned by Times Internet Ltd., had 30% market share, followed by JioSaavn (24%), Wynk Music (15%), Spotify (15%), Google Play Music (10%), and others (6%) in 2020.
The FICCI EY media and entertainment report 2023 said that in 2023, music streaming in India had an audience of approximately 185 million of which the paid subscriber base was just around 7.5 million.
About 1 million music streams were played every 3 minutes in FY23, totalling 460 million streams per day, according to a report by RedSeer Strategy Consultants. Spotify led India’s music and audio streaming market in FY23 with a 26% share, as compared to just 11% share in FY20.
Growth of the sector is attributable to the trend of platform such as YouTube that continues to offer recent and video content-linked music for free, which is expected to drive the paid OTT music sector reaching ~5 million end-users by 2023, generating revenue of ~Rs. 2 billion (US$ 27 million).
By 2025, the number of connected smart televisions are expected to reach ~40-50 million. 30% of the content viewed on these screens will be gaming, social media, short video, and content items produced exclusively for this audience by television, print and radio brands. By 2025, ~600-650 million Indians, will consume short-form videos, with active users spending up to 55 to 60 minutes per day.
OTT video services market (video-on-demand and live) in India is likely to grow US$ 4.1 billion in 2024 and reach US$ 7 billion by 2027, driven by rapid developments in online platforms and increased demand for quality content among users.
Recent development/Investments
Recent Developments in the Media and Entertainment Industry are:
- India's gaming market grew 23% YoY to US$ 3.8 billion in revenue in FY24.
- Pocket FM, an audio series platform, has raised $103 million in its Series D funding round, led by Lightspeed with participation from Stepstone Group
- Disney-owned Star India secured the TV broadcasting rights for the Indian Premier League from 2023 to 2027 through an online bid. During the same period, Viacom 18 won the bid for the digital streaming rights of the Twenty20 League.
- Major tech and e-commerce firms, including Google, Meta, Amazon, and Flipkart, saw their collective ad revenues rise 9% to over Rs. 60,000 crore (US$ 7.13 billion) in FY24.
- The Star-Viacom18 merger deal signed on February 28 will create an US$ 8.5 billion media goliath with a dominating presence in both TV and digital segments.
- In August 2023, Netflix inked a “first-of-its-kind” deal with Jio Platforms to bundle the streaming service with the carrier’s two pay-as-you-go plans as the American giant pushes to expand its subscriber base in the key Asian market.
- In June 2023, India, for the first time participated at the Annecy International Animation Festival in France and showcased the strength its creative economy holds.
- In May 2023, Viacom18-owned streaming service Jio Cinema inked a multi-year content deal with NBCUniversal (NBCU) to bolster its premium content library. As part of the partnership, Jio Cinema will get access to thousands of hours of NBCU films and TV series in India.
- Media company Shemaroo Entertainment is planning to spend Rs. 75 crore (US$ 9.1 million) in FY24 to bolster its broadcast and Over-The-Top (OTT) businesses.
- Newly merged multiplex giant PVR Inox is ready with a plan to add up to 175 new screens and retrofit a host of existing ones at an investment of Rs. 700 crore (US$ 85.1 million) during FY24.
- In April 2023, Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi commissioned Low Power FM Transmitters of capacity of 100 watt at 91 locations. These transmitters have been installed in 84 districts of 20 states. With this, the network of transmitters with All India Radio has increased from 524 to 615. The addition will further boost the coverage of AIR to 73.5% of the population of the country.
- A partnership was announced in April 2023 between the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting and Amazon India in the field of media, entertainment, and public awareness.
- The online gaming segment grew 22% to become the fourth largest segment of the Indian M&E sector in 2023, displacing filmed entertainment.
- Music from South Indian languages such as Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil, and Telugu have witnessed the fastest growth in the vernacular in the last four years in FY23. The highest contributor to OTTA with the non-film genre was Punjabi music (39%) across all states.
- In June 2022, the exclusive rights for the television broadcast of the Indian Premier League (IPL) from 2023-2027 was acquired by DisneyStar.
- In March 2022, Pocket FM in India raised US$ 65 million and has plans to expand in new regional languages.
- In March 2022, Krafton infused US$ 19.5 million in Indian audio content platform Kuku FM.
Government Initiatives
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is set to approach the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India, with a request to Fastrack the recommendations on broadcasting, in an attempt to boost reforms in the broadcasting sector. The Government of India has agreed to set up National Centre of Excellence for Animation, Gaming, Visual Effects and Comics industry in Mumbai. The Indian and Canadian Government have signed an audio-visual co-production deal to enable producers from both the countries exchange and explore their culture and creativity, respectively.
In February 2021, Prasar Bharati (India) and PSM (the official State Media of Maldives) inked an agreement to facilitate collaboration and capacity building in the field of broadcasting.
In June 2021, the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting notified the Cable Television Network (Amendment) Rules, 2021, which aims to establish a three-layer statutory mechanism for citizens to raise grievances with respect to broadcasted content.
As part of the expansion to include all digital platforms and digital (OTT) players under a single roof, in May 2021, the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF) announced the move to be renamed as the Indian Broadcasting and Digital Foundation (IBDF).
As per the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, IBDF would also form a self-regulatory body (SRB) soon.
To ease filming in railways, the Film Facilitation Office (FFO) set up in the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) collaborated with the Ministry of Railways to develop an integrated single window filming mechanism to streamline the permission process for filming across railway premises.
In November 2021, the government announced that it is working towards creating a National Centre of Excellence for AVGC (animation, visual effects, gaming, and comics).
On February 25, 2021, the government outlined the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021 to establish a progressive institutional mechanism and a three-tier grievance redressal framework for news publishers and OTT platforms on the digital media.
In February 2021, the digital entertainment committee of the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) finalised a code of conduct to form the basis for self-regulation code for OTT content. The code has been endorsed by 17 OTT platforms including Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ Hotstar, ZEE5 and Voot.
Digital audio–visual content including films and web shows on Over-The-Top (OTT) streaming platforms, as well as news and current affairs on online platforms, have been brought under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting in November 2020.
Road Ahead
The Indian M&E industry is on an impressive growth path. The industry is expected to grow at a much faster rate than the global average rate. This can be majorly credited to rising incomes, increasing internet penetration and a growing push toward digital adoption.
In the long run, growth is the M&E industry is expected in retail advertisement on the back of several players entering the food and beverages segment, E-commerce gaining more popularity in the country, and domestic companies testing out the waters. India’s rural regions are expected to be the next regions for growth.
India has also gotten on board with 5G and is already planning for 6G well ahead of the future. This push towards digital adoption especially in the rural regions will provide advertisers and publishers with an immense opportunity to capture untapped markets and help grow India’s media and entertainment industry forward.
Note: Conversion rate used for January 2025 is Rs. 1 = US$ 0.012
References: Media Reports, Press Releases, Press Information Bureau, Department for Promotion of Industry, and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Crisil report, EY FICCI Report
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