Media and entertainment industry to grow past Rs 2 trillion-mark by 2020, says report

Mumbai: The media and entertainment industry is expected to cross the Rs 2 trillion-mark by 2020, growing at a CAGR of 11.6 percent, says a report. The industry reached Rs 1.5 trillion in 2017, registering a growth of almost 13 percent, according to the Ficci-EY report released today at the annual industry jamboree Ficci Frames on Sunday evening. The report pegs the industry to touch Rs 1.66 trillion this year. According to the report, a higher 2017 growth was led by digital, films, gaming and events. “Digital subscription made a strong impact in 2017, with a growth of 50 percent. As per our estimate, there are around 2 million paid digital subscribers across application providers, and between 1 and 1.5 million customers who have moved entirely to digital media consumption. By 2020, we expect 4 million digital-only consumers who, along with millions of other tactical and mass customers will generate subscription revenue of Rs 2,000 crore,” the report said and attributed higher traction to availability of niche and global content, increased OTT-only content, sports and falling data charges. The report notes that the digital infrastructure and payments are expected to grow the online gaming industry over two times from Rs 3,000 crore in 2017 to Rs 6,800 by 2020. “Growth will be driven by real money and social gaming on mobile phones. This estimate assumes status quo on the current set of permissions and regulatory environment.” The animation, post-production and VFX segments are expected to grow at a CAGR of 20 percent till 2020 reaching Rs 11,400 crore, led by domestic films, TV and digital segments, as well as outsourcing by international studios, and more sequel-based action and animation films. From traditional media side, TV continues to lead growing from Rs 59,400 crore to Rs 66,000 crore in 2017, up 11.2 percent. TV advertising grew to Rs 26,700 crore or 40 percent of the total revenue, while distribution grew to Rs 39,300 crore, contributing 600 per cent of total revenue. At a broadcaster level, however, subscription revenue (including international subscription) made up around 28 percent of revenue. The report estimates that while advertising is 41 percent of industry revenue today and 72 percent of broadcaster revenue, it would grow to 43 percent of total revenues by 2020 and 75 percent of broadcaster revenue. Still there are over 30 per cent households which are yet to get television screens, while the households with TV sets touched 183 million in 2017, up 3.5 percent over 2016. [caption id=“attachment_4377161” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representative image. Reuters[/caption] The print media accounted for the second largest share of the ad pie, growing at 3 percent to reach Rs 30,300 crore in 2017 and is estimated to clip at an overall CAGR of around 7 percent till 2020 with vernacular at 8-9 percent and English slightly slower. “This growth is expected despite FDI limit remaining unchanged at 26 percent, and 5 percent GST on advertising revenue of the print industry for the first time,” it notes. The print industry saw some de-growth in English language advertising and moderate growth in the Hindi and regional language segments. “But this was compensated by growth in subscription revenue as print increased its reader base and, in some cases, cover prices. This year promises to be better, with growth expected at around 10 percent, given that there are five state elections, as well as the run up to the general elections next year” it says. While magazines contributed 4.3 percent of the total print segment, the segment has been largely flat with not many significant new launches in 2017. The radio segment grew around 6.5 percent in 2017, on the back of the lingering effect of demonetisation and GST. For the digital media, mobile is paving the way to success for video on demand services, as around 40 percent of total mobile traffic came from video consumption in 2015 and it expects this to touch 72 percent by 2020. As many as 250 million people viewed videos online in 2017, a growth of 64 percent over 2016. “Video viewing audience is expected to record a CAGR of over 13 percent and by 2020, India is expected to become the second largest video-viewing audience globally with around 500 million, from 250 million in 2017”. Digital advertising contributed 17 percent of the total ad pie in 2017 and it expects to touch 22 percent by 2020.