Budget 2023: How the entertainment industry could benefit from this year's budget

The entertainment industry has been through turbulent times and healed itself with the recent success of Pathaan. The audiences are back in theatres and the theatres and the OTTs are thriving parallelly with quality content flowing in both directions.

At such a time, a budgetary boost from the government could prove to be a boon to the industry. With the budget announcements on, the entertainment industry is hopeful of a supportive package. From the regulation of ticket prices in multiplexes to regulation of OTT subscription costs, here are some expectations of the entertainment industry from Budget 2023:

Regulation of ticket prices

There is a considerable difference in the ticket prices of single screen theatres and multiplexes, which leads to an imbalance in the way business is divided between the two. Single screen theatres charge far less than multiplexes. Since, the entertainment ticket prices are controlled by the state, a uniformity in ticket costs across formats of theatres could prove to be a big push for businesses. This could also draw more crowds to theatres as affordability would become a possibility. Lower ticket prices of theatres would also mean that people would depend less on OTTs and be encouraged to go to the big screens.

OTT subscription costs

The pandemic saw OTT industry undergo a huge boom as theatres remained risky and shut. However, high subscription costs often becomes a hindrance for accessing content on OTTs. Keeping this in mind, global OTT player Netflix had lowered its cost last year. However, a more uniform subscription cost could help attract more people to OTTs and also keep them on par with reduced theatre costs. One umbrella subscription for all OTTs too seems a likely possibility.

Entertainment tax

The tax levied on entertainment can really add to the cost of the tickets. This coupled with convenience fees and charges of booking portals makes the tickets costlier. Hence, a little regulation from state governments on entertainment taxes can held boost the cinema business. Taxes on production costs of films too can be curtailed.

New screens

Tax rebates for installing new screens should prove to be a good push for multiplexes and single screen theatre owners. To support regional cinema, tax slabs for local production houses should also be lowered along with single window clearances for shootings in the country.

Film tourism

Bollywood being one of the biggest entertainment industries has a fan following across the globe. This makes scope for film tourism in some of the country’s oldest and popular shooting sets and locations. This would also in turn attract more tourists and move productions in parts of the country.

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