Budget doesn’t address high movie ticket prices & OTT subscription plan costs: M&E

Even as the Union Budget 2023 presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman yesterday (February 1, 2023) has been hailed as a progressive and growth-oriented budget, the Media, Entertainment, and OTT sectors has found it to be underwhelming.

Reacting to the Budget proposals, Kaushik Das, CEO & Founder, AAONXT, Odisha’s first Independent OTT platform, said, “We were anticipating positive developments for the Media, Entertainment, and OTT sectors. But two of our core expectations of the government – that is, slashing movie ticket prices and OTT subscription plan costs to boost customer spending on digital and television content – have not been addressed directly. We were expecting direct reliefs, but what we got were some indirect reliefs. The relief has come in the form of custom duty cuts on the production and sale of various tangible commodities essential for viewing television media on the big screens and digital content on OTT platforms. These include the reduction of custom duty on cars, smartphones, TVs, lithium-ion batteries, and other electric and technological goods.”

Das further said, “As reiterated earlier, these are not direct reliefs for the entertainment sector, but they are measures that might give an indirect impetus to the public consuming media content through different mediums. A slash in TV and smartphone prices can make it easier for people to purchase a TV or smartphone that could’ve been outside their budget before. Or it could mean getting their ideal TV or smartphone from their choice of brand at a lesser price, leaving them more money for buying subscription plans to their favourite OTT channels and applications. This shouldn’t be a problem for most national OTT platforms given that their cost is already priced affordably. But it would definitely mean good news for subscribing to global OTT platforms like Netflix or Apple TV that charge their users on the higher spectrum.”

As of 2021, the contribution of the media & entertainment sector was valued at around $1.6 trillion. According to IAMAI, there is going to be a rise in the number of Internet users to 900 million by 2025. And according to a FICCI-EY report, TV is expected to bring in revenues of around $847 billion by 2023. “Given the immense contribution of the media & entertainment sector to India’s economy and GDP, these new tax changes will only boost the contribution of this sector further. However, we hope that the government recognises the contribution of our sector and delivers a more precise and direct relief in the next budget,” Das added.