No. of hours of original content increased 3X between 2018-20: BCG

India continues its unique multimodal growth story, with digital video being the fastest growing media platform over the last 2 years. Not surprisingly, this trend is expected to continue for the foreseeable future led by the ever-increasing smartphone and data penetration on the demand side and improving consumer experience with high quality and wide variety of content, and innovative pricing models on the supply side.

During lockdown, both TV and smartphone video consumption surged as people spent more time at home. Covid-19 accelerated the subscription trend as a result of out-of-home spending moving to in-home, and this is expected to be sticky due to the proliferation of platforms and high quality content that is now available to consumers. However advertising revenues saw a dip as a result of the pandemic and are expected to be ~16% lower than in 2019, with ads on all media except digital expected to experience double-digit rates of decline in 2020. Though a cautious recovery seems to be underway and marquee events such as IPL have been able to grow over their 2019 levels, smaller events may continue to face pressure for some more time.

While the Indian M&E industry already has a significant impact on India’s economy, benchmarking with other countries indicates plenty of headroom for growth. While segments like OTT are growing extremely fast and are making a significant contribution, a lot more segments can potentially scale up. However, to achieve the industry’s true potential, there are a few areas where concerted effort needs to be made. These areas include creating more original and local language content to cater to diverse audiences, provide better data and flexibility to advertisers, create content to tap the global market, and investments in skilling and technology.

Kanchan Samtani, MD and Partner, BCG said “Recent developments such as the resumption of operations and recovery of ad campaigns has resulted in optimism in the industry”

“Countries are developing media hubs to drive impact of M&E – Spain has setup a content city in Madrid to tap into the growing global demand for Spanish content. This gives a boost not only to the M&E industry but also to the tourism and India should aspire to do the same. Continued focus on customer value, increasing our presence in areas such as VFX and animation, and concerted investment in skilling and technology can lay the groundwork needed to help Indian M&E achieve greater heights” said Mandeep Kohli, Partner, BCG.

“India continues its unique multimodal growth. TV consumption surged ~40% during lockdown due to an increase in non-prime time viewing. Smartphone video consumption is up as well, with a 50-60% increase in subscribers over last year. Going forward we expect the digital trend to intensify, OTT adoption to continue rising, and the emergence of new business models better suited to the new reality. The share of digital in advertising will also continue to grow, having reached 15% in 2020, a full 2 years before its pre-Covid forecast” said K Madhavan, Chairman, CII National Committee on Media & Entertainment and Managing Director, Star & Disney India.

“The pandemic outbreak created many unique challenges to the Media & Entertainment sector. It was commendable to see the entire industry rise to the occasion to engage and entertain millions of viewers while they were confined at home. It’s the sheer willpower and persistence showcased by the stakeholders that have helped convert adversities into opportunities.“

“This year has brought about a dynamic change within the industry with everyone adopting a new learning curve to stay strong and relevant. It is truly intriguing to see how the entertainment world has embraced being remote and virtual, and as we enter 2021, we will need to continue to stay focused on bringing back the sector to a growth trajectory.”